Month: August 2012

London Training – Hitting the Streets

Every time I return to Colorado after a teaching stint, I visit my chiropractors, Drs. Kenneth Kao and Rachel Yan of Vital Balance Chiropractic. And every time I go I hear versions of the following:  “wow, you’ve lost muscle mass.” Before I began journeying as a full time dance instructor, I was training constantly at Apex Movement in Englewood, Colorado. I would leave work at 3pm, grab gym clothes at home, eat a quick meal at Whole Foods (pizza), and do crossfit followed by freerunning or ninja warrior class followed by parkour class followed by open gym (maybe). I think Apex labeled my going away picture with the acknowledgement that I’m a psychopath.

However, I haven’t been keeping up with my training. I’m able to maintain my fitness to a degree, but not having weight equipment limits my growth. My training is necessary to maintain longevity, prevent injury, and to protect susceptible muscle groups like my knees and back. I have to find creative ways to use my urban environment for workouts. Fortunately, London is a great playground. Here are some of the ways I train.

Broadjumps and Forward Quadrupedal Movement

Jumping and Landing

Hanging Wall Pullups

Aerial Recovery

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Zurich West Coast Swing

This past Wednesday I hopped over briefly to Zurich, Switzerland. It was WestieStage’s first class day back from summer vacation. I was prepared with my single backpack and cuban heels. That’s right, I was sporting proper west coast swing footwear for the first time in over a year. Since I mostly travel for blues and lindy hop, there has never been much need to pack those shoes. However, this European journey also includes west coast swing workshops in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Classes at Salsa Mania went well Thursday. The Beginner class didn’t have any true beginners, but we still practiced push breaks (or sugar pushes). WestieStage is on a 6 week rotating schedule where each week features one of six fundamental basics.  We focused on improving their technique and threw some sugar tucks in there also.

The Intermediate class continued the push break theme as we played with right to left hand holds. This video also includes a final move that we didn’t get to in the class. It was a great class, featuring many local Zurich dancers and some out of towners. Overall, it was a great quick visit to Zurich. I hope to be back later this year or next.

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!