Camp Jitterbug 2018

Or "The super epic weekend filled with so many magical moments I don't know what to do with myself". But ya know, that title was a little too long. ;)

Camp Jitterbug was amazing.

I could end it there, but that would be boring. So let's get down to the real nitty gritty.

Sorry friends, I can't seem to help myself.

Friday Night
The night it all began. Check-in at Knights of Columbus started at 6pm and being the typical Sereina that I am, I was there a little bit before that. I checked in, got my wristband, and most importantly bought a Camp Jitterbug t-shirt. I feel super legit now, friends.

While I was putting on my shoes (or after? I really have no idea.) I met Jamee. He's an awesome guy, great dancer, and can become friends with anyone pretty much instantly. We danced a few songs to warm up, then it was time for an our long collegiate shag class. Heck yeah! If you know me, you know that collegiate shag is something I'm really interested in and have practiced a bit on my own, but had never actually had a real class. Until now. Dun, dun, duuuunnnn (If you don't make that sound dramatic in your head, I might be disappointed).

Photo by Marc Dodobara

The instructors where Nick and Laura. I'd never had a class with them before, but now I'm a fan. They're both great dancers and really fun in class. We learned the basic shag footwork and how to do a turn. A lot of people came out to the class too, which was really great to see!

** I'm going to take a moment here and pause, because I just remembered that told Kendall I would send her photos and I sent her nothing. #fail I'm sorry, Kendall. You're still my favorite! **

The Balboa Social prelims were immediately after, which were fun to watch, then it was off to Century for the first dance of the weekend. You can't go wrong with Michael Gamble and the Rhythm Serenades and it was an amazing band to start the event off with! I've listed to his alubums many a time, so it was dreamy to dance to him live. I danced, and danced, and danced some more, then there was the Balboa Social finals, followed by more dancing. I think headed home about 12:30am? Some things are just a blur.

Photo by Marc Dodobara

Saturday Morning
At a too-early 11am, we had our first class of the weekend. I was in the advanced track (I originally registered for intermediate plus, but Ben told me I should be in the advanced track, so I switched 'cause Ben knows what's up). We started with two hours with Christian and Jenny, both new-to-me instructors that I've watched on YouTube many a time. We worked on a comination that included swingouts, a texas tommy, and some four count moves and really refined and fine tuned them. Definitely a good start off to classes!

After that it was time for lunch. I got some Chipotle, before the lunchtime lecture with Chester, which was super educational and entertaining. I don't remember specifically what he talked about (I seriously need to take notes next time), expect that it was really good. He has so many incredible stories and there's never enough time to hear them all!

Once our lunch was over, we had an hour with Ann and Ryan. I'd taken classes with them before and I really like there emphasis on breaking free from doing the same patterns again and again and being goofy. Literally the whole class was spent doing rhythm stuff which was a great exercise in getting out of the rut of doing the same patterns all the time. Then we had our last class of the day with Nick and Laura. We focused on doing an arm slide turn and really broke it down and did some fun stuff with it.

Photo by Marc Dodobara

That afternoon was the prelims for the Beginner Social and Open Social competitions. Watching the Beginner Social was great, as everyone had so much energy and was having such a great time. Then right after I got to compete in the Open Social. It was my first big competition and I had a lot of fun, even though it definitely wasn't my best dancing. The last song was, unsurprisingly, a fast one and I nearly lost my glasses! They slipped most of the way off my face (from all of that sweat, no doubt), but I was able to by some miracle push them back on while dancing like crazy. Then since the contest was short on followers, I got to do it again, without being judged, in the third heat. Gotta love some extra competition practice!

(I'm in heat one with the blue top and black twirly skirt. Oh, and the bright red hair bow and shoes.)

Also, something that kinda surprised myself was that I wasn't nervous leading up to or during the prelims. Like, at all. When I first started dancing the thought of doing something like that seemed exciting, but made me really nervous. Now it apparently doesn't even phase me. There was such a great energy from the crowd that it just made me more excited and made me smile more. Love how enthusiastic the lindy hop community is about everyone and everything!

After the prelims, there was a few hours until the evening dance. After I let the sweat simmer down a bit (seriously, KofC gets so stinkin' hot and muggy) I ended up meeting and grabbing dinner with Cale, who I met while leaving the venue. We chatted about all sorts of dance stuff (always a good time) and got some food before heading back to KofC for the dance.

Saturday Night
On Saturday night we had the pleasure of dancing to The Greg Ruby Six. Being a local, I'm spoiled by getting to dance to Grey Ruby on a regular basis, but the lineup that night was perfection. It didn't take long for the room to become incredibly muggy from all us dancers having a fun time. Before long it was time for the Beginner Social and Open Social finals, which were both so much fun to watch! I was really impressed with how many different styles there were in the Open Social. They were all so dang amazing. That night we also did the Shim Sham and had an amazing performance from Chester's Advanced Plus class. Uhhhhh, amazing much?!?!?!?

That night I was sweating so much (is telling you I felt like a slimy fish TMI?) that I couldn't keep hydrated fast enough. The only water fountain was upstairs in the men's bathroom, so hooray for guys who don't mind filling up water bottles for dehydrated dancers such as myself. (You dah best, Jamee!)

The dance ended at 11:30pm and the late night started at midnight at Century, but I was feeling pretty wiped and decided to go home and catch some z's. Plus I needed drive the half hour home safely.

Sunday Morning
After a stop at Emerald City Smoothie for a gigantic protein powder filled smoothie (if I could live on those, I would), it was off to KofC for morning classes. I woke up a bit swungover and with a headache, but was hoping some liquid gel Aleve would help (spoiler: it didn't). Us advanced track peeps got to spend two hours with Michael and Evita morning. Couldn't ask for a better way to start of the start the day. We worked on a lot of good stuff, but there was a lot of focus on turns (all different types) that was really, really good. Oh, and many pro tips (if you where there, you know what I mean).

Once lunchtime rolled around I grabbed some pad thai from Ting Tong Thai, the restaurant they have cater at KofC, before Chester's lecture, this time on the history of jazz music (which was phenomenal and once again, highly entertaining). For several of the styles he got volunteers to dance, who were all really awesome. Shelby and Lily did the cakewalk and looked wonderful, Shane and Nika did lindy with breakaways (their energy is amazing), and Ryan and Jenny did some blues stuff which was great. Definitely the best lunch break of the weekend.

Photo via Tonya Morris

Right after lunch we had class with Chester. Now, going into this we knew we were going to perform. And being Chester, I knew it would probably be something fast. But let's be real, I wasn't expecting White Heat fast. Though I have to say, the more the routine started coming together, the more I fell in love with it. The choreography was just so fun. Plus we were so go, go, go that I couldn't feel my achy feet and that headache I had was finally gone. Now I know Chester's classes work better than painkillers.

Our last class was with Andy and Ann. We worked on a couple "moves" to practice allowing the follows to be creative and influence the dance with our partners. It was really good practice for me to do something and really follow through with it (ha, pun not intended). When Ann asked if any follows wanted to try what we were doing with Andy, I couldn't get my hand up fast enough. I was tempted to ask to try it with him just a few minutes before, so that ended up working out well!

After classes there were more competition prelims, this time the Lindy Hop Couples and Short Showcases. Dang, those dancers in the couples comp were so amazing! And the showcases were really good, with a lot of great choreography. For a little bit afterwards, before we had to be out of the venue, I practiced some of the White Heat routine with a couple of awesome ladies I met. One of them was Darcie (Hi, Darcie! Excited to see you in Portland in a few weeks.) and another lady who's name I unfortunately don't remember (you're awesome!).

Sunday Night
Between the classes and evening dance Roberto invited a bunch of people to a rooftop BBQ and jam at his place. The weather was perfect for it too: the sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in sight. It was great to just relax and socialize with other people, especially with the ones who were visiting from out of town. There was lots music and laughter that evening, which made it pretty much perfect. This was also the point the the weekend when Jamee realized he'd been missing out on lime tortilla chips his whole life and couldn't stop talking about them. I'm legit going to give him a bag of lime chips the next time I see him, because how can I not.

Photo via Jason Warner

Before we knew it, it was time to make our way back to Century to dance on our incredibly sore feet. 'Cause that's what dancers do. We dance till we die. And that reminds me: someone, I don't remember who, commented that pain makes you know you're alive, to which I replied, I must be very, very alive then, 'cause my feet were sore as heck!

Before the band started, Chester did a short class where we did a 10 minute song dancing through the decades. Tons of fun and a great way to kick off the night. Then the band started, The Casey MacGill Orchestra. They were on fire! As per usual I danced, danced, and danced some more. Some of us locals performed some choreography to Swing Nation. I only kinda knew what I was doing, but we all seemed to have a blast. Then we watched in awe as the finalists from the Lindy Hop Couples contest threw down their best stuff. Always super inspiring.

Photo by Marc Dodobara

After the finals, Casey decided to do the Shim Sham, literally right after they played a super long song for the finals. Definitely can't complain about that! During the second half when you're partnered I got to dance with Ann and she was just as fun and goofy to dance with as you think she would be! Then it was out to the hallway to go over choreography with Chester. He got the instructors involved and they were practicing their stuff while we practiced ours. Going over choreography with Chester in the hallway is pretty much a tradition at this point: All of us dancers crowded together, blocking traffic, trying to clean up the routine. Then it was time to perform. Oh. my. goodness. I never had so much fun performing in my life. Yeah, I totally messed up a couple parts, but I was having the time of my life out there and it was awesome.

The last competition of the event was the Slow Strictly, at 12:30am. It was really fun to watch (I know, I sound like a broken record by now), and those finalists were crazy good. I danced a bit more before heading home at 1:30am, on a dancy cloud of happiness.

Monday
The last day. Super sad because the event is practically over, but happy because my feet can stop complaining. This was also the best night of sleep I got all weekend and didn't really feel swungover, which surprised me.

Monday was electives day, which I spent with Michael and Evita because A) they're awesome, and B) I'm lazy and don't want to change venues. Keepin' it real folks.

The first class was called Games of Rhythm, where we learned three different swing out styling. The next elective I didn't do, but watched, was an aerials class. I've obviously seen aerials before, but I'd never seen how they were broken down and taught, so just watching was definitely educational. And the very last class of the weekend was Seamless Conversations. In this one we didn't learn any moves, but did some exercises on feeling connected to your partner, both as a lead and as a follow, and how both roles can be involved in influencing how the dance proceeded. This was such a good class and made me aware of things I can to do improve my connection and communicate with my partner better.

Thankfully for those of us who didn't have to head out of town right away (perks of being a local), there was the final dance with the Jonathan Doyle Quintet, another local favorite, and with a crazy sweet lineup. I had some really good dances, which surprised me, given how exhausted I was at that point. There was one dance it particular with Ben where I felt like a million bucks. He's always so much fun to dance with and is always pushing me with more and more advanced stuff, which I really awesome. Not long after there was jam circle (which I was happy about, because I missed the one on Sunday night when we were practicing choreography with Chester in the hallway. That was a sad moment. I love jam circles.) and Lily and I got to start it. That was a first for me, and super awesome, especially since it was with Lily.

And that's pretty much the end of my Camp Jitterbug weekend.

To sum it up: IT WAS AMAZING.

The classes and instructors were so good. The bands blew me away every night. The competitions were super inspiring. I got to spend time with lots of my favorite people + make a ton of new friends from near and far. Really though, this event wouldn't be the same without all the wonderful people. I love you all and can't wait to do it again next year for the 20th anniversary.

Lots of love,
A very happy Seattle lindy hopper

Jitterbug Weekend with Chester and Evita

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.