Chapter Text
This fic is named after this song: It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)
Dance Glossary:
Aerial: Dance moves that involve jumps, flips, and throws.
All skate: Everyone dancing at once. It is typical for this to start with the entire lineup doing several swingouts in a row without breaking the line. This looks really cool and it also gives the judges a chance to compare everyone’s technique directly.
Counting in: when someone is tasked with counting measures and verbalizing the beats of the final measure before the next pair starts dancing.
Down beats: the second and fourth beat of each measure
Draw: Competition where contestants enter and are judged individually in prelims and as a pair in the finals. Partners are randomized multiple times during prelims and once for the finals. This competition format used to be called a Jack and Jill, but changed to Draw to be gender inclusive.
Eight eights: eight measures with eight beats per measure. This adds up to two full phrases within the song. This means that the timing of pairs entering and exiting doesn’t feel random. It fits the music.
Strictly: Competition where contestants enter with a specific partner.
Spotlight: One pair dancing at a time.
Up beats: the first and third beat of each measure.
Ash Glossary (In order that they're mentioned in the fic):
Palaeoloxodon falconeri: Maltan dwarf elephant. It’s an elephant, but only 1 metre tall. Adorable!
Quetzalcoatlus northropi: Largest pterosaur ever. It is literally as tall as a giraffe and has the largest wingspan of any flying animal known to science.
Kelenken guillermoi: Terror bird. Over 6 feet tall flightless bird. It looks like its name.
Borophagus diversidens: Bone crushing dog.
Helicoprion davisii: Shark-like cartilaginous fish with a tooth whorl.
Desmodus draculae: Largest vampire bat to ever live. Not the largest of all bats because that one is still alive.
Drepanosaurus unguicaudatus: Sickle lizard
Other Resources:
Frankie Manning autobiography. Mine is signed. Yes, I'm bragging.
Archival Resources from the Frankie Manning Foundation