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April 1, 1999
In Tiny Town, Dancefloor Turns Deadly
Other National ArticlesGiuliani, in Slap At Clinton, Bans Casual Sex in NYC Notorious Preschool of Americas Faces Closure
By CATHERINE PRICE
atatonia, NY -- Just months after a Gap khakis ad campaign launched big band music and swing dancing into the mainstream, the once-harmless fad has turned violent. Now police in this sleepy Hudson town face the grim task of coming up with a new definition of manslaughter: death by dancepartner.
Last Saturday, at a swing dance organized as a fundraiser by the James Buchanan High School debate team, a fight broke out between Danny Solders, 17, and a fellow student, 18-year old Jack Peterson. When the brawl cleared, Peterson lay dead.
Police are unsure why the brawl erupted, but say there is some evidence of premeditation; friends of Solders say he picked his date, Laverne Jacobs, with an eye towards her future lethality. "Everybody knows Laverne is the most aerodynamic girl in school," said a student who didnąt want to be identified (Junior Rasheem Kilgallen).
"I just didn't know what was happening," said Jacobs, who has been impounded as evidence. "One minute we were dancing, and Danny's like, 'Let's practice the "mop the floor"' [a swing aerial]. The next thing I know he lets go of me and I fly into Jack. I wasn't hurt but I totally ruined my dress." Jacobs will undergo ballistic tests this week.
"It was wack," said Eric Entroscopy, a drummer for The Big Blue Cherry Poppers, the swing band hired to play the dance. "I had to fight some guy off with my mallets." Entroscopy said that fights were rare at swing dances.
Until now, the swing craze had been welcomed by authority figures, including both teachers and police. Claiming that it was a safer fad than heavy metal or gangsta rap, they hoped that the innocence of the music would transfer onto its newest generation of listeners. Sadly, Saturday night's events have proved that this is not to be the case. Police commissioner Jerry Stein wasnąt surprised. "I guess in some ways it's inevitable for swing music to end in violence. You give an adolescent guy a girl he's supposed to dance with, who gets his hormones going, and then you tell him he'll look cool if he throws her in the air. What do you expect will happen?"
The last word--for now--came from Paula Scoville, faculty advisor for the ill-fated Debate Team: "Somewhere, Glenn Miller is crying."
Swing legend Frankie Manning had no comment on the incident.
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Copyright 1999 The Yale Record
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