Sideways 2013 – Loose in Lucerne

Look at us! Sideways in Lucerne. This was my second year teaching for Sideways, ran by Judith Estermann and Nadine Haller. Sideways is billed as a social dance event for lindy hoppers and blues dancers. There is much social dancing and us instructors are asked to focus on dance material immediately applicable to the social floor.

I arrived Wednesday morning, allowing me much time to explore Lucerne. Last year, I flew from Melbourne to Zurich and took the train to Basel to train with Louise Tangermann. I didn’t arrive in Lucerne until Friday evening. This year I taught with Alba Mengual and we planned everything my last week teaching for Big Mama Swing in Madrid. Freedom to wander Lucerne!

Lucerne has amazing structures starting with the ramparts, towers, colorfully understated stone houses. Then you have the bridges, covered bridges with trellis paintings, the water, and mountains. It’s a gorgeous city and I hope the other teachers and students were able to enjoy similar tourist moments.

This is one of my favorite pictures from the weekend. Hearty bread, Sbrinz and Luzerner Rahmkäse cheese. The organizers went out of their way to take care of us instructors and the weekend’s guests. This was illustrated through carefully prepared dinners, potato fennel thai curry soup and cupcakes on Saturday, great venues, the Sideways Mile, and decor.

Classes were fun, the students great. We had a lot of good questions, including some particularly well timed questions in the Intermediate Lindy Hop (my only lindy hop class). I only wish that class had been as great at rotating as they were asking questions (kidding!). Themes that were running rampant during class were: reminding ourselves how we independently move and perfecting that movement when needed, connecting our bodies to our center, leaders initiating then followers following through and together finishing.

I also felt I was able to connect better with the other instructors. It helped that I could attend the teachers dinner Friday night. Over three hours, we enjoyed three different courses and snacks (thanks, chefs Thomas and Dieter!). It gave us great time to talk and find out more about each other. The teacher lineup was quite diverse, bringing instructors together from the US, Lithuania, Australia, UK, Greece, Switzerland, and Spain. And after hanging out with Martynas and Egle, I might have to visit Vilnius.

Sideways also featured quite a few favorite moments including the pictured David Zilkha rolling what became a giant snowball. Other favorites include: 1. Alba telling the advanced class they weren’t too bad for intermediates (someone didn’t pay attention to the schedule). 2. Scott Cupit actually getting Martynas’ intended fake birthday jam correct. They were both left wondering how Scott guessed right. 3. Swinging out to kickass swinging music (thanks Martynas, Kevin, and Scott). 4. Visiting Mt. Rigi again via boat and cog railway 5. Oh and I built a snowman on Mt Rigi and planked it. Go me. Cheers and here’s to more adventures.