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The Washington Post's Reliable Source ran this column when we began our Friday night dance with the Tom Cunningham Orchestra at America restaurant in Tysons Corner:
The tempo of Tom Koerner's workday is the basic lawyer shuffle: one and two and tort and will. . . He meets with clients, walks across the street to the Fairfax County courthouse, buries himself in paperwork. You might never suspect he leads a double life until you notice the saddle shoes. "Dancing," he tells The Post's Tamara Jones, "is my true passion." Specifically, the jitterbug and the Lindy Hop, named for Charles Lindbergh's 1927 solo transatlantic flight. At 39, Koerner is Virginia's king of swing, state champ for three years running. When not in court, he's usually on a dance floor, a vision in one of three tailor-made zoot suits and one of 14 pair of black-and-white spectators or saddle shoes. And most often his partner is ex-girlfriend Debra Sternberg. They met eight years ago. They dated, danced, broke up. hated each other. fell in love with other people and then realized they couldn't dance as well with anyone else. Every Friday night for the next two months, in the cavernous restaurant America at Tysons Corner, the 16-piece Tom Cunningham Orchestra will play tunes like "In the Mood" and "Two O'clock Jump" for three hours while Tom and Debra and other swing devotees kick and twirl. The couple's signature move is "The Spike," which involves Debra doing a handstand on Tom's shoulders and then diving straight down his back to be caught at the last minute and swung gracefully between his legs. The so-called air steps are not for amateurs, Tom cautions: "People get killed doing this sometimes." His clients are occasionally surprised to discover that the 15 plaques on his office wall are not legal commendations but jitterbug and Lindy Hop championship titles. "In my divorce practice sometimes I'll get a woman in here weeping," he says, "and she'll look at my wall and say, 'Next time, I want a dancer.'" Tom's Bio I started dancing while at the University of Virginia in 1976. The girls in my dormitory told me that I would never get a date (or anything else) so I should try an alternative approach, i.e. dancing. At that time, the disco craze had yet to begin, however, UVa had (and still has) a rich tradition in Shag dancing. It was nothing like the Carolina Shag, although it was done to Motown and Beach music. Now it is called the Prep Step. Primarily done by drunken fraternity boys, it was relatively easy to learn and not intimidating at all. Shortly after beginning my career as a UVa Shag dancer, disco took hold and I found that many of the same moves that worked in Shag also applied to disco. So, I was able to move right into that scene. In 1979, I participated in a charity dance marathon at the University of Virginia's Memorial Gymnasium. It was a three day affair with the 25 couples allowed 5 hours each night to sleep. On the third day, a Sunday morning about 9:00 a.m., the d.j. played "In the Mood". All of the student dancers stopped dancing because we found that none of us could move to this music using either Shag or disco steps. At that moment, a pair of senior citizens who were in the gym walking laps came down and did a jitterbug. I was amazed and astounded. The steps they did matched that music! All of the sudden the clouds disappeared and the music that made no sense to me became danceable. Like a man possessed by the spirit, I had to learn this jitterbug dance. I never really looked at any other dance, although I have been exposed to all of them. In the late 1980's, three things happened in the local D.C. dance scene that raised the swing scene significantly. First, Anne Townsend created the Washington Swing Dance Committee (WSDC) and began to put on swing dances in social halls. Second, the WSDC brought England's Jiving Lindy Hoppers came to Washington put on a display of 8-count Lindy Hop. Prior to this, Washington had been exclusively 6- count East Coast Swing or else 8-count West Coast Swing. Finally, Craig Hutchison began the Potomac Swing Dance Club (PSDC) and put on the Virginia State Open Swing Dance Championships. Although this club started West Coast Swing dance in this area, Craig's love of dance compelled him to have divisions for all forms of swing, jitterbug and lindy hop included. He was the first person of the contemporary scene to provide a venue for these dances to be performed in competition in their own division. That brings me to the present. I have had a number of dance partners,
and without going into the sordid details of these relationships, let me
just say that my present partner is Debra Sternberg. Our primary strength
is that we have seen the scene come from obscurity to its present popularity
and know that unless we continue to bring in young people as dancers, the
present group of lindy hoppers and jitterbuggers will age and die off. As
shameless self-promoters we strive to bring new folks into the fold. I suppose
it is a bit like selling crack to little school kids, but I don't think
that swing has a down side. It is a great social experience, provides exercise
and is a continuation of the uniquely American dance and music called SWING. Debra's Bio I really always wanted to be a torch singer. Tired of sitting in front of my mirror and singing into a hair brush (don't try to tell me you haven't done this), I took a job as cigarette girl with Doc Scantlin's Imperial Palms Orchestra back in the summer of '87. The idea was to learn all the words to all the songs and then accidently push the girl singer down the stairs. When show-time came, I would somehow be the only one capable of stepping in and saving the night! Before this could occur I saw Tom Koerner on the dance floor. First thought: What a jerk! Second thought: I could NEVER dance like that. Third thought: What a jerk! We began dating and dancing together that summer, broke up after a year but continued dancing together, and eventually tried to kill each other. After a two-year hiatus, we reunited in 1993 and have been having a ball teaching, competing, and contradicting each other on and off the dance floor. Aside from meeting Tom at the Doc Scantlin dances, I also met the true love of my life, Bobby Blankenburg. This suave, debonair guy had me thinking he lived his entire life in a tuxedo. By the time I saw him in his civvies, it was too late--I was his forever. We were married at the most perfect little wedding ceremony in the entire universe on June 19, 1998. Together, Tom and I are the 1994 United Kingdon Lindy Hop champions - Air Step Division, and the 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998 and 2002 Virginia State Open Lindy Hop champions. I am delighted to admit that, in taking the 1998 VSO titles, we beat a couple literally less than half my age! We perform and teach regularly in the DC metropolitan area, as well as at special Swing weekends in California, Connecticut, Texas and Washington State.
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One Good Turn. . .