Third Annual Gift Giving Guide for Swing Dancers
Happy Holidays Everyone!

Time for the third installment of gift giving ideas for your Lindy Hopping/Swing Dancing fiend ..err ..friend. Shall we get to it?

Here are five gift ideas in order of least expensive to most expensive.

5. Consumable Care Package
Price Range: $1 to $40



Here's a list of stuff which is essential for getting us through any type of competition weekend. What better way to say you care for your friend then give them a bunch of stuff so they can go hardcore at their next event?

Smart Water (for your hydration needs)
Vitamin Water (for your sport drink needs)
Airborne (push off that cold)
Extra Polar Ice Gum (strooong stuff!)
Muscle Milk (for your protein needs when you don't have time or are too nervous to eat)
Clif Z-Bars (handy snack size sport nutrition bars)

Bundle it up in a basket from Michael's Craft stores and your friend is good to go!

4. Mildred Hatry Dancing Poster
Price Range: $20 (plus or minus)



Great poster from the Mildred Hatry gallery with great energy exuding from it. You can find this poster in many places. We do most of our poster shipping at Art.Com as their prices are reasonable and they often have discounts and deals (30% off, free shipping, things like that).

3. That's Entertainment DVD Collection
Price Range: $25 to $40



This is a great four dvd collection documenting the history of the MGM musical from the late 1920's through the 1950's with lots of great clips with Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, and many more! Lots of great singing and dancing so if you're a fan of the MGM musical (as many swing dancers are) this will be an awesome gift!

Do a search on Amazon or Ebay for "That's Entertainment DVD Collection" and find some good prices new and used!

2. Dance Shoes!!
Price Range: $40 to $100



And what person could not use a new pair of dance shoes? From the athletic and comfortable to the dressy, there is a great number of ideas here.

The best place to go is Dance Store with dressy and casual for both guys and gals. And they have a great liberal return policy too.

We also buy regular good old tennis shoes (Girls: Saucony and Keds, Guys: Addidas and Nike) from a shoe discount warehouse and then getting them resoled with soft leather/suede. If you're in our area, for shoe resoling we always recommend Arthur over at Compton's Shoe Repair:

Compton's Shoe Repairing
265 E Orange Grove Ave
Burbank, CA 91502
(818) 848 6201

Just tell him Ben and Sheri sent you to get your shoes fixed for swing dancing and he'll take care of you.

1. Nicholas Sisters private lessons
Price Range: $100 (plus or minus)



Swing dancing lessons are one thing - what about tap lessons? Great way to learn syncopations and footwork.

What about tap lessons from the granddaughters of Fayard Nicholas? Meet Nicole and Cathie Nicholas - they often perform and teach routines from the Nicholas Brothers. Nicole works in Los Angeles. Cathie is currently going to school in Northern California. So if you're in California you can definitely get one of them, sometimes both of them if your'e lucky. What a fun way to learn some tap!

If you're really gung ho about it, I'd suggest havinge them teach you the "Lucky Numbers" routine (we usually have available in our Video Gallery). It's advanced tap so be prepared for a mental workout.

Cost? Depends on how fast you learn. They are reasonably priced for the both of them to do workshops (around $100 an hour). For one of them doing a private lesson, not sure of the cost. If you're interested, I have contact info for Nicole and also their agent Walter. Drop us a line!

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AND FINALLY .... a bonus gift giving idea!

I have to throw this one in here. So far I've been proud to say most of the gift ideas are ageless - swing dancing is ageless and so swing dancing related gifts for your friends are as well. I am going to break the mold on this because it's freaking cool ! And a year from now it probably will be like table scraps since technology moves so fast .. but for right now - it is freaking cool!

Bonus Extra Gift Idea. Sony Vaio UX Handtop
Price Range: $1300 to $3000



This one is a doozy - a bit of ch-ching there so yup this is the gift for someone you really love and I mean REALLLLLLLLY LOVE. Such as, well yourself. For example I'd be willing to combine my gift budget for myself for the next six holidays to get this for me for Christmas. (Let's see ... that means no gifts for me on President's Day, my birthday, Valentine's Day, ermm.. my brother's birthday, St. Patrick's Day, and April Fool's Day. Works for me!)



Many of us swing dancers are geeks so odds are you'll like this or have a friend who will which is a great reason to get it for yourself and then show it to that friend of yours. Because this thing runs FULL WINDOWS XP!! A full blown windows OS in your hands. Does this not ROCK?!

There are two models out, the UX 180 (no longer in stores) and the UX 280. The UX 180 you might find used for about $1200. The UX 280 retails at $2000. Here are more details:

OS	full windows XP SP2 (can run tablet and vista also)
Memory	512MB (ux180), 1gig (ux280)
Disk	40gig standard, upgradeable to 80gig or 32gig solid state
CPU	1.2ghz
Other	integrated wireless, bluetooth, fingerprint reader, camera, qwerty keyboard
Accessories	LOTS!! enhanced battery, screen protector, port replicator, external dvd writer, LAN/monitor dongle
Geek Factor	HIGH!! ROCK ON!

And especially if you love traveling to events and want a computer but afraid of taking your laptop to dances and leaving it in the hotel, this thing pops into your backpack sweet as pie.

Two good places to get them:

Dynamism: if you want brand new, go here. They have a lot of leverage and can offer hardware warranty, lifetime software support, and upgrades in hard drivves. Used they have some pretty good prices.

Ebay: For great prices on used units, ebay is the place. $1200 or so for a used UX180.

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That's this year's gift giving guide. For more gift giving ideas, see the previous two articles I've written:

Some Interesting Gifts For Your Lindy Hopping Friend (12/27/2004)
More Interesting Gifts For Your Lindy Hopping Friend (12/11/2005)

Enjoy!