Stuff We Liked: Historic Operation by Surgeon / Dancer, Swing in the Japanese-American Internment Camps, and David Lee Roth?

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dorry and Nina Martinez HIV+ donor.jpg

Quite the grab bag for this week’s “Stuff We Liked.”

We lead off with an amazing, inspiring story of the first ever transplant of a kidney from one HIV+ person to another, performed by surgeon / lindy hopper Dorry Segev and his team at John Hopkins University. This breakthrough greatly enlarges the population of possible kidney donors and demonstrates the advances in improving the life expectancy of HIV+ people. Congrats to Dorry and his team, and to the brave donor Nina Martinez, pictured above.

Check out our interview with Dorry from a few years ago on SwingNation.


Other Stuff We Liked This Week:

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  • Bay Area dancer / instructor Chad Kubo shared this inspiring story about his father, a a second generation Japanese-American who was forcibly placed with his family in an internment camp in Heart Mountain, Wyoming during WWII. While being imprisoned by your own government was undoubtedly bleak, it was there that his father found his love for big band swing and swing dancing. Read more about him on the Frankie Manning Foundation website.

  • Switch / ambidancetrous dancers will particularly love this performance video from the Formosa Bounce event in Taipei last February. So great seeing all these high-level dancers showing their skills at both roles in lindy hop, and making it so fun for the audience. Performers include: Alice Mei, Elze Visnevskyte, Peter Kertz, Felipe Braga, Irina Amzashvili, Anthony Chen, Jason Hsu, Ting Yu Chang, Thomas Latter,  Aurore Alauze, Tzungming Tsai, and Yu Shan Liu. #dancegoals

  • This is one of the strangest mentions of lindy hop I’ve ever found in the news. Some of you older folks might remember the 1980s hair band Van Halen, fronted by David Lee Roth. Well cue forward several decades, and David Lee Roth is apparently working with an electronic DJ Armin Van Buuren to do remixes of their music. Rolling Stone magazine interviewed David Lee Roth, and asked about a hit of theirs, “Panama.” Here’s what David confoundingly replied:

““Panama” is a groove. That has a four-on-the-floor [beat]. Yes, some of it has a supersonic boogie, but if you know how to swing and jitterbug, and if you know anything about Frankie Manning and his Lindy hoppers, then you could catch up with that, too. Go look at the jitterbug scene in Hellzapoppin. If you’re young and spry, let’s try it.”

(Please explain that to us, if you understand it?)

  • And lastly we leave you with this quote shared by Auey Santos from diversity expert Vernā Myers on what inclusion means:

“Diversity is being invited to the party. Inclusion is being asked to dance.”

And with that, we wish you a great week!

Have something special you want to share with other lindy hoppers? Hit this link to share it with us, or email rik@yehoodi.com.