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).
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| Right photo by Jason Warner |
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Photo by Jason Warner |
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.
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| Photo by Tonya Morris |
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.
