I wanted to share another sweet note from a Happy AFS parent…..
Miss Angel,
I have nothing but wonderful things to say of all Lily’s teachers and classes this year in both the Music and Dance school, but I wanted to say a special thank you to Miss McKenzie for the special Jazz II class observed last week.
I have always enjoyed observing but this experience really warmed my heart. Miss McKenzie taught a Lindy Hop routine set to the Andrews Sisters – Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy. She did a fabulous job of not only demonstrating and getting the girls to perform the super fun steps, such as Shorty George and Texas Tommy, but also of describing the social dances of the post World War II era.
I enjoyed the class so much, and it brought to mind long forgotten dance stories of Lily’s great-grandparents, William and Shirley Lichtenberger, that I had never thought to share with her. When my grandfather returned from WWII, he met my grandmother and the two of them would enter swing dance contests all around the Northeast. They might Lindy Hop, Jitterbug, and Swing dance for hours as one by one the couples around them were tapped and asked to leave the floor. Often they won the competitions. Their fleet footed days were long over by the time I was born, but my grandfather could still lead anyone across the dance floor at a family wedding.
Miss McKenzie’s class on Friday was more then an excellent jazz class and history lesson about Americana; it was for me a beautiful connection of four generations and an introduction of Lily to her great-grandparents that words alone could never have achieved. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of my grandparents dancing in their youth, but I have attached a picture of Shirley. It is the only one I have of her from this era.
Thank you for the wonderful teachers and classes you make available to our girls. I am amazed to watch the growth of dance and music in Lily every week.
Jessica Baker
