Mayday! Musings (Blog)

It’s like Mayday Christmas, going through all of the swag and dividing it into 50 bags! Here’s a sneak peek at what’s at stake tomorrow morning. Arrive early, since only 25 bags will be given out! Fear not though, since the other 25 will be given out Sunday morning. If mornings aren’t your cup of tea, stroll in at your own pace and stick around for one of the live drawings! Bring an ad or show this on your fancy phone to get a free raffle ticket.

The Flower City Follies will be performing at Mayday! on Sunday at 3pm. They just won the honor of best new old-school troupe in City Newspaper’s Best of Rochester. Directly from City:

Best New Old-School Troupe

Flower City Follies

 

I’ve always had a “born-in-the-wrong-era” romance with the 1920’s. Bootlegged hooch, fringed dresses and pearls, dapperly dressed gents and, of course, the Charleston. I want all of them packed together in secretive underground clubs.

The same attitude spawned the specialized dance troupe Flower City Follies, an all-girl jazz group that was born out of Rochester-based Groove Juice Swing. A handful of the gals thought it’d be fun to work on their solo 1920’s and 1930’s jazz moves sans-partners and formed the group in 2012. Now boasting nearly 20 members, the group performs regularly at Groove Juice’s events and most recently at the Rochester Fringe Festival.

The sassy ladies mix phenomenal technique with attitude, sex appeal and a few Lucille Ball-esque antics for good measure, with wickedly entertaining results (the baker routine is particularly fun). The Follies’ repertoire is a dancer’s paradise, from the classic Charleston to burlesque, and historic choreography like the Shim Sham and Big Apple. These gals shake, shimmy, and twirl with diminutive ease and have seemingly limitless energy.

The Follies schedule is packed with upcoming performances at the Mayday Craft Fair (November 2-3 at the Main Street Armory) and Groove Juice Swing’s Red Hot Holiday Ball (December 6 at Visual Studies Workshop). For updates, pics, and videos of their performances, visit facebook.com/FlowerCityFollies. — BY KATHY LALUK

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