Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with friends and family! It's crazy to beleive that the year's over all ready. Didn't it go by so fast?!
This past Friday was the annual Holiday Ball at Eastside Stomp, which is always a fun night. It was also the official kickoff for the Syncopation Foundation, the new non-profit they've started, with the goal of expanding and sharing the love of dance with even more people.
The ball was tons of fun. Jacob Zimmerman was playing, the photoboot was fun, the live performances were great, and a fun time was had by all! My dear friend Carrie and her boyfriend were able to come, which made it even more fun. It's kinda funny as she's been there through a lot of my dancing history: she was at the same event in high school when I was first introduced to swing, went social dancing with me for our very first time, and took the into to swing class with me when I started dancing back in August 2016. She doesn't dance regularly, but enjoys coming out every now and then and it's always great when she does.
The floor was packed and there were so many people that there wasn't enough time to dance with everyone that I wanted. It was such a wonderful night though, with lots of great dances. Also, I need more red dresses in my life, as I loved wearing this one so much!
Carrie was awesome and got this clip of me dancing. It makes me happy as now I actually have video of me swinging out and it's helped me notice some things I can work on, which is always good.
The second performance of the night from Santa's Little Syncopators!
The Friday before Halloween Eastside had a costume contest, so a lot of people came dressed up. It was fun seeing everyone dressed up and some of the costumes were really creative! Some of my favorites were the Swedish Chef, Willy Wonka, and a dust bunny.
That night Greg Ruby and the Rhythm Runners were playing (!!!!!!!) which made the night just that more awesome. About mid way through the night the band announced they were going to play a waltz and have a competition. Lily and I were prepared to waltz our hearts out and then they added a requirement: you had to dance like whatever you were dressed up as. I didn't have a costume, but Lily was Larry the Cucumber from Veggie Tales, so I lead her around the dance floor as she hopped, getting one heck of a leg workout. It's not everyday you get to dance with a cucumber!
In the video you can see the squirrel and the court jester, who apparently was juggling during the waltzing. That's impressive!
Do remember back in May that I got to be a part of the latest video for Greg Ruby and the Rhythm Runners during Camp Jitterbug? Well the video was released recently and I can't believe I haven't shared it until now! Talented musicians from across the country and lots of awesome Seattle dancers. What's not to love?!?
I don't know what it is, but I feel like my dancing has been on fire lately. Maybe it's all the great stuff I learned from the Follower's Technique class I took sinking in. All I know is I'm still using info I learned from that class to fine tune my skills even now, a couple months since the class finished. But every night I'm able to dance I've been super stoked and full of happy energy lately, which definitely adds to the feeling.
This past Friday we had the pleasure of dancing to Alex Guilbert's Stampede Seven Quintet. They were fabulous and played a lot of medium to fast tempo songs that was perfect given how jazzed up I was that night. It was great. There was one dance where I messed up and did some weird turn thing with my hand, which turned into me "fixing" it, and eventually my partner ended it with a high five. And at the end of the night I swung out at a personal record for speed for me. That felt amazing!
I can truly say lindy hop is my passion and I'm so thankful to be able to dance my heart out at Eastside Stomp every week. It makes me so happy!
Ah, it's been a while. Here on the blog that is. I've still been dancing every Friday I've been in town, though I haven't taken any photos or video in ages, thus feeling like I have no content to share. But even with my lack of clips of the awesome bands I've had the pleasure of dancing to recently, how could I not share about this past Friday, the kickoff for Balhalla?! Now the sad part is I wasn't actually able to attend Balhalla Weekend (boo!), as much as I would have liked to. Being that I'm only employed part time right now the budget is super tight. The good news was that the Friday night dance for the event was hosted at Eastside Stomp which meant that I at least got to enjoy a part of it, which made me happy.
The week prior I had taken a Balboa Mini-Workshop with Jim and Emily. It was aimed at those that have taken Balboa 1 and still felt under confident in their abilities and wanted to refine what they know (AKA me when it comes to bal). I really enjoyed it as it was great going over moves that I was familiar with, but was able to fine tune and polish what I already knew. Plus it made me feel more confident about wanting to dance it socially. Anyways, back to the Balhalla kickoff. Slipped Disc was playing and they were awesome. I'd heard great things about them and they totally lived up to my expectations. This was also the first time I was at a dance focused on bal and dancing it so much in one night really left me encouraged and inspired to keep learning more. Yup, I definitely need more balboa in my life.
One of my favorite dances of the night was near the end when the band was playing a slow song. I got asked to dance slow bal and though I don't always enjoy slower dances as much (mostly because I have no idea what I'm doing) this one was an absolute dream. Sometimes you just have such a great connection with your partner that even when you don't do anything fancy it's perfect anyways. It all just felt so good. Days later and I'm still thinking about how lovely that dance was. Another great thing is that Samantha came down from Canada and we went to the dance together and she crashed at my place afterwards. It's great having someone to gush about dancing and bal and events and all that fun stuff.
Last Friday night we had the pleasure of dancing to Silk Road Swing featuring Jonathan Ng. The music was awesome and it was a great night of dancing, even if it was crazy hot outside. Seriously, I felt like a slime monster by the end of the night. Beautiful, I know.
Crazy to think it's only been a year since I dived full-force into the world of swing. And what a wonderful year it's been.
When I think about all the amazing opportunities I've had the past twelve months, I feel so thankful and blessed to be able to do something that brings me so much joy. I've been able to go to Eastside Stomp almost every week. I entered my first competition. I got to dance in a Greg Ruby music video; talk about awesome! Danced till 3am at the B'ham Swing Jam. An insane amount of competition videos watched on YouTube. Got a tad bit more comfortable doing solo jazz. Took lots of classes and learned lots of new skills. Went to my first, plus several other, dance events. Started learning Balboa. Had the opportunity to dance to dozens of amazing bands. Made new friends. Performed choreography from Chester's class at Jitterbug Weekend. Listened to new-to-me jazz musicians on my commute. Took classes from some amazing instructors. Got really sweaty.
Because of swing dance I've been pushed out of my comfort zone. Things that used to intimidate me, particularly ones that made me feel weird or silly in public, don't bother me nearly as much as they used to. Or being able to mess up a move, but not caring because you're both having fun and that fun doesn't depend on you being "perfect". Asking people to dance used to intimidate the heck out of me, but now it's no big deal.
Thank you for everyone who's danced with me, taught me, played music that I danced to, or have met in the lindy community. And especially everyone at Eastside. Being at Aria is like being home.
For those who have been in the swing community for any amount of time have likely heard of Jonathan Stout. He's a well known band leader in the scene known for his Jonathan Stout and his Campus Five albums featuring Hillary Alexander and his orchestra that's played at many of the big lindy events. Those albums are awesome and I listen to them all the time. So when I heard that they were going to playing at the Seattle Lindy Extravaganza, it was like a dream came true.
I wasn't able to attend the whole weekend, but I was able to attend the Friday night dance at Washington Hall. It was fantastic! The band was amazing, so say the least. There was a jam circle during Jammin' the Blues and the band was killing it. So much energy in the room!
I've recently had the opportunity to to take one of the series at Eastside, particularly Follower's Technique. It's two hours a week for seven weeks right before social dancing at Eastside and it's taught by Elaine and Stefan. So far it's been amazing!
The first week we focus solely on body placement and how that translates to interacting with our partner. Lots of feeling where our weight was, moving the proper parts at the right time, getting a correct stretch with our partner. Lots of really good stuff. The second week we did some similar exercises, but did a lot of them with the followers eyes closed. Honestly, this was a challenge for me as I've been realizing how much I try and predict things before they happen. We also started applying what we've been learning to actual dancing. And honestly, having proper alignment and what not has made a huge difference in my dancing already. Especially on my swing outs.
Last Friday was a great night to be at Eastside Stomp! Ryan Calloway's band, The Hot Baked Goods, kicked off their PNW tour that night and they. were. amazing. Seriously though, when I think of jazz their sound is to a tee what I imagine hearing in my head. So much great music! And when they played Blue Skies, one of my all time favorite songs, I couldn't stop grinning and humming along; it made me so happy! There were also a lot of people there, more than I'd seen in a while. We were guessing the band must have drawn them in, as there were enough out-of-towners that it felt a bit like an event, even though it was just the usual Friday night at Eastside with an awesome band. But seriously, there wasn't enough time in the night to dance with everyone I wanted to dance with. Plus my friend Samantha, who I met at the B'ham Swing Jam came down with some of the Canadians, so it was fun to see her again! The only clip I got was during their encore song; see, I told you there were a lot of people! They played It Don't Mean a Thing before this, which I barely survived as my body didn't want to be moving that fast that late in the night. By some miracle I'm still alive though. :P
This past weekend I got to attend my first Camp Jitterbug. Talk about exciting! Even though I only went to a few of the dances, I had such a fun time, and can't wait till next year when I can go for the whole weekend.
The event kicked off Friday night at Century Ballroom with Close Shave, which were awesome. One of the songs they played was Blue Skies, which is one of my all time favorites, so I was just standing at the edge of the room, watching everyone dance, and a huge grin on my face.
That day was also the birthday of Frankie Manning, so during the first band break everyone did the shim-sham and later The Big Apple happened; that's a routine I wanna learn some time! The balboa finals happened that night, which were fun to watch.
I ended up staying till about 1am; I would had loved to stay till 2am, when the band ended, but I had been up since six that morning, so my body definitely wanted to go to bed at that point.
Saturday afternoon they were filming some scenes with dancers for the upcoming Greg Ruby & the Rhythm Runners music video, which I got to be a part of. They filmed at Washington Hall, where they would be performing later that evening, and after getting shots of the band they had us do some social dancing and filmed us. I also ended up with a cool little part with Gordon, the trumpet player, which I'm not going to say more about so I don't spoil it! It was really warm out that day, in the low 80's, so between that, the lights for filming, and the dancing it was way to warm in that building! Totally worth it though.
Photo via Stefan Huynh
Photo via Jason Warner
A few hours later was the main dance with Greg Ruby & the Rhythm Runners. It. Was Awesome! So much great dancing, some amazing competition finals, the band killin' it, and just an all around awesome time. The Lindy Hop Social Finals were also on Saturday and oh. my. gosh. Everyone was killing it out on that floor! Especially Ariel. So dang good. And highly inspirational!
One of the coolest parts though was that the music the band was playing was originally written by Frank Waldron. Back in the 20's and 30's he wrote a music book, Syncopated Classics, which Greg Ruby arranged into the songs on the album of the same name and Washington Hall Stomp. And Frank Waldron wrote those songs just blocks away from Washington hall, so being able to dance to those songs in that venue was such a unique experience!
Last weekend was the first ever B'ham Swing Jam in Bellingham and it was a blast! Great classes, lots of dancing, fun competitions, new friends, fabulous bands; it was all really awesome.
Friday afternoon I was heading home to pick up my stuff before leaving town when I accidentally ran a red light and got ran into. Thankfully I was perfectly fine, though the side of my car definitely wasn't. I was able to get a ride with another dancer that was staying at the same host as I, for which I am really grateful for! We arrived in Bellingham around 8:00pm and headed straight to The Majestic Ballroom. I'd never been there before, but I quickly fell in love with the venue; it's the most adorable place! The event kicked off with Bellingham's own band, Hot House and everyone danced, danced, danced until midnight.
The next morning Chelsea and I got up and ready and stopped at the food co-op for breakfast; they had a lot of good gluten-free options there, which made me really happy! I grabbed a oat brownie bar (so healthy, I know) and a smoothie, then we headed to The Majestic for classes. I was in the intermediate/advanced class which started with Ann and Ryan. We spent most of the time working on our tension and compression and learned a couple moves that really focused on that. Our time with Ariel and Leo where we kept adding more and more breaks and once we were at the bare basics built it up from there. This was something I really appreciated as this is something I've struggled with and I now have a lot of inspiration and encouragement for stuff to practice on the social floor.
There was also an elective solo jazz class which I went to that day. It was Ariel's day to teach and we learned the second half of the routine that would be performed Sunday night; a lot of the moves I hadn't done before, so I was really happy to learn some new ones! But by the end of the class everyone was so exhausted. There were several of us just sitting on the floor chillin' afterwards 'cause we didn't want to move. Ha!
Photo via Natalie Lang
After grabbing dinner with some other dancers and relaxing for a little bit the best night of dancing began. We danced to the fabulous Jen Hodge All-Stars for hours; there were a lot of Seattle and Canada dancers that night, so the floor was filled for a fun night. After the band ended at midnight, the late night dance and competitions began. The first was an ambidextrous Jack 'n Jill where dancers had to both lead and follow. Throughout the wee hours of the night Lily, who was DJing, kept playing fast songs and kept saying she wasn't trying to kill us. Not sure I believed her. ;) The second comp was another Jack 'n Jill, but instead of being scored by judges we judged the person we just danced with; I thought that was a fun twist! I competed in this one and had a blast, specially on the last song, Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, which was so. much. fun. And then the finals were just as fun to watch. There were two couples and about half way through the song Nika (one of the finalists) cut in and grabbed the other follow and danced a good portion of the song with each others partners! It was so much fun. Some people somehow had energy to do the Big Apple at 2am, then at some point we did the Cha Cha Slide. I know I've used this word so many times already, but it was all so much fun! The night ended with the final competition, which was left a surprise until we did it. Follows got three paper flags to stick on the back of themselves then once the music started we were only allowed to swing out and follows tried to grab flags from other followers and the couple with the most flags at the end win. That was a blast and super creative! And that my friends is how the day of awesome-ness ended.
Bailey, who made this event possible, and the instructors! Photo credit: Seafoam Photography
Sunday ended up being a pretty chill day for me. Classes were shorter, for which I was incredibly grateful for as I was so incredibly sore. Between the classes, dance, and late night there was 12 hours of dancing the day prior! I got breakfast/lunch (classes didn't start till 1pm) at the food co-op again before heading to class. During class with Ann and Ryan we used there lindy hop step cards and would make different patterns to dance to; some of them were really challenging! There was one where we did rock step, triple step, step, rock step, step. That one was really challenging for me. The whole class was really good as it gets one using brain muscles that often get forgotten when dancing in autopilot mode. And then we had class with Leo and Ariel, in which we spent most of the time doing charleston variations. It was so exhausting as I was already super tried and sore from the day prior and then we did it for nearly the whole class. It was good though as I got some good feedback form the leads to help hone my technique.
After class there was a small break before the second solo jazz class with Kevin Buster, so I ended up sitting on one of the couches and chilling. Samantha and I started talking and decided to skip class. To many sore muscles! I'm so glad we both skipped it though as we got to hang out and get to know each other better, well, when we weren't laughing over random nonsense because we were both sleep deprived and exhausted. Ha! We also discovered that we both love Fred Meyer, have similar food allergies, and both listen to Greg Ruby in the car. We're practically twins. Once we decided we were hungry enough that it was worth walking, we went and got dinner at the co-op again (told you I went there a lot) and grabbed some must needed nourishment. Then we pretty much chilled, ate, and watched dance videos before heading to the final dance.
The final danced featured the always fabulous Greg Ruby. This night I was only able to stay till 10:30pm as that's when my ride home left. But even so I was still able to fit in a lot of dances. The solo jazz class also performed and totally rocked it!
This past Friday was one of my favorite nights for dancing, which is kinda funny considering Eastside Stomp was much emptier than usual. Like a good third to half as many people per usual. It was weird, but there were still plenty of people to dance with and the band Washboard Cutups, who I don't think I've heard play before, were really awesome so I ended up having a really fun night. I've decided I want to be able to dance comfortably in heels so I started bringing them and wearing them at the beginning of the night. Since I'm so not used to dancing in them, I can only last about 2-3 songs before my feet start getting sore and I slip back into my canvas flats, but I figure slowing building up my dancing-in-heels stamina I'll eventually be able to dance longer in them. Then one day I'll get a pretty pair to wear on the dance floor, preferably the silver Balboa heel from Re-Mix Vintage; those are so much prettier than my plain tan Capezio heels I'm currently using. Something that I've been feeling like I've improved a lot on is being able to show my goofy side and just show my happiness when dancing. Being the quiet introvert type (well, at least with new people) I've always been a bit self-conscious about that kinda stuff, but I've been learning to just let it go and let your personality shine! I have so much more fun when I do and I feel like I'm being more real with my partner as I'm showing off who I really am. Something cool about this past week was that there was a lot of solo jazz going on, which is always inspiring as my solo jazz skills are nearly non-existent. There a lot of people individually dancing, a solo jazz circle going on for a song or two, plus a half a dozen people or so having fun dancing together by the mirrors for the last hour. And despite the lack of attendance last week, there were a lot more people that stayed after the band left. That eventually lead to about a dozen of us having a little mini jam circle where everyone had fun goofing off, lindy hopper style obviously. Everyone was having such a fun time and that was technically my first time going in a jam circle. It was such a fun night!
So I just spend all this time writing this post, but for some reason it didn't save and now I have to write it all over again... *sigh*
So you probably won't be seeing many posts here for the next several months. That's because I'm in week 3 of a 14 week coding bootcamp. It's been going really well so far, but it doesn't leave a bunch of free time, so my dancing is limited to social dancing once a week. No classes, events, etc for months, which is really sad, though I'm definitely thankful that I'm able to social dance still. Once I land a job my first dance priority will be to take lindy and balboa classes for sure, no doubt about that!
The last couple Friday's have been pretty great. The 24th included a first for me: competing in my first Jack 'n Jill! When they announced the week prior that they were going to have one I was super stoked as I'd been wondering if Eastside Stomp was going to have another one soon as I really wanted to enter. I knew I wouldn't make it to finals, but have been wanting to compete for the experience and because it's fun. I definitely enjoyed it, even if my dancing felt rougher than normal. It was really fun watching all the finalist; they were all really great!
Photo via Eastside Stomp
That night, since there was no one with a birthday, we did the snowball. I didn't even know that was a thing, but switching partners every couple minutes is pretty fun. Solomon Douglas was playing that night, which always makes it a good night.
Then there was this past Friday, which was just overall a really lovely night. Since my birthday is tomorrow I got to join my first birthday jam, which really fun. Then we did the shim sham, but in a circle instead of facing the mirror; I wasn't sure at first, but I think it was a fun change. Casey McGill and his Pals were playing; they're pretty much an Eastside Stomp staple. The last few weeks I've danced with Ben White (who runs Eastside Stomp) who is always a pleasure to dance with he always has some really fun and different moves and is crazy good. I always walk away thinking "Woah, I have no idea what we were doing almost the whole time, but I'm able to follow it!" and super inspired to keep on lindy hopping.
17+ hours of dancing, in less than three days. Two amazing instructors. Many new friends. Lots of live music. One gorgeous ballroom. Several performances. That was my first Jitterbug Weekend and it was amazing! The 2017 lineup included Chester Whitmore and Evita Arce, two incredibly skilled and knowledgeable dancers. I did the weekend pass for the intermediate level which included four hours of class on Satruday and Sunday, plus dances with live music on Saturday and Sunday. They had a performance and live band at Century on Friday night, but I just went to Eastside Stomp like I normally do (which had Jacob Zimmerman playing, which was awesome).
Right photo by Jason Warner
My Jitterbug Weekend began Saturday morning when I arrived for check in, a bit early; I'd never been to Century Ballroom before so I wasn't sure exactly how long it would take me to get there, find parking, etc. I got to chat and meet a few fellow dancers before we started our first class with Chester and Evita. We started in closed position going over ways to spice up our basics and make them snazzy. Then we worked on several turns: a follow turn, leader turn, lead and follow turning at the same time. Then before lunch we learned a scissor kick variation. We had an hour for lunch, which was a perfect amount of time to go and find something to eat. I ended up going with a couple other guys to a Sizzle Pie a few blocks away and had a vegan ceasar salad that was pretty good. We chatted about dancing pretty much the whole time: how long we've been dancing, where we've taken lessons, etc. All the typical dancer stuff. Once we got back to the ballroom a lot of us were practicing the scissor kick variation we went over. Once we started the second half classes we worked getting that scissor kick pattern down and then we added it to a swing out, which is still really challenging for me! I still need to keep practicing the footwork on my own, as I still have to think about it a lot when I'm doing it. Once I have that down it should be much easier to add in. From there we learned how to do kicks on our swing outs, sugar pushes, and several more turn variations, non of which I can remember the name right now. I learned a ton that day and definitely refined some stuff I was already familiar with.
Photo by Jason Warner
There was an additional elective that day, Performance and Show with Chester, which I stayed for. It was an hour class and was much smaller -- about 20 people or so. We started with some basic performance tips and learned some solo jazz combinations in which Chester surprised us by telling us we were going to perform the routine at the dance later that night. Wasn't expecting that! We kept working on choreography till they pretty much kicked us out of the ballroom. There was almost four hours until the dance started, so I went and had dinner at Oddfellows Cafe which is a really nice place with good food and a nice atmosphere. After that I browsed Elliot Bay Books next door for a while before heading to the dance. Saturday it was at West Hall featuring Greg Ruby (the album Washington Hall Stomp is amazing, btw). After dancing a few songs Holly and I wanted to practice the routine for our performance, so we gathered a few people and went to the hallway/stair landing and before we knew it we had a bunch of us practicing and blocking traffic in the building. Ha! Not long after Chester found us all out there and guided us through our mini rehearsal and went through the whole routine several times. It was one of those moments that you know you'll always remember: practicing choreography by Chester Whitmore, with Chester Whitmore in the hallway of a historic Seattle building before performing. It makes me feel really thankful and blessed to be able to do stuff like this. It's like a dream! Our performance was during the first band break. We made it to our starting points and danced like there was no tomorrow. And it went pretty well! I totally blanked on a couple parts, but considering we only learned it in an hour (!!!!) I'm really happy with how well it all went. Everyone was awesome. (I'm in the white floral dress coming in from the right) After the performance I danced a bit, chatted with new friends and had a good time, though my this point my feet and legs were barely able to keep me up. I ended up leaving about a quarter after 11:00PM, went home, and slept. I woke up the next morning with my feet and legs still sore, so I knew it was going to be tough to make it through the whole day. The good thing was I got 7+ hours of sleep, which was better than the night prior, though considering how much energy I burned the previous day I sure could have used more. The time before class started was spent talking with people about how sore we were and practicing some of the moves we learned the day prior. We started off our morning with two hours of solo jazz with Chester. We started learning all these different combos (I can fall of the log now, but suzie q's are still a struggle) and then he told us we would be performing at that evenings dance. De ja vu much?! Ha! Seriously though, there was a lot of choreography we learned in a very short amount of time. Then it was time for lunch.
Photos by Jason Warner
A half a dozen of us went to the Mexican place across the street where I got chicken tacos. They were good, though nothing amazing. It was nice to get out in the fresh air, as the ballroom was warm and stuffy, and talk dance with everyone.
The last two hours of class were Chester and Evita's choice, so none of us had any idea even what style of dance we would be doing. Once we got started Evita told us we were going to learn some dances that lead up to lindy hop. We started with the early 1900's and learned stuff like the strut and castle walk (think Hello, Dolly! and you'll be on the right track) which used so. many. leg muscles. There was this part when we were all strut jump walking in a circle and there was a total train wreck moment that had us all busting with laughter. That was amusing for sure! It was fun to learn though. Then we went on to the 1920's and did Charleston, which for me is really challenging to do in closed position. Besides the footwork, we also did a move that I can't remember the name of where we jumped back, went on to our heels, and when we came back to closed we kicked our leg twice.
Photo by Jason Warner
Next we learned of some different styles of lindy hop. We practiced swing outs with leads lowering their arm by 5 so the follows can travel facing the direction they're traveling. This style of swing out is my favorite as it allows for lots of follow styling and when we we were all swinging out together, arms waving and just having a really fun time. After we learned how to swing out where the follows back is facing the direction of travel, more like a sling shot. I feel like this style is cool to watch, but not as fun as there isn't much room for us follows to ad as much flair. Then we did a move where the follow leans back on the leads hip and kicks, which is pretty cool. There was another elective that day, beginner/intermediate tap which I would have loved to do and was planning on it, but my feet were just so sore I decided to skip it, which I'm sad about. But my feet needed it.
There was a more time between end of class and the dance so took a book to read at a cafe for a few hours, ate dinner, then practiced some of the solo jazz choreography before the dance started. That night featured Jacob Zimmerman and Pals and featured Meredith Axelrod from San Francisco, who I happened to heard a few weeks prior at Eastside Stomp. This happened to be my first time dancing in Century Ballroom; it's so gorgeous at night with all the lights on, the band planing, and everyone dancing on the floor. But I have to say, it was PACKED! Pretty much like sardines most of the night. But hey, a good space to really practice your floorcraft.
Our solo jazz performance was during the first band break again. I felt a bit rough with the choreography, plus the music was really, really hard to know when to start as there were both 12 and 8 count bars in there. When we performed we all actually missed the first combination, but hey, since we all missed it nobody will ever know, right?! Personally I really spaced on a few parts, but since there were so many of us it didn't really bother me; everyone was really awesome though and the applause afterwards was insane! That's something I've really come to love about the swing community; it doesn't matter if you've been dancing for years or months, if you messed a part up, everyone is so supportive and encouraging and you can't help but want to keep dancing for the rest of your life. It's truly magical. You can watch that performance here.
Photo by Tonya Morris
Right after that we had another performance, this time by the Sister Kate Bootcamp. They were wonderful! Then the rest of the night was dancing, trying not to run into people (it was like sardines in there!), cooling off in front of the giant fan, dancing some more. By some miracle I made it all the way to 12:30am when the band ended; we even got an encore.
Recap: Chester is totally goofy and isn't afraid to throw tons of choreography at you. Lot's of dancing until my feet felt like they were going to fall off. Sweet and spicy Evita showing us lots of awesome content and helping us keep up with Chester. Dancing in Century Ballroom for the first time. Meeting and making new dance friends. Performing for the first (and second!) time. It all was amazing.
This past weekend was Emerald City Solo Jam and guys, it was fabulous. Friday night was the kickoff dance at Eastside Stomp which included live music from Casey MacGill, teacher demos by Nathan Bugh and Gaby Cook, and the preliminaries for the Emerald City Solo Jam competition. Saturday was classes that didn't start till 1pm (Thank you for having late classes!) followed by another dance featuring the Rex Quartet and the contest finals. Sunday was more classes and the option to go to Century afterwards, but since I was so beat and that dance didn't start till four hours after classes ended, I went home and got some rest.
So Friday night was fabulous, even if for a large part of the night I was in a bit of a dance funk for some reason. I was having the hardest time keeping beat and following feel kinda rough, but I still managed to have a few really good dances. There were a couple in particular that I felt really good about and one went really well and I just feel like I hit all the timing right (a miracle that night!) and made me feel like I've made some improvement over the last few months.
Watching the prelims was awesome. I ended up watching from the front row, dead center, and watching everyone show of there best stuff was really fun. There were some really skilled dancers that were just a joy to watch. By the end my hands stung from clapping and applauding so much that I had "clap rash". Basically my arm starts looking rash-like from my wrist down after a lot of clapping. Does that happen to anyone else? Saturday morning, after a rough night of sleep, I made my way to the ballroom for classes. When I arrived I found Ben outside of the venue waiting for the guy with the keys. 15 minutes before classes were supposed to start. But despite that and all of the last minute things that happened (judges being sick, bridge closures, etc) it all turned out great. So back to the ballroom, we finally get in and it's freezing, so I was happy when we finally started class and got the blood flowing!
So each day we worked with both instructors for two hours which meant us beginners started with Nathan and finished with Gaby. So we started our first class with Nathan and followed him with some basic moves to warm up. Durring that he realized we weren't good at fishtails, so he decided to teach us how to do them. I definitely improved on them, but I still need to practice the twisting and then moving the feet, as it feels really unnatural to me right now. Shorty George and boogie forward were next, both moves I "knew" but learned a lot on how to refine them and do them properly. Next we moved on to charleston, where he asked us what the oddest kind of charleston is and proceeded to tell us how it's weird that most lindy hoppers learn side by side early on when it's not even the real way that charleston is done. It was also at this point that Nathan pulled me over to demonstrate the different types of swing charleston (which turned into a trend that weekend).
So we refined our charleston form, as we all pretty much knew it and used it to go into a break with a pause and some foot tapping. We also went over the scarecrow which included Nathan telling us that when performing it to make it a sudden surprise to the audience, but that it should almost surprise ourselves as well. Then we learned a turn that used a step-kick-ball change before crossing the legs and turning. That's one I have the concept down for, but need to practice the turning part a lot as I keep putting my weight on the wrong leg. And that was the end of our first class with Nathan!
There was a half hour between classes with each instructor and on the first day it was definitely needed as they decided to switch venues for the beginner and intermediate/advanced classes as the larger advanced class was in the smaller studio. Remember how I said it was freezing in the ballroom? Well we got to trade that for a warm studio. We started warming up with Gaby and then we went through the whole shim sham with some stylization on certain steps. I've known the shim sham for a while, but just the very basic version, so I'm excited to have some style to add to it on Friday nights when we do it. One of the new moves I really like is the part on the break when you toe tap with your left foot then jump left, jump right, then apart then together (I have no idea if it has a name). After that we did some partnering where one person would do 16 counts of something and then the other would have to do something that contrasted it. That kinda stuff always makes me nervous, as I'm especially bad at anything improv related, but being pushed out of my comfort zone.
That was the end of classes on day one. There were three hours to kill between the end of class and the beginning of the dance and since some of us were hungry we went and ate together. Ben had mentioned that the Mexican place in the shopping center where the ballroom was had good food, so that's where we went. I got the chicken tacos, which were fabulous! Thank you Ben for the recommendation! After that there was still a bit of time, so I went to Safeway and Trader Joe's and bought some snacks, as I was starving the night prior after dancing all night and didn't want to do that again. The dance went really well. We had more live music, the competition finals, a performance from the advanced class, and an encore that turned into a jam circle. I got to bed a quarter after 1am and I slept way better Saturday night, though I guess it was already Sunday at that point. Ha! The first day of classes were great, but Sunday's classes were even better. The first couple hours with Nathan went by way to fast. he was inspired by the sound of the floor and small room to we started off with some tap. He had us form a circle and showed us all the different ways to use our feet to make tap sounds Then we went into a tap combo, which was one of my favorite parts, even though I'm still struggling a part of it. It was funny because he took a slow song and made it even slooowwwer, so we could get the pattern down, which was good because I'm not sure if I could do it any faster, but seriously. It was so slow! Ha! Afterwards we partnered up and did a mirroring exercise in which Nathan used me to demonstrate again which was fun. We did the exercise with several different people and I have to say it was pretty fun! Then he showed us a couple more common moves and their names before we spent the rest of the time working on our Susie Q's. We went over all the nitty gritty of the move and I'm fairly comfortable with them now at slower speeds. And then I was really sad because our time with Nathan was already over.
After downing a Cliff Protein Bar and some granola on break we started our class with Gaby. She decided to show us the first part of The Big Apple, which made me really excited I've been wanting to learn it especially after watching a lot of videos of it recently! We started from the beginning and made it through the jump charleston and transition steps. There were a lot of moves that we did that I really liked, one of those being apple jacks. Doing the kick prep and then the move makes me feel really fancy and like I know what I'm doing. The jump charleston was also another favorite. After that there wasn't a whole lot of time left, so Gaby answered some questions, Gaby had me help demonstrate as she answered one of those questions (She said my Little Mermaid shirt spoke to her) and went over a couple little combos. Like I said earlier, I skipped going to Century in place of sleep, but I did stop for some more tacos before leaving. And that is the end of Emerald City Solo Jam 2017. I'd watched many video of Nathan and Gaby performing on YouTube, but seeing that much skill in person brings a whole new element of appreciation. Plus it's just way more fun. I could just sit and watch Nathan dance forever; every little movement is just memorizing. His teaching style was my favorite as I liked the way he broke down every little bit and had us repeat it many times. That combined combined with his personality makes for a great time in class. Then there's Gaby with her inspiring style of movement that makes me wanna dance better. Every movement was like a work of art. Also her clothing choices are adorable and she has the best jackets. I kinda want her wardrobe now... And to end off this post I'd like to give a big thank you to Ben and everyone that helped him put on this fabulous event. You're all awesome.
Do you ever have one of those nights dancing where nothing out of the ordinary really happened, but you just feel really good about your dancing, even if it wasn't perfect? And you can't stop smiling and are just on cloud 9 the next day even? Last night was one of those nights for me.
It was a long day at work for me, so my goal was just to stay awake the whole night! Since this month is the last of the beginner lindy classes, I'm at the ballroom for class and then an hour and a half afterwards killing time till the dance starts and usually it's a struggle to stay awake between class and dancing, but I made it with ease. Class went really well. We reviewed and refined our side-by-side Charleston and kick through. I'm definitely feeling really comfortable with it now. After that we went into skip ups, which though simple are going to take a bit more practice before they become second nature. In class all of the leads were barely moving forward on their kicks at first which made it challenging since I was all gong-ho and ready to put it all in. Our class has about eight of us, so four couples, and I we all were having fun and you could feel it in the air. Social dancing was really, really good. The band, Good Co, was new to Eastside Stomp and they were amazing! Then I had a lot of wonderful dances. After feeling like I was in a bit of a funk the week prior I was hoping to feel more confident last night and I definitely did. There were a lot of dances I just had a lot of fun with and couldn't help but grin from ear to ear the whole time. Those nights make me so happy and thankful to be able to dance every week. There were a couple dances that I impressed myself with my styling and musicality, two things I need great help with, but they mustn't have looked too shabby as I received a couple complements on them. I usually just wing it and try and look cool, but I honestly have no idea if I look like I know what I'm doing or if it just looks odd. Ha! Also, I made a little bit of small-talk with a couple people. Baby steps, but it's better than nothing. Oh, and note to self: BRING SNACKS! Particularly protein filled ones. Dancing has a way of starving a girl.
Friday I went dancing for the first time in a month. I kept planing on going throughout December, but icy roads, out of town friends, and being sick kept getting in the way unfortunately. Plus since I was sick the first week of January (I had a bad reaction to some antibiotics and was sick all week) I missed the first week of the last level one lindy hop class I'm taking this month, which is Charleston. Anyways, so by the time I got to back to dancing last week it was long overdue! Lindy class went well; we went over all the details of side by side Charleston, which was good as I'd taught myself it before and my technique definitely needed some refining. Plus now I'm much more confident, which is always good. It felt sooo good to get back on the dance floor, even if I was a bit rusty at first. It's like I know what to do, but my brain is out of practice and it takes longer for the information to get to my feet. There were a couple of dancing that I felt really good about and just had really fun with. There was a jam up by the band in the middle of the night, which was awesome. We had Solomon Douglas playing, who was fabulous and we even got an encore from at the end of the night. I'm also realizing how hard it is for me to talk to people I don't know. My introverted side definitely holding me back a lot and I don't want it to be that way! I think I'm going to start a new goal of complementing and/or asking someone how their night is going just once each week. Right now that's a huge way out of my comfort zone, but it needs to happen. In other news, Emerald City Solo Jam is in less than two weeks, and I'm super pumped! Three nights of dancing and classes taught by Nathan Bugh and Gabby Cook. And to be honesty, even though I'm excited, I'm a bit nervous since dancing on my own kinda definitely scares me. But hey, like I was saying, I'm trying to push myself out of my comfort zone more!
Well... 2016 is nearly gone. It's been one crazy fast year for me, and kind of an odd one at that. It kinda feels like the first and second half of the year were two different ones. Thinking back to life back in March or April feels like a different lifetime ago in many ways. Honestly one of the biggest highlights has been being able to take Lindy Hop classes and go social dancing regularly. That's been a dream of mine for years, but it never worked out to do it until now. And I'm so thankful to have the opportunity to dance; there are few things that fill me with such happiness and joy as twirling out on the dance floor with live music filling the air. Such a wonderful experience! I thought a I'd share some stats from this this year, taken from my dance journal where I log as much information as possible.
2016 Stats: -Went to 14 social dances, all but one with a live band. -Took four classes: Intro to Swing, Lindy Hop 101, 102, and 103; and Balboa 1. -Took one workshop, Slow Drag with Peter Flahiff and Lauren Smith. -Got to dance to nine different bands. So considering I've only been dancing since August, I'm pretty proud of all I've been able to accomplish in the world of swing dance. Goals for 2017: -Learn an get comfortable with tandem charleston -Enter my first Jack and Jill competition -Improve at asking people to dance and being more social at dances and events. My quiet introvert side is definitely holding me back a bit, but I want to fix that. - Get a video clip of me dancing (everyone from friends to family to co-workers wanna see how good I can dance)
- Get comfortable doing outs and ins in Balboa -Go to several dance events (Emerald City Solo Jam & Jitterbug Weekend are already paid for!) Here's to 2017!
