MANDY AGLER WELCOMED AS NEW MEMBER OF COHJS BOARD

You've seen them performing at COHJS gigs, you've been reading about them in the Hot Sheet Newsletter, and you've been hearing about young, enthusiastic jazz dancers being on the increase at festivals and concerts nationwide, our own included. It turns out that they have rediscovered, and are promoting, dances from exactly the same era as is the kind of music we are working so hard to preserve and perpetuate -- the hot dance music of the 20s and 30s. Thus it seemed inevitable that ties would develop between the classic Swing dancers, Lindy Hoppers and Vintage Dance groups and the purveyors of Hot Jazz nationwide generally, and at COHJS particularly. It turns out that Mandy Agler has been very instrumental in creating such a relationship.

Mandy dances at a COHJS concert.

We first became acquainted during our initiative reaching out to dance groups a couple years ago. Mandy, a key SwingColumbus member, was among the first responders, attending North Side band gigs, then COHJS events, bringing a number of dance troupe members with her, all to the considerable entertainment and amusement of our regular attendees. The idea of cross-coordinating and promoting SwingColumbus and COHJS events to the benefit of both organizations then surfaced, and Mandy, being well acquainted with today's computer and internet promotion methods, volunteered to help us, even conducting an educational session at one of our meetings. We felt that this would all work even better if Mandy were on our COHJS board, and she enthusiastically accepted our invitation. We equally enthusiastically welcome Mandy Agler to our COHJS Board of Directors.

This article is from the November 2010 Issue of the Central Ohio Hot Jazz Society Newsletter