The Xperience is coming to Berlin.

This March, the Syncopation Society welcomes the Xperience to Berlin! An event created by Rémy Kouakou Kouame where different street dance communities come together to share and learn from each other. The lineup for this edition includes Marie N’Diaye, Felix Berghäll, Nils Andrén, Bianca Locatelli, Malcom Fazeuilh, Jimmy Yudat and Odile Lacides. Rémy is an emblematic figure in the global vernacular jazz community who likes to navigate between the world of street dance and jazz. A multiple solo jazz and lindy-hop champion, as well as an accomplished DJ, Rémy also promotes African-American culture, especially its artistic ramifications in Europe.

The core idea is to explore what many artists and researchers like Angela Andrew or Latasha Barners have called The Jazz Continuum. Jazz is not dead, jazz is alive and its influence is broader than we think. Beyond its own singular life, jazz today lives within the matrix of many other Afro-descendant dances. Hip hop has jazz, house dance has jazz, popping locking… They all have jazz in them, and you can trace how not only their steps but also the values attached to all these dances find their source in jazz culture.

The residency

The first step in exploring the jazz continuum at the Xperience is an artistic residency that takes place in the days leading up to the event. This residency brings together artists from different backgrounds and dance styles to share their dance, and their points of view, and to learn from each other. The result of all this exchange culminates in a collaborative performance to be presented on the first night of The Xperience event.
The impact of this residency goes beyond the swing dance community. All of the artists involved are professional dancers with busy careers in their own right. After the Xperience, many of them have expressed a desire to incorporate jazz into their classes and to pass on to their students the new knowledge they have gained about the roots of their own dance.

The workshop

The second step of The Xperience project consists of a workshop where the artists will share their explorations with a broader audience. The workshop is designed for dancers from different stylistic backgrounds, and not only from the swing dance community. Specific classes will be dedicated to each featured dance style, along with group discussions to explore the existing connections between these dances. The result of their exchanges and their exploration will inspire the presentation for each evening.

Level differentiation is not required as the classes look more like a chill club session than a structured class, as one of our main goals is for the different dance communities to mingle and exchange while taking the classes.

The parties

The mix of communities continues during the night parties, The Xperience wants to bring the swing dance community to the club to “burst the swing bubble”. The idea is to have a place where different music styles, dance cultures, and value systems will exist simultaneously. For this reason, the Xperience always looks for connections with the club culture in the country where the event is hosted. In Paris for example people were invited to go to the legendary Parisian party, La Mona, which was celebrating its 15th birthday. And on Sunday the participants had the tickets to go to the Soulful Sunday party, a very much appreciated house dance culture party focused on the dance exchange through cyphers and battles. In Ghent, The Xperience took place during the Ghent Fest, one of the biggest popular festivals in Europe.

The European context

This event is co-financed by the European Commission as part of the Europe Creative program. To establish connections in a European context, every The Xperience edition has to take place in a different European country each time. The aim is to create links not only with the swing dance communities of each place but also open doors and create bridges with the local street dance communities and their culture.

Registration

This event is organized by Swingville and the Syncopation Society within the
Swinging Europe Network.

The first Syncopated Sisters residency!

Berlin – 21.05.2023. This March, the Syncopated Sisters Music Residency, organised by Nina Thaler and Katharina Wegner, opened space for FLINTA* musicians for exchange, networking and an unforgettable musical experience, shining a spotlight on women in traditional jazz music.

The Residency

With two incredible band workshops led by Marie-Anne Standaert and Angela Strandberg, as well as expert-led workshops focused on female empowerment, thanks to the valuable input of Anna Stiede and Jean Klinghammer, this festival was the ultimate celebration of the long-lasting power of women in jazz.

The residency kicked off for empowering days ahead with a concert of the all female band “the hot nuts’ ‘ with the support of Swing Patrol Berlin at Frannz Club. The well known Jazz Club DONAU 115 opened their venue for our rehearsals during the days. After two intense days of rehearsals, the festival hosted a jam session at the Camidi Cheese & Wine Bar and closed with a final celebration night at the legendary Crack Bellmer, showcasing the great talent of 27 female musicians from all over Europe. The repertoire of one of the residency bands, chosen for the occasion, was a tribute to early jazz composer Mary Lou Williams.

And even if every teacher, artist and expert was female or identified as FLINTA* the public events of the festival were open to all genders, and welcomed amateur and semi-professional musicians, musicians from other genres, and swing dancers with prior musical knowledge.

Outcome

The goal was of significant importance: to strengthen the network of female jazz musicians in Europe, as well as to empower other female musicians, whether they’re professionals or just starting out. There was room for discussion as well on gender issues and preconceptions about music and musicians. These intense workshops were thought to be a safe space for everyone involved. Plus, this was a unique opportunity for female artists to come together, celebrate their talent, and make meaningful connections. Now we are happy to increase the visibility of female artists both on and off the stage in the traditional jazz scene and we hope to inspire others to follow suit by providing more platforms to women musicians.

Following up the residency Nina Thaler is keeping active with the Syncopated Sisters Podcast series that you can already listen to online. More about this exciting new project soon!

Syncopation Society in Jazzahead!

Jazzahead! is the European meeting for the Jazz community worldwide that usually takes place in Bremen and like many event it had to go online this year. Florent and François participated to represent the Syncopation Society and more generally the early jazz scene, which often remains totally unknown from most jazz professionals.

4 days of interesting exchanges will help to expand our network with festival and event programmers, journalists and institutions.

A Syncopated Holiday Festival

Last December 2020. The dead of winter with many places going on a second lock-down. This gloomy situation was the catalyst for our first collaboration with the SwingStep dance school to support the Berlin scene and keep jazz lovers and dancers entertained.

We produced 5 concerts recorded and filmed by Nadanadi Studio, almost 30 musicians participated and you were more than 500 people to follow the Zoom concerts animated by Ali and the whole SwingStep crew. Thank to all of you, we were able to reach our goal and pay all the participants accordingly.

You can now rewatch all 5 concerts HERE. We are also releasing of the compilation of the best songs of the festival on our store. For the contributors, don’t hesitate to contact us and we will send you the compilation.

THANK YOU!