About
The MJDA
MLX5, MLX6 and MLX7 are all Melbourne Jazz Dance Association projects. The MJDA is a non-profit organisation devoted to the preservation and promotion of vernacular jazz dance and music in Melbourne, Australia.
Founded in 2005, the MJDA began with its first event, the fifth annual Melbourne Lindy Exchange - MLX5: the Shoestring Exchange. The MLX5 theme reflected not only the MJDA's budget for the event, but also their commitment to providing affordable, quality social swing dancing events in Melbourne.
In 2006 the MJDA followed the success of the Shoestring Exchange with MLX6: the Fat Lotta Good Exchange.
This year the MJDA takes the Melbourne Lindy Exchange to a new level with more live music, more DJs and more hardcore dancing, yet still keeping the cost of individual events and passes very low.
The MJDA was founded by Sam Carroll, Di King, Brian Renehan, Wendy Rehehan and Darren Witt but welcomes new members, encouraging them to make contact for more information.
MLX7 organising team
This year's MLX is run by the MJDA and steered by Wendy, Di, Sam, Keith, Jill, Fiona, Dan, Jennifer and Marybeth.
Additional help is provided by a team of volunteers, sponsors and 'consultants', without whom this exchange could not be run.
Sam Carroll
Sam began swing dancing in Brisbane in 1999, and has travelled all over Australia and overseas trying to get someone to dance with her. She's been pushing lindy on people since 2001, helping to organise events like Melbourne's weekly Ballyhoo, annual Easter Hop and the inaugural Australian Hellzapoppin' Prize. She was in at the start with MLX, volunteering in 2001 and organising in 2002. But in 2005 Brian, Wendy, Di and Darren convinced her that partying all weekend long on the social dance floor would be far more fun than running classes, and they held the first all-social dancing Melbourne Lindy Exchange: MLX5. The same group founded the MJDA to run the whole thing.
Jill Carter
Jill is a relative newcomer to swing dancing having started dancing in mid 2006, however she soon became mildly obsessed with the dance, the music and 40's fashion and has since danced her way across several states including the united states. Fortunately she has recently stopped counting to 8 in her sleep and practicing shorty george's in the lift lobby (too many funny looks from work colleagues) so she decided to put her spare time towards doing something useful like helping organise MLX. It's Jill's first MLX and she can't wait for 4 days of non stop dancing!!!
Fiona Creedy
Fiona started swing dancing in 2002 and attended her first MLX in that year. While living and working in London in 2005-06, she was fortunate enough to experience a small taste of the international swing scene at the London Balboa Festival and London Lindy Exchange. MLX7 is her first excursion into the world of organising swing events and she is honoured to be part of this year's kick-ass committee.
Keith Hsuan
A relative newcomer to the swing scene, Keith started dancing in 2004. He quickly got involved, volunteering at SwingCity Melbourne six months after learning his first swingout. Since then, he's volunteered at a variety of swing events, including MLX5 and the inaugural Melbourne Swing Festival. In his other life, Keith has been involved with running many other clubs, organising many successful events along the way.
Dianne King
Dianne has been swing dancing since 2000. She has traveled throughout Australia to dance and has been a big part of MLX from the start. She has been managed registrations for all previous MLX's, in 2005 taking on the role of managing not only registrations but also the workshops for Swing City. She was one of the main organisers for MLX5 and MLX6. She is wondering if she is slightly insane in volunteering again this year, but is surrounded by such a great group of people that she is confident that it will all turn out for the best.
Jennifer Makin
After too many years working in Cambodia (a.k.a. “the country that rhythm forgot”), Jen returned to Melbourne in late 2006 and immediately took up swing dancing. She likes lists, and ticking things off them, and was therefore a natural for the position of MLX7 registrations lackey.
Dan Ng
G'day. I'm Dan, aka 'PommyDan' probably because I spent the last few years in London dancing my (stripey) socks off. During my Lindy Travels I met and danced with lovely people across Europe, the US and Canada. I've also been involved with organising the London Lindy Exchange for 2006 and more so for 2007. So I'm hoping some of this experience might be useful in making MLX7 a success.
I'm a big fan of making the Melbourne lindy scene as inclusive as possible - I love dancing with and meeting all types of people! And I can't tell you how excited I am to be helping with this Exchange in my home city - it'll be my very first MLX!
Wendy Renehan
Wendy can't resist getting involved in organsing one of the best social swing dancing events of the year, MLX. Each year presents a challenge to explore new avenues in bands and venues and events to make MLX the best social event it can be. She has volunteered at all seven MLX's, including managing the very successful late night 'rent party' in 2003 and occupying a key coordinatory role in 2005 and 2006. With her partner Brian, she founded the social dancing event Diga Diga Doo which ran fortnightly in 2003 and 2004. Wendy started swing dancing in Melbourne in 2000 and has really, really enjoyed dancing all around Australia and internationally. Her favourite events are exchanges with the warm welcome of the locals of that place, the chance to mix and dance with people from all over the world, to hear new bands and explore a new places.
Marybeth Yanosh
Sexy vegetarian (who has a thing for Mexican food) who refuses to hear excuses about why it's not practical to go anywhere, and sings to herself in the presence of others with reckless abandon!
Oh yeah, started dancing with the Hawaii Jitterbugs, now dances in Melbourne where ever she can swing for free
Melbourne Lindy Exchange
The first Melbourne Lindy Exchange was run in 2001 by Matthew Riddle and a team of volunteers and featured workshops taught local and international teachers. The second Melbourne Lindy Exchange - MLX: Get On The Floor - was held the following year, again run by a team of volunteers with Matt Riddle and featuring both local and international teachers, yet this time hosting the first annual Australian Hellzapoppin' prize, whose goal was to provide funds for Australian dancers to attend the first Hellzapoppin' competition in the USA. The third MLX - MLX: Harlem Comes to Melbourne - was again a volunteer-run event, this time seeing Matt's partner Lotte Geldoff involved as a key organiser, and featured workshops with international teachers. In 2004 the Melbourne Lindy Exchange was run in conjunction with Swing City over a week, and again featured a host of volunteers and organisers, and showcased both local and international teachers and musicians.
The 2005 Melbourne Lindy Exchange was steered by the MJDA as MLX5: the Shoe String Exchange, and in 2006 as the MLX6: the Fat Lotta Good Exchange. MLX7: the Kick Ass Exchange is the third MJDA-run Melbourne Lindy Exchange.
MLX7 website
If you find the site difficult to use, have discovered errors or would like to ask a question about the site please send an email to web [at] mlx-7 [dot] com.
The MLX7 site was written by Sam Carroll using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and Movable Type. The MLX7 logo was produced by Scott Fraser. Hosting and technical support for the MLX7 site was provided by Dave Cheney.
We recommend using the web browser Firefox.
All content and code beyond the Movable Type material and photos remain the property of the MLX7 team and the Melbourne Jazz Dance Association.