Social Dancing: 8/4 Edition

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.

A Year of Swing

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.