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.