All the Dancing

Eastside Stomp, Suzie Q's, and the Rocket Butts. Other than work, that's what consumes all of my time and I'm not complaining! Along with that come's lots of shenanigans and weird photos. And we're getting weirder all the time. It's great. 

I honestly don't have much else to say right this moment, so enjoy the photo dump!

---

I tried to get a normal photo with my new jumpsuit, but I don't think these guys know how to do "normal". ;)

Pre performance shenanigans.

This past Friday I was tired and wanted to go home, but these people surrounded me and wouldn't let me leave, so I did the next best thing.

Sunday practice schenanagans.

Kaleb got the new iPhone XS. Gotta break in that new camera with my classic pose.

Unexplainable things happen at Mox.

This is what happens when Katie isn't around: all of our water glasses are empty

I couldn't dance any more because my legs were killing me (I went bowling the day before and I was really feeling it on Friday), so Katie helped me out.

 Kaleb's foot vs my foot. There's a little bit of a size difference....

This is one of my favorite photos ever.

Instant photos with the Rocket Butts is always a good idea.

Eastside with these people is kinda the best.

Karen had the wonderful idea of welcoming Katie back from Paris with mustaches and French accents. 

Dancing with Blary

Power pose.

I don't know how I get my face to do these things, they just happen.

The Rocket Butts Very First Performance!

Last night was the first performance from THE ROCKET BUTTS! And it was a smashing success!

Crazy to think we've only been together for three months, because we're already a super close, crazy bunch. The amount of inside jokes we have is insane, and I can always count on these people to convince me to stay up waaaaayyy later than I should. 😉 Love you all! ❤️✨💕

Here's to rocketing our butts to greatness!

Social Dance: 8/3 Edition - Let's Mix & Match!

Friday nights are usually pretty rad, but this past week in particular was especially fun.

First off, there was a Mix & Match contest. In my option, competitions are an opportunity to do something different and have a fun time and I definitely had a blast competing! Even though I didn't make it to finals, I'm super proud of myself as I danced the best I ever have in a competition.

Thanks, Carrie, for the footage!

Also, Jonathan Doyle was playing that night and the lineup was nothing short of dreamy. Every song was so crazy awesome, plus I was in a super good, chipper mood, so I had such a great night. There was lots of dancer goofing off for no reason and lots of fun times had by all. 

A Late May Catchup

Life is good. Very busy, but very good. Especially when it comes to dancing.

A lot has happened since I last chatted with you. I though it was about time to catch you up on things.

To start things off, I'm now part of a dance team lead by Ben and Ariel. This past Monday we had our third practice and it's been a great experience already. We've been learning parts of Trickeration every week, along with practicing partnered stuff. At our last practice we a lot about competitions and learned a ton of good stuff that I can't wait to apply at Camp Jitterbug and the Mix and Match at Eastside Stomp next week.

Speaking of Camp Jitterbug, it starts tomorrow!!!!!!!!!! To say I'm excited would be an understatement. I'm excited for all the awesome instructors, competitions, bands, and dances. It's going to be a grand time! I'm registered for the advanced track and one of the competitions, which should be fun.

Then a few Saturday's ago I finally made it to Revival Rhythm in Fremont. So. Much. Fun. Seriously, I was on cloud nine all night. They have a blues room, balboa room, and a lindy hop room which makes it super fun and unique. I did the blues drop-in lesson beforehand, which was great, and had a wonderful time dancing the night away. Later in the night they have an informal jam too, which was awesome.

Beyond that, regular Friday nights at Eastside have been wonderful, like usual. I feel like I've reached a new level in my dancing in regards to creativity and have been having a lot of fun experimenting with styling on the dance floor. This past Friday I got to take photos, which I really enjoyed. I haven't had a lot of time to do much photography lately, but it felt so good to get those creative juices flowing and capture everyone having such a fun night.

Social Dancing: 4/13 Edition - The One Where I Finally Danced Shag

It's been a while since I've updated this little corner of the internet! A lot has been happening in my life the last few months. Things like getting into the LEAP Apprenticeship at Microsoft, moving out of my childhood home, buying a car, starting the LEAP Program and doing fun stuff with my cohort, and my family moving out of state.

But that's not what this post is about. I'm here to talk about the most wonderful time I had this past Friday. It was amazing!

Before spending the night at Eastside, I went bowling with a bunch of people from my cohort. Tons of fun, but I'm not gonna lie, I'm still sore from that. So my day was already off to a great start. Then after fueling with MOD Pizza and catching up with dance friends, the night of dancing began.

One of the magical parts about Friday was the band playing, which included some special out of town guests: The Brothers Arntzen, Evan and Arnt. The rest of the line up included the wonderful Jen Hodge, the piano and ukulele master Casey MacGill, and the always amazing Julian McDonough. How can you go wrong with that line up?!?! And the band was on. fire. Seriously. The crowd at Eastside is know for always giving the band a lot of love, but the enjoyment and enthusiasm that night was through the roof, and rightfully so. They were amazing and so fun to dance to!

Then there was the dancing, which was wonderful. The floor was full of people having a great time and I had a lot of really fun dances. One of the highlights of the night was dancing collegiate shag for the first time. You have no idea how happy that made me! I was out on the dance floor when my partner asked if I knew any shag. I said a tiny bit and we started dancing it and a minute or two in he asked "what's up with you only knowing a tiny bit?!" and I told him how I've practiced a lot on my own, but had never actually danced it with a partner. Oh my goodness, it was so much fun and it made me so happy! I definitely need more shag in my life. The next morning I had to DM Kendall, my biggest collegiate shag inspiration, to share as she's always so encouraging and I knew she's be excited as well (and she definitely was). Love all the awesome people in the dance community!

Eastside Stomp Holiday Ball

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!

Social Dancing 10/27 Edition - Dancing Squirrels

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!

Social Dancing: 10/20 Edition - When You're on Fire

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!

Social Dancing: 10/6 Edition - Balhalla Kickoff

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. 

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.

First Two Weeks of Followers Technique

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.

Social Dancing: 6/16 Edition - The Hot Baked Goods

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

Social Dancing: 4/4 Edition - The Tiny Jam Circle

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!

Social Dancing: 3/17 Edition - Jen Hodge

It's always a good night when Jen Hodge is playing and Friday night was no exception! 

Alive and Dancing

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.

Keep on dancing, friends!

Social Dancing: 1/20 Edition - Can't Stop Smiling

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.

Social Dancing: 1/13 Edition - Charleston Class

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!

Social Dance: 12/16 Edition - Holiday Ball

This past Friday was the Eastside Stomp annual Holiday Ball. Everyone's invited to dress up, there's a photobooth (which I totally forgot to get a photo in... I'm sad about that.), and live music like usual. This week we had Casey MacGill, one of my personal favorites, who rocked it like usual. I was particularly fond of the song about egg nog. It was fab, especially since the only lyrics were "egg nog" and "yum". That made me happy. XD

Before hand they had a little vintage hair workshop, where we learned two different styles: a classic victory roll updo and a poodle updo. That was my first time setting my hair in pin curls in quite a while; I forgot how much I love my hair when I do that. And let's just say my victory hair rolling technique isn't that good yet. It's a good thing Taylor (our hair instructor, along with my balboa instructor) was there to make it look pretty. And like I said, I forgot to get a photo. Sometimes I fail at basic things guys. But hey, I was fitting in lots of dancing!

For some reason between the hair workshop and the dance starting my feet got insanely cold. Like numb and stiff and took four dances before they started to thaw out. So that was an adventure for sure. I felt like my dancing was kinda blah, but dancing tends to be like that; one week you feel like the best dancer ever (even though you know you're not) and other weeks you're like, what am I even doing. But fairly early on we ended up with a jam circle, which is always a blast to watch. And one day I'll actually get video of one... but it hasn't happened yet.

Also, I've signed up for my last level one Lindy class next month, Lindy Charleston. Since it's something I've been wanting to know for a while, I'm really excited to finally learn it!

Social Dance: 11/29 Edition - Last Dance at KDC

Tuesday night Eastside Stomp had their last Tuesday Night Stomp at Kirkland Dance Center, the location where they started at all. Until this week I had never been dancing on Tuesday night, but this was the location where I took my very first lindy hop class years ago (and promptly forgot) and the first place I ever social danced. Plus it was where I took the slow drag workshop I went to in October.

All night the floor was filled with dancers and at the peak pretty crowded. A good opportunity to really practice floorcraft for sure! Even with being supper aware since there were so many people, there were still quite a few moments of bumping into people. At one point after being asked to dance, the guy who asked started counting down and we darted into the middle of the floor, surprisingly not running into anyone. He said it was like magic and was only possible because I'm so tiny. XD

I got a small clip from near the end of the night, right before we left. The band featured the Greg Ruby Quintet, which were fabulous as usual. I wish I got some footage of the jam circle that happened, as it was awesome. The shim sham also happened, which is pretty much and Eastside Stomp tradition.

Social Dancing: 11/18 Edition - Outs & Ins

In Friday night's lindy class we spent most of the time learning a new turn. I have no idea what it's called, but it would start like I was turning towards my left, but turned into a direction change and I actually turn to the right. We practiced feeling a good connection with our leads to really feel that direction change and a lot of focus on engaging the core. Right now it's one of those things that I really have to focus on to remember to do it, but when I do engage those muscles it sure makes a world of a difference! I'm also realizing that I really need to keep an eye on my feet, as since starting balboa I'm putting too much of my weight on the balls of my feet when doing lindy now. Not a good habit to have.

Friday was week 3 of classes since there were only two of us in the class, we completed the normal four weeks worth of class material in just over two weeks. Bonus of having a small class! So we spent a little time reviewing everything we'd learn to date, plus the basics of outs and ins, which they don't normally teach in the level one class. The whole concept of outs and ins is pretty simple, but I have trouble doing it more than a couple times or to a faster tempo without my feet getting all flustered. Plus I have a little bit of trouble focusing on my upper body since the footwork isn't quite natural yet. Whenever I have a moment and I remember I'm practicing the footwork at home and at work; gotta make it a natural habit!

As far as social dancing I was able to stay a couple hours which I was excited for. I had a good time and had some good dances. One guy and I were doing lindy and decided to go into bal, which I was able to do decently considering I didn't see it coming at all.