There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold…

Gordon Webster returns to Boston Swing Central for the first time since the Dirty Water Lindy Exchange and this time he’s bringing with him a very very special guest…New Orleans street performer, Loose Marble and chanteuse extraordinaire: Meschiya Lake.

Meschiya is a force of nature, one of those rare performers that you don’t want to miss…and combined with a night of Gordon Webster…well, you really don’t want to miss this! We’re flying Meschiya in from New Orleans…Gordon has assembled a cracker jack band especially for this performance to really showcase Ms. Lake’s talents! We’re so excited we can hardly contain ourselves, shout it from the rooftops and invite all your out-of-town friends….we’re barely a month into 2012 and we’re already delivering you one of the top events of this year…yay! Go BSC! Early interest in this night indicates we’re headed for a sell-out crowd, cmon out early!!

Check out what NPR had to say about Meschiya here.

Meschiya and the Loose Marbles take it to the streets of New Orleans:

Lesson (included in the price of admission): 8:00pm – 9:00pm
Dancing: 9:00pm – 1:30am
Special Event Admission: $20
Students and Seniors (with Valid ID): $17

Please note: No Coupons accepted for this event. Also passes can be redeemed at 2-for-1 admission for this event.

The Crosby Whistle Stop
24 Roland Street
Charlestown, MA 02129

Maybe you’ve wanted to learn to swing dance but don’t have time to commit to a weekly class? This is your chance! Our next weekend “crash course” workshop for 3 hours on Sunday January 22nd, 1pm-3:30pm Come learn from experienced teachers who are also social dancers in the Lindy Hop scene.

We will cover six count basic (East Coast Swing), basic eight count (Lindy Hop), and Charleston Basic. Moves include swing out, Lindy circle, swing out from closed, and side by side Charleston. At the end of this class, you will be able to attend a social dance and dance to music.

Instructors Mike & Julie have been teaching Boot Camp on a regular basis as well as teaching occasionally on Friday nights and making sure all things BSC continue to rock!

1:00 – 3:30 PM
$25 advanced on-line registration, $30 at the door (register here.)

See bostonswingcentral.org/lessons for current offerings.

Enter the Dragon!

It’s time to ring in the Chinese New Year this Friday at Boston Swing Central, Texas-style with Odessa Rose…a Western Swing band. And it’s the Year of the Dragon that we’re ushering in! All that Tebowing must’ve worked because our order of custom BSC Fortune Cookies has arrived! Get excited and come and get them this Friday…fortune cookies with swing dancing fortunes inside!

And just in case you don’t know what this Western Swing stuff is, don’t worry, it’s got nothing to do with West Coast Swing…it is the Texas interpretation of what Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington and Count Basie. Like good BBQ, you’ll want to dip your fingers in it, er your toes, and use a ladle to get every drop…

Basically, cats like Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys felt that if the Duke and the Count could swing, so could they. Except they had pedal steel guitars instead of large horn sections. And they played hot jazz country-fried, and country songs hot jazz style and yee-haw, Western Swing as a genre of music was born! Lucky us!

Lesson (included in the price of admission): 8:00pm – 9:00pm
Dancing: 9:00pm – 12:30am
General Admission: $15
Students and Seniors (with Valid ID): $13

The Crosby Whistle Stop
24 Roland Street
Charlestown, MA 02129

So it’s Monday morning, and you’re standing at the coffee machine talking to your work buddy.  “What did you do for New Year’s?”  You went swing dancing!!!  You’re so excited, and you want your friends to come too!  But inevitably, no matter how many times you ask them, something always come up…I’ve got this date with a guy I met on OkCupid.  He’s got his head buried in his iPhone, but his picture looks cute…I’ve got to catch up on Glee!…. I’m too tired after the work week……  Blah blah blah.  Help them fulfill that New Year’s Resolution to do more fun things, to exercise more, to be more social…to swing dance!

We know how hard it is to get your friends on the dance floor – we’ve all been there.  And for those of you that can weed through all of those excuses and get someone new to our dance, you’re finally getting rewarded!  Help your friends make that New Year’s resolution come true!

For this night and for this night only, if you bring a friend that has NEVER been to our dance, you (the hard working, dedicated, good looking, suave dancer) get in FREE!

And not only do we have a special promotion, but we’ve got Miss Tess and the Bon Ton Parade straight outta Brooklyn. Miss Tess brings her sultry voice and swingin’ guitar to the Whistle Stop. Her catchy repertoire should get your friends toe-tapping and wanting to dance! What could be a better experience to start folks off right (on the right foot..tee hee) in their dancing careers? Start working on you friends NOW!

Promotion Qualifying Details:

1)      In order to get free admission when bringing a friend, you (the dancer) needs to have attended at least one BSC Dance prior to January 13, 2012.  Your friend must have NEVER, EVER, NOT EVEN ONCE been to a BSC dance.  How will we know?  Oh, we’ll know!

2)      You must get there with your friend BEFORE 8:10PM so they can take our beginning lesson that starts at 8PM. We will be strict about this!

3)      If you bring a friend and you have also NEVER been to our dance, you DO NOT qualify for the discount. (Hey these are our rules and it’s not two new people for the price of one.)

4)      The person must be your friend and of the homo sapiens species.  Imaginary friends, Lassie, ET, pet rocks, etc. do not qualify.

5)      You must mention this promotion at the door when paying admission to receive it.  You can’t come back later and ask for it if you forget (if ya snooze, ya lose).

6)      Who gets in free?  Well that’s up to you…and how good of a friend you are.  Show up with a friend and only one admission has to be paid (buy one, get one free).  How you settle up is at your discretion, but please resolve any disputes by peaceful means (i.e. thumb wrestling, drawing straws, and dance offs).

7)      May not be combined with any other promotions or discounts(i.e. get in free or half off coupons/passes, discounts received for angeling or DJ’ing, etc.  Board Members do not qualify.)

8)      If you get caught gaming the system, you may be subject to the consequences thought up on the spot by BSC staff.  May include but are not limited to the following activities with your new “friend”:  wearing matching ski sweaters throughout the entire dance,  doing a Charleston duet to “You Can’t Touch This” to be posted on YouTube, dancing in your bare feet.

New people coming by yourselves or with other people are still of course welcome!  And what a great night to come out with lots of other new people.  We’re sorry you won’t qualify this time, but if we run this again in the coming months, and you attend our event this Friday, you will qualify for next time!  

Lesson: 8pm-9pm (included with admission)
Dancing: 9pm to 12 midnight
Admission: $15 (general), $13 (students and seniors with valid ID)

The Crosby Whistle Stop
24 Roland Street
Charlestown, MA 02129

It’s January, and hopefully you’ve made a New Year’s resolution to dance more! Yes, that’s the ticket! Dance more=be more happy, right? So it’s now time to hunker down and get some great dancing in and reconnect with all our friends.

Our 2012 schedule starts off with a local favorite: Shawn Hershey Quintet. With the heart of a true Lindy Hopper, Shawn knows what kind of swing music that we really like. So get excited.

This night kick things off for what promises to be another GREAT year at the Crosby Whistle Stop. 2012 will bring us Meschiya Lake with Gordon Webster, the Red Hook Ramblers at our Valentine’s Day Dance, our 2nd Dirty Water Lindy Exchange, the Watermelon Seed Spitting Contest, Calling All Zombies 5…and so many other great moments to look forward to!

Lesson (included in the price of admission): 8:00pm – 9:00pm
Dancing: 9:00pm – 12:30am
General Admission: $15
Students and Seniors (with Valid ID): $13

The Crosby Whistle Stop
24 Roland Street
Charlestown, MA 02129