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.
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
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!
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!
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!
