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

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: 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!

Camp Jitterbug 2017

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!

Seriously though. I didn't want the night to end. 

B'ham Swing Jam 2017

Photo via Natalie Lang

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!

Here's a playlist of all the videos I took:

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!

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!

Goodbye 2016, Hello 2017

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!

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: 11/11 Edition - Feeling Confident

I have to say, I was mostly planning on just surviving Friday night's classes as I ended up with a schedule change at work that had me working on Friday (and since I'm in retail I'm on my feet the whole day). The plan was to make it through both classes and not social dance, but not only did I pull through both lindy and bal classes, I was actually doing pretty well and ended up saying for an hour of dancing afterwards, despite the fact that I had to be up at 5:30am the following morning. But ya know, swing dancing is worth it and glad I did.

The Lindy class went really well. We've been working a lot on refining our technique in regards to pulsing, connection, etc. And for me I'm still trying to remember to take small steps *facepalm* It's a never ending struggle people. After that we learned some faux-Charleston and some variations on it.

However balboa was really the highlight of classes for me last night. First off, the other girl from last week didn't show, so it was just me and one other guy. So lots of one on one feedback which is awesome. We started off by practicing material from last week and getting more comfortable: some basics, come arounds, lolly kicks, and turns. Honestly I was surprised how natural it was starting to feel after just two weeks of class. Definitely still in the have-to-think-about-whats-happening-after-every-single-movement phase, but actually starting to flow. After that we worked on a few different turn variations before moving on to crab walks. Dun, dun, dunnnnn. Yeah, my crab walks are anything but good at this point. We started off doing them to the (followers) right. That wasn't to bad, other than the fact that you're only moving forward/backward one step before switching directions kinda throws me off. Then we decided to reverse the direction of the crab walks and that was definitely more challenging, especially since you A) can't do a full basic before, which confuses my brain at this moment in my Bal life. And B) switching what foot's going up and down vs across feels so unnatural! Then they decided to have us do a basic, 8 counts of crab walks, basic, then 8 counts of crab walks in the opposite direction. It was that point in class when my brain pretty much exploded. But hey, I tried, and after a few attempts I had definitely improved, though it was nothing close to proper.

After that I debated staying for the dance and staying obviously won. My feet definitely hurt, but they actually weren't any worse than the week before, which was surprising since I had already spent all day on my feet. The dancing started and I think I ended up dancing every song, which isn't hard to do. Highlights were definitely the first song; I just felt like I was following really well and I felt like my swing outs and turns were really good. Then there was the one dance I did balboa and it actually went really well. I had a couple small fumbles, as to be expected, but I was able to keep up well.

The best part is that I'm finally starting to feel confident on the dance floor. Until recently I've always felt a bit timid when social dancing, but now I'm feeling comfortable which makes it even more enjoyable. 

Social Dance: 11/4 Edition - Beginning Bal & Wearing Heels

Last night the November classes started, and I'm taking two of them; Lindy 102: 6 and 8 Count Transitions along with Balboa 101.

Lindy is going pretty well; we worked on promenades, which went pretty well. My biggest issue, and this relates to almost all parts of lindy for me, is taking too big of steps. My instructor is always getting after me for this one! I really have to focus and remember to take small steps; when I do it makes a world of a difference, it's just been challenging to build that habit. We also worked on our pulsing and getting the timing perfect with the music.

Right after lindy I have balboa. There are only three of us students, so there's a lot of one on one time with the instructors. We started of with close position and the basic footwork. And then the footwork that you use before going into open position and lolly kicks. There's something really fun about saying "lolly kicks". I'm not sure what it is, but I think I like saying it more that actually doing them. Ha! After my first ever bal class I have come to the conclusion that:

A) Dancing in heels is going to take a lot of conditioning before my feet don't hurt. I don't wear heels normally at all, so my feet were in a decent amount of pain after the hour class. Slowly but surely I'll be building up my heel stamina.

B) That I'll be practicing the foot work every waking moment that I happen to be standing. My co-workers are going to be so confused at first, but hey, gotta get that step-step-hold-step pattern cemented in my brain as soon as possible!

My feet are forever grateful that there is a half hour between when the Balboa class ends and social dancing starts. Not sure if I would have survived past midnight otherwise!

Social dancing went really well. I'm finally starting to get comfortable with my swing outs (*cough*smaller steps*cough*) and since I'm getting more comfortable with those, I'm finally starting to remember to throw those swivels in. Slowly but surely. But I definitely feel like I'm starting to improve a lot with my lindy.

So there were a few times when I'm off casually to the side practicing that bal footwork on my own, you know, gotta get that pattern suck in my brain. Apparently doing that declares to the room that you wanna dance balboa, as I kept getting asked to dance that. Though that definitly wasn't my intention, getting to practice it on the social floor several times was good practice, even though I kept fumbling as I barely knew what I was doing!

Another awesome part of the night was that I got to witness my first jam circle which was so much fun to watch! I can only imagine how crazy those are at big events; watching a bunch of our local dancers show off there best stuff was pretty fabulous!