Add OSDS source material

osds-src/new-at-osds/faq-dance-etiquette.md

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+# WHAT ELSE I SHOULD KNOW?
+
+```
+Everyone has different boundaries, capacities and limits, and they should be respected. Never force your partner to do something that makes them uncomfortable. Make sure to read the  Safety, Consent, and Inclusion Policy, if you haven’t already.
+
+Everyone has a different level of dancing experience. When you don’t know the level of your partner, it is always best to start with basic moves, and then, as you get to know each other, you can introduce different moves that will fit with your partnership. The most important thing is to ensure your partner feels comfortable, safe and has fun.
+
+If you’d like to chat with people, please do it off the dance floor. We have plenty of space with tables and chairs just for that, where you can leave your effects and water bottle to avoid spills on the dance floor.
+
+Band and DJ etiquette: When there is a band night, take a moment to clap at the end of every song. When it's a night of DJed music, take a moment to applaud them at the end of their set. If you really enjoyed the band or the DJ set, make a point of telling them after a set or after the dance. If you have any complaints about the band or the DJ, in terms of music choice, speed, length of songs, etc, please bring those concerns to one of the exec members, not to the band or DJ. But remember that we try to have music that appeals to a wide variety of people, so something that doesn’t appeal to you may still be a good choice for our dance scene.
+
+Please refrain from teaching or giving unsolicited feedback or advice on other people’s dancing - except if you are worried someone will get hurt of course!
+```
+
+We hope that we’ve created an environment where you’ll be attentive to others’ comfort and safety, and where you’ll feel free to speak up if you feel uncomfortable or unsafe. If you find that you can’t speak up - or you have and it didn’t go well - please talk to a SCI volunteer or a member of the executive committee and they will assist you.
+
+We want everyone to take care of each other, feel comfortable, safe and have a good time!

osds-src/new-at-osds/how-to-get-here.md

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+# HOW TO GET HERE
+
+## FRIDAY NIGHT SWING DANCE
+
+Join us at our regular Friday night dance at St-Joseph's Parish from 7:45 pm to 11:30 pm.
+The cover charge includes a 1-hour introductory class of swing dancing. Check out our FAQ for more info!
+
+### ADDRESS
+
+St-Joseph's Parish - 174 Wilbrod St. (corner of Laurier/Cumberland/Wilbrod) (Google Map)
+
+### PARKING
+
+Please be aware of parking: we have 50 parking passes on a first-come, first-serve basis. People who get a parking pass should park in the far lot. If you don't get a parking pass, please explore the street parking in the neighbourhood or pay at the kiosk.
+
+### WHAT TO BRING
+
+• an extra pair of clean, indoor shoes,
+
+• enough spare shirts to stay dry,
+
+• a reusable water bottle\*
+
+\*Please care for the environment! If you forget we have bottled water on sale for $1.
+REDUCED SCENT ZONE
+
+Scented products can cause serious allergic reactions and respiratory distress. We encourage everyone not to wear scented products while at our dances. Thank you!
+
+Safety, Consent, and Inclusion (SCI) Policy:
+
+Please read our Safety policy before coming to our dances. Thank you!
+
+### SCHEDULE
+
+7:45pm: Doors Open
+
+8:00pm-9:00 pm: Introductory/Beginner Lesson
+
+9:00 pm-11:30 pm: Social Dancing to DJed or live music with DJed breaks
+COST
+
+DJ NIGHT: $10 incl. HST
+
+LIVE BAND NIGHT: $15 incl. HST
+
+or volunteer to get in for FREE!
+SAFETY, CONSENT, AND INCLUSION (SCI) POLICY
+
+Please read our Safety policy before coming to our dances. Thank you!

osds-src/new-at-osds/index.md

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+# New at OSDS?
+
+- [How to get here](new-at-osds/how-to-get-here.md)
+- [Safety policy](new-at-osds/safety-policy.md)
+- [Report an incident](new-at-osds/report-an-incident.md)
+- [FAQ | Dance etiquette](new-at-osds/faq-dance-etiquette.md)
+- [What is Lindy Hop?](new-at-osds/what-is-lindy-hop.md)
+- [Pioneers of Jazz](new-at-osds/pioneers-of-jazz.md)

osds-src/new-at-osds/pioneers-of-jazz.md

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+# PIONEERS OF JAZZ
+
+Learn more about different influential musicians and dancers in jazz!\
+For a brief history of Lindy Hop, click here.
+Note: these images have been compiled from various sources on the web.
+
+## MUSICIANS
+
+## DANCERS

osds-src/new-at-osds/report-an-incident.md

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+# Report an Incident
+
+Report an issue at this link: email_address

osds-src/new-at-osds/safety-policy.md

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+# SAFETY POLICY
+
+## REPORT AN INCIDENT
+
+The swing dancing community is a friendly and fun space and group of people. However, as in the rest of society, inappropriate and abusive behaviours can occur. We are not immune to it, but we can do something about it!
+
+As with any social situation among adults, we cannot monitor every person's actions, nor can we promise that every person will behave appropriately at all times. However, our organisation is dedicated to providing a safe and comfortable experience for everyone, and this is only possible with your help and cooperation.
+
+If you participate in our Friday night dance (and all other events OSDS may organize), we ask that you respect the values below. Dance attendees, volunteers, DJs, musicians, teachers, and organizers violating these values may be warned, sanctioned, or expelled from the dance, without a refund, or banned from future dances, at our discretion. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact safety.osds {AT} gmail DOT com
+
+## SAFETY, CONSENT, & INCLUSION POLICY
+
+Values
+
+### HAVE FUN
+
+```
+ Ask as many people as you’d like to dance! If they refuse, be gracious; it is their right to say no, and yours too. Dancing can be a sensual activity, and flirtation can occur, at our dances or after. However, do not use our event as a pickup joint and be attentive to the reaction to your flirtation. It’s your responsibility to not make others feel uncomfortable. Ask for and respect consent, always.
+```
+
+### TAKE CARE OF EACH OTHER
+
+```
+Be attentive to your dance partner and their comfort, boundaries, and safety. If you are not sure, ask them if they are ok. Apologise if you accidentally touch an area of the body that is private, sexual, or just totally out of the realm of legitimate holds or moves of the dance.  
+
+If someone tells you that you have hurt them, that they feel uncomfortable or that they are worried that something you are doing might hurt them or others, don’t take it badly. They are telling you something about their comfort level, which is different for everyone; they are not criticizing you as a person. They are telling you because they want you to fix it so they can keep dancing with you. So listen to them, apologize, thank them for letting you know and don’t do it again. 
+
+We are dedicated to providing a safe and comfortable experience for everyone regardless of gender, age, sexual orientation, dis/ability, body size, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), nationality, dance skill level or dance role. We expect you to help with this. 
+
+We are specifically dedicated to fostering a community free from oppression, harassment, abuse, and violence. See the Be mindful of the language you use - at our event and on our online media - and how it might affect others. Everyone has different experiences that shape their relationship and reactions to language.
+
+ for concrete examples and definitions of problematic behaviour that go against our values.
+
+Some people follow, some people lead, and some people do both; keep that in mind and respect their choice.
+
+Be aware that some people use gender neutral pronouns. If someone asks you to refer to them with specific pronouns, respect that and use those.
+
+Be mindful of the language you use - at our event and on our online media - and how it might affect others. Everyone has different experiences that shape their relationship and reactions to language.
+```
+
+BE INCLUSIVE
+
+### BE SAFE
+
+```
+Scented products can cause serious allergic reactions and respiratory distress. Please refrain from using and wearing scented products at our dances as much as possible.
+
+Be attentive to people around you. Be mindful of how much space you have, if someone is behind you as you kick or rock-step, and where you are sending your dance partner. Apologise if you bump another person or step on someone’s foot. This is called floorcraft. 
+
+Never do aerials/acrobatics on the social dance floor. You can do them in jam circles if there is enough space, if you have the consent of your dance partner, and if you have mastered them with a lot of practice with spotters beforehand. 
+
+OSDS is a dry environment; no alcohol or drugs at the dance, and do not show up high/intoxicated.
+```
+
+### REFLECT ON YOURSELF
+
+Reflect on your behaviour, how it might affect others, and how you could improve in order to make the scene (and beyond) a safer place. Be open and receptive when someone tells you that they feel uncomfortable despite your best efforts. Everyone has a different level of comfort: listen to your dance partners and your fellow community members and respect their boundaries, identities, and choices. Be the best person you can be.
+
+### WHO TO TALK TO
+
+In order to foster a real culture change in our swing community (and beyond), the mutual commitment of all participants to introspection and solidarity in the face of problematic behaviour is essential. The SCI volunteers, committee and the OSDS exec are here to help.
+
+The SCI volunteers will be wearing red sashes at the event. If you cannot find a volunteer right away, find a member of the executive, or go to the front desk and they will find one for you.
+
+Prefer to get in touch with us via email? Please do so at: safety.osds {AT} gmail DOT com
+
+### SCI VOLUNTEERS
+
+This is a group of people offering to listen to and support participants who need it. They have had training and are comfortable with intervening to defuse tensions and manage conflicts, initiating dialogue and mediation when the situation is appropriate and/or intervening with people who have problematic behaviour.
+
+Katia
+
+Ajit
+
+Nadine
+
+### SCI COMMITTEE
+
+Liz
+
+Yuchen
+
+Kofi
+
+The SCI committee is a subset of the SCI volunteers. It has the mandate of addressing grave, repeated or unresolved complaints, overseeing the general application of the SCI policy, and strategizing to make our dance a safer space.
+
+### PROTOCOL OF INTERVENTION
+
+The SCI volunteers and committee will be using this Protocol of intervention to respond to any complaints we receive. We will treat these issues with the strictest confidentiality. We hope to create an event, community and culture in which everyone will feel safe enough to come forward, so we can keep incidents from being repeated and, eventually, from happening in the first place.
+
+SCI people are available for discussion and reassurance, not just formal reports.
+
+Don’t wonder if something is “serious enough” to come talk to us - if you are uncomfortable, let us know.
+
+We’re here for you!

osds-src/new-at-osds/what-is-lindy-hop.md

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+# A SHORT HISTORY OF LINDY HOP
+
+Willa Mae Ricker and Leon James
+Willa Mae Ricker and Leon James, original Lindy Hop dancers in iconic Life magazine photograph, 1943
+
+The history of Lindy Hop is incredibly complex, nuanced, and not without controversy. This page is an attempt to share some information and resources on the history of this artform. It is by no means exhaustive, but at the very least it is a good starting point for anyone seeking to dive into the roots of this fantastic dance.
+
+For a look at some early and influential figures of jazz, click here. For more jazz and swing music you can enjoy listening and/or practice to, check out these playlists compiled by Cat's Corner on their website.
+
+## WHAT IS LINDY HOP?
+
+Lindy Hop is a Black American dance that started in Harlem, NYC at the end of the 1920s. It happened in the context of the Harlem Renaissance: the cultural explosion of the Black diaspora after the mass migration of Black Americans from the South to the North.
+
+UNIA parade in Harlem, 1920
+
+Lindy Hop evokes in turn the rhythm of African-American work songs, gospel corporeality, and the formality of European ballroom dances. The music and the dance have been shaped by the experience of oppression, slavery, and segregation. However, the Lindy Hop (also known as the Jitterbug) became mostly an emblem of American popular and national culture: appropriated by Hollywood and the cultural industry at large as early as the 1930s. As a result, it is often known now as the dance of GIs and the “liberation” of Europe by Allied forces. The Africanity of Lindy Hop has almost been erased(1) . This is why it is important to highlight it and celebrate it.
+
+## WHY IS IT CALLED LINDY HOP?
+
+George Snowden & Mattie Purnell, 192 9
+
+The creation date of the dance is untraceable. It is believed that the “Lindy Hop” received its name during a dance marathon in June 1928 at the Rockland Palace in Harlem. There, dancers from the Savoy Ballroom, George “Shorty” Snowden and Mattie Purnell, were particularly distinguished by their creative, fast and innovative steps, attracting the eye of a Fox Movietone News reporter.
+
+During one of these contests, Shorty — as he remembers it — decided to do a breakaway; that is, flinging his partner out and improvising a few solo steps on his own. In the midst of the monotony of the marathon, the effect was electric, and even the musicians came to life. Shorty had started something.
+
+The story goes that in response to the journalist’s curiosity, Snowden spontaneously dubbed his creation “Lindy Hop”, referring to the aviator Charles Lindbergh\* who had just made the first non-stop transatlantic flight solo in May 1927(2).
+
+## THE ROOTS
+
+Lindy Hop was danced predominantly by Black dancers starting in the 1920s. Many of them lived in Harlem, where there were dance clubs such as the Savoy and Alhambra ballrooms. Lindy Hop emerged as a defiant, joyous response to financial hardship caused by the Great Depression, harsh living conditions, and systemic racism.
+
+The dance evolved out of several forms of social dance that preceded it, such as the Cakewalk, the Breakaway, and partnered Charleston.
+
+## The Savoy
+
+The Savoy Ballroom was Lindy Hop’s most famous home. In a time of racial segregation and strife, the Savoy was one of the most culturally and racially integrated of institutions, and its fame was international.(3) Bands headed by Chick Webb (the resident band leader), Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Benny Goodman performed there, as well as legendary singers Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday.
+
+World-class dancers like “Shorty” George Snowden, “Big Bea”, and second-generation dancers such as Al Minns, Leon James, Frankie Manning, Norma Miller would throw down at the Savoy till the early morning hours.
+Frankie Manning (and Norma Miller flying)
+Norma Miller, the "Queen of Swing", 1951
+
+George “Shorty” Snowden & Beatrice 'Big Bea" Gay, 1937
+
+Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers (4) were also formed at the Savoy, when Savoy bouncer Herbert “Whitey” White brought some of the best dancers together and became their de facto agent.
+
+These dancers went on to be ambassadors of the dance on film, stage, and through worldwide tours.
+Al Minns (left) & Leon James (1961)
+
+Whitey's Lindy Hoppers
+
+## A LINDY HOP TIMELINE
+
+```
+???- 1920s - PRECURSORS: DNA of many different forms of black dance appear in Lindy Hop. This includes forms of vernacular jazz dance such as tap, partnered Charleston, the cakewalk, and the Texas Tommy (a dance that originated in San Francisco).
+
+1929 - LINDY HOP APPEARS ON FILM: The breakaway, a close precursor to Lindy Hop, can be seen in footage from the film After Seben (1929)(5). The dance, at this point, resembles a sort of Lindy Hop/Charleston hybrid.
+
+1930s-1940s - LINDY HOP IN HOLLYWOOD: Dean Collins popularizes LA-style Lindy Hop, while Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers perform in films like A Day at the Races (1937) and Hellzapoppin (1941). The dancers have often been filmed apart from the rest of the film, in the event that Southern audiences ask that scenes with the black dancers be cut.
+
+1940s AND ONWARD - MAINSTREAM SUCCESS AND OFFSHOOTS: While WWII takes famous Lindy Hoppers and musicians to war, white dancers like Arthur Murray develop simplified versions like the Jive and the East Coast Swing. Meanwhile, black musicians move jazz to bebop, and the dance evolves with it.
+
+1980s TO TODAY - RESURGENCE: Although many Lindy Hoppers continued to dance and perform throughout the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, Lindy Hop has regained popularity for social dancing in the general population in the last 20 years. A group of Swedish dancers see Lindy Hop on film, find the folks who pioneered it — including Frankie Manning and Al Minns, and invite them to show the new generation how it’s done; this is how the famous Herrang Dance Camp was created. International dance scenes form. Meanwhile, Black dancers develop new forms of social dance, such as Hip Hop and House. Lindy Hop is now a flourishing community with tens of thousands of dancers worldwide. The Lindy Hop we dance today is very different from the Lindy Hop of the 1930s. It’s influenced by the original dancers, the dances that sprung up around and after it — Carolina Shag, West Coast Swing, Boogie Woogie, St. Louis Shag, Balboa and more — and by those who teach and dance it. While dancers of colour remain important contributors to the dance, the international scene now looks a lot whiter and more affluent than when and where it began. It’s important that we honour the past while we continue to bring the dance into the future. That includes reflecting on our values and our place in the world, as well as acting on that knowledge to make our communities, and beyond, better and safer for everyone.
+```
+
+Herrang Dance Camp, Herrang, Sweden
+
+### (RE)SOURCES
+
+This post relies heavily on info from Yehoodi, a website managed by Rik Panganiban, where you can find many more resources on Lindy Hop: yehoodi.com/history
+
+20 Original Lindy Hoppers every swing dancer should know about(6):
+
+youtube.com/watch?v=fy2dR60-q1M
+
+The Lindy by Margaret Batiuchok NYU Masters Thesis 16 May 1988 History of Swing Dancing: <https://www.scribd.com/doc/36181005/The-Lindy-by-Margaret-Batiuchok-NYU-Masters-Thesis-16-May-1988-History-of-Swing-Dancing>
+
+-- Compiled by Anne Dagenais, July 2019
+
+1 “Harlem embodied above all a power of autonomy and self-determination, a place of intellectual stimulation, of literary, political, artistic and creative exchanges, in which any involvement could be pushed towards the expression of a radicality and a revolt of identity until then inconceivable. In Caribbean Crusaders and the Harlem Renaissance, Joyce M. Turner describes: "Despite the negative aspects of large-scale urban life, Harlem beckoned as a light to help free the soul of the cancer of racism. (...) The intense exchange of ideas within and outside Harlem set young aspiring writers free to explore unconventional ideas and modes of expression." It is also in this context of intense explorations and creative exchanges through the body that Lindy Hop makes its appearance.” Sékiné, Anaïs Leï (2017). Les mondes du Lindy Hop : Appropriation culturelle et politiques de la joie, Thèse (Ph.D.), Department of Sociology, University of Montreal, pp. 1-2.
+
+2 Idem, pp. 229-30.
+
+- It is important to be critical of historical figures. Even those so closely related to a dance we greatly love:
+  <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lindbergh#Attitudes_toward_race_and_racism>
+
+3 Commemorative plaque unveiled on 26 May 2002 by Frankie Manning and Norma Miller in Harlem: <https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Savoyplaque_large.jpg>
+
+4 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitey%27s_Lindy_Hoppers>
+
+5 After Seben clip with commentary: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtuZeI3n6gM> This early sound short was set in a Harlem nightclub and features white vaudeville comic and dancer James Barton performing in blackface. Blackface is a form of theatrical make-up used predominantly by non-black performers to represent a caricature of a black person. The practice gained popularity during the 19th century and contributed to the spread of racial stereotypes. Early in the 20th century, blackface branched off from the minstrel show and became a form in its own right. In the United States, blackface had largely fallen out of favor by the turn of the 21st century, and is now generally considered racist, although many people continue to use it. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackface>
+
+6 It is important to note the stereotypical nature of the facial expression performed by Leon James at 2:53 and critically reflect on its performance today: <https://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/07/05/race-appropriation-lindy-hop-how-to-honor-our-heroes/>