Category: 2012 Dance Travel

Soaring Through London

I arrived in London around 1am Thursday, August 2. It was nice to be back and for the first time, I was staying at the Olympics’ host city. My days leading up to my August 12 Aerials workshop were filled with the Olympics. I watched so many events on television. In between those moments, I filmed 3 promo videos for Alba Mengual’s new Madrid swing school and worked a rain filled Olympic Live Site with a London Swing Patrol team.

Somehow I managed to pull myself away from the television and practice aerials with Tanya Stephan, my teaching partner for this workshop. We practiced Friday and Saturday, doing multiple repetitions of all the aerials we would be teaching. There was a sizable (i.e. intimidating) list, but our goal was to keep the class environment safe and energized. Quality would beat quantity.

The August 12 workshops started at noon. We ran through my parkour based dynamic warmup, QMing like human beasts. Then we got into basing and jumping techniques. The aerials gradually built from beginner into intermediate and intermediate plus. Each aerial featured down preps, a variety of up preps and going overs. Applause definitely goes out to all the participants, but especially the spotters for surviving all 5 hours. Everyone did excellent work that afternoon.

Thanks again to London Swing Patrol for making this happen. More video recaps will appear within the upcoming week. Tanya and I were too tired to film an overall video recap. In the meantime, you can view and subscribe to my youtube channel here.

London Plankers

Camp Hollywood 2012

Camp Hollywood was a great event for me. It was great to reteam with my teaching partner, Heather Ballew. Teaching without my regular partner has been difficult for a few reasons, so I was glad to be back in Colorado working and teaching with someone familiar.

We competed in the Open Lindy Strictly, Open Balboa Division, Showcase Division and I competed in the Advanced J&J. The Open Balboa Division went straight to finals and featured a 2 couple chorus battle format.  We placed 5th which was a stunning result in my opinion.

Heather and I made the 5 couple finals in the Open Strictly Division. It was a spotlight format with 12 8’s to each couple. Thanks to someone’s suggestion, we came up with a plank aerial featured in our second outing.

I was very relieved the “1” was already drawn when I selected for Showcase placement. I drew the “2” instead. We had room to breathe and then time to watch everybody else. My pre-routine routine consists of not watching anyone else perform, so I was happy to watch everyone afterward.

I did not place in the Advanced Jack & Jill, but it was a heavily stacked competition with many great dancers. I did better this year than I did last  year. And by that, I mean I showed up instead of jamming at the Tempest Freerunning Academy. I did get a nice compliment afterwards from Mr. Camp Hollywood himself, Joel Plys.

Overall, Camp Hollywood was a great event. It was really good to feel involved again at a national, or rather international, competition. I saw a lot of old friends. It reminded me of how long I’ve been away from the competition circuit. Jonathan Stout’s various arrangements all kicked ass. Tise planked a bit – thank you. I participated in another underground competition. The things I do for Nick Peterson and vintage bathing suit fans. Sheesh!

Recent News from Barcelona/ESDC

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Last weekend was the European Swing Dance Championships, headed by Sharon Davis and assisted by local Barcelona swing dancers. I was mainly attending because I wanted to be at a European lindy hop. ESDC seemed to be the big one and coincided with my current travels. I was also motivated because I enjoy Barcelona and my favorite European spot, Ohla Bar run by Max La Rocca, is here. My final reason is because I do too many blues events and was even asked if I do other dances besides blues. Yes, that question did hurt.

I registered for ESDC early on, originally signing up for the Jack ‘n Jill lindy hop and balboa comps, and balboa strictly with Louise Tangermann. Eventually, I added the All Star Strictly with Kate Patsky from Sydney, Australia. This is what I learned from ESDC.

1. Europe has a great lindy hop scene and I want to visit and dance with more lindy hoppers

2. Only attend ESDC if you’re serious about the competitions. And by serious, I mean you’ve trained a lot with this partner. I trained balboa with Louise in between our blues gigs, even training in Heidelberg where I met Ali and Katja. Training can supplement, but never replace social dancing. My balboa and lindy hop social dancing has been lagging behind other work. It showed this weekend. Also, you might see the announcement of *live music* *killer DJs*. It’s still a competition heavy event. Good luck with your social dancing.

3. Frankie stories still matter. At Ohla Bar, Kevin St. Laurent was recounting a story when Frankie Manning was first demonstrating lindy hop. He’d start on the count he found most interesting and did the most inspiring step as he led a swingout. Each time it was different, uniquely musical. However, it wasn’t something easily teachable, so the swingout was codified, made digestible for the masses. What does this mean to me? Be musical. Get inspired. Dance like no one’s watching.

4. Competition heavy events are like the bad dj we all avoid. I appreciated the long competition intervals solely because I needed those 30-45 minutes to dry my soaking wet clothes. Otherwise, those long waits mentally took me out of the game. Sitting down so often and for so long made me cold. But what about all those awesome competitions and great dancers? Here’s my favorite:

 

Recent News from Zurich, Switzerland

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I’ve been in Zurich, Switzerland for a week. I arrived last Thursday, June 7, to visit a friend and to teach. This was my second time teaching for WestieStage, Zurich’s west coast swing dancing group. They do their lessons in Club X-tra’s main dance hall from 7-9pm and then dance upstairs adjacent to the Zouk room. I taught with Jenny Cooper this time. We covered the regular beginner and intermediate lessons, which are embedded below. We finished the teaching portion with a west coast swing taster for the salsa dancers.

Next up, I’ll be in Barcelona for the European Swing Dance Championships. I’ll be competing in lindy hop and balboa divisions and frequenting my favorite restaurant and bar hidden inside Ohla Boutique Hotel.