Passing the torch and Rocky Mountain Balboa Blow Out 2012

Mind blown, as expected. My mind is always blown after attending a balboa event. I guess that sort of thing happens when you have only attended a few bal events and those few are spread out by years. Okay, so, should you spend the time and money to attend this event in the future? The answer is yes and here is the list of reasons why:

1)      A very well thought out and organized event (Cheers to Sheri this year as the event manager)

2)      Top rate instructors (Mickey Fortanasce, Kelly Arsenault, David Rehm, Bobby White, Kate Hedin, Laura Keat, Jeremy Otth, Heather Ballew, Sylvia Sykes, Denise Phelan, Nick Williams, Shana Worel and Jason Swihart)

3)      Great band

4)      Beautiful dance hall, floor

5)      Inspiring dancers travel this event

6)      Class tracks- kudos for them including a beginning track for advanced dancers(a great way to get non bal dancers to a bal event)

7)      Lunch time discussion

I know that some people might complain about number six, but you know what, tracks are fantastic. They are great for the teachers and student alike because it cuts down on the amount of complaints. This year, for the first time (apparently), they did a level “check” instead of an audition. Basically, if your technique was not up to par in the track that you placed yourself in, they would ask you to move. Instructors don’t place you in a lower level to be mean, they do it because it cuts down your frustration and of those you might partner with. You should trust the instructors; they have many more years of experience as teachers and dancers than you probably do. This IS their job afterall.

Speaking of professionals and our dance culture- I am always impressed with the passion and knowledge that these instructors have for our dance, whether that is lindy hop, balboa or whatever.  These are intelligent people that really, pardon the vernacular, know their shit.  The professional instructors for our dance culture are doing their best to pass on the knowledge so that we, as dancers, can understand our heritage and honor that heritage.  

I see many new dancers get a brief taste of our culture and really not understand anything about it, nor do they seek it. It’s reflected in their attitudes and their dancing skills. It makes my heart weep thinking about it. So, bless the instructors at this event for doing that.  It’s not like there is a class you can take on it, you just need be around to absorb the information. If you have no idea what the hell I am talking about, go and do some research about the history of our dance. Right now. Serious, do it.

I have to say, that as far as learning about our cultural heritage, I am glad that it is coming from the instructors, real dancers that are active in our community, and not from a stuffy professor that has only observed our culture from an “outsider’s” perspective (ha, that is as soap boxy as I am going to get about the evils of academia).  

I was honored to see Denise Phelan and Sylvia Sykes pay homage to Hal Takier(an original balboa dancer) at the Saturday night dance. While talking about Hal, Denise could barely hold it together, she considered him family. It was touching to see and even though I am not as educated on Bal history, I started to get misty eyed myself. There, at this event, were people who knew and cared about the history of balboa and were telling awesome stories about the old timers.

Now Sylvia and Denise are filling the old timer shoes now and are beautifully taking up the torch (and have been for quite awhile now),  passing along the knowledge they have acquired over the years. There was a particular moment during Sylvia’s talk that really struck me (pardon me, this is a bit paraphrased): –“If the old timers were ever to come back, I want them to still be able to recognize the dance” and “that it was important that we preserve the spirit of the dance itself”. That could spark a whole other conversation, but let’s save that for later.

Sylvia and Denise also articulated that balboa was not a dance where you can outwardly see the “coolness” of it. The best part of balboa is interplay between you and your partner; it is all about how it feels. That being said, they also pointed out that if you can do your basics really fucking well it would be impressive, even to non dancers (then Sylvia proceeded to tell us that she worked on it for thirty years). Well, of course crappy basics are boring to watch, especially for an outsider.

Anyway, in the spirit of Sylvia’s soap boxy rants (Hey, her words, not mine) keep the spirit of balboa going and take the time to really understand it- oh, be floaty J

I normally end my blogs with “Swing out and prosper”, but I think it would be appropriate to say in this case:

Toss out and prosper

G

PS I was damn inspired by all of the wonderful dancers at this event and I can’t wait to get out on the bal floor and dance again! 

Recipe for Dance Badassery 2012

Greetings 2012!

New Year resolutions you ask? Yes! Be more consistent with the blog? Check. Start a weekly venue? Check. Make weekly swing dance lessons available? Check. Choreograph more? Check.

So, more on that weekly venue. Warehouse Stomp is going weekly and moving to Friday nights! Be sure to join us every week for Tucson's FIRST weekly venue (not counting Swing Cats). I am hoping that our community will grow by having a stable place that is not university oriented. Not that I don't love the university, but at least the parking will be better. :)

So, as a courtesy to all dancers out there, let me give you a dance recipe that will help you improve your technique, moves, and get closer with the greater dance community.

Recipe for Badassery

Ingredients List:

• Love to dance
• Love for the music (one of the most important ingredients in my opinion)
• Social dance
• Positive perspective and fierceness 
• Lessons for technique
• Travel
• Youtube nerditude; know thy community!

Directions:

Sometimes the love for dance and the love for music is something that you develop. This comes with the investment of  and experience. This is where social dance comes in. Just do it. Do it a lot. Dance. Dance. Dance. There is no such thing as too much social dancing! Take lessons, privates, whatever, those are important to develop technique and whatnot...but it means NOTHING unless you apply it. So, get your butt out there and DANCE!

Traveling is very important. Dance life can get very stale unless you travel. Don't have a ton of money? Our neighbors up in Phoenix are a good place to start. They have dancing seven days a week, so take a road trip up there on occasion and visit them. Also, relatively speaking, Albuquerque and L.A. are not super far either- both driving distance. You can bet your butt that dancing in another city is different but refreshing experience. Save money by carpooling, couch surf at host houses, split hotel rooms, do whatever you need to be frugal. The moral of the story is that if you can leave the state for traveling and get to some of the bigger events- DO IT! 

So, maybe your are like, "What the fuck Gayl? I can't travel. I still don't have money for that crap! Not to mention lack of time to travel." Sure, I know. I have been there. I was a grad student, blah blah blah. Well, there are several options. Some events offer volunteer programs to help offset the cost. But let's face it, that doesn't always work out either, so.... here is where YouTube nerditude and know thy community comes in to play. First, any great lindy event worth their salt publishes their videos on YouTube. Such services allow those of us lacking in travel means to live vicariously through these videos. They inspire us to aspire to learn and there have been many videos that inspired me to attend such events. Learn about the greater community, learn the history, stay informed about current events in our culture! Tucson is a VERY small pond, so get out there and discover our rich culture.

Don't know what to search for? Well, check out lindy blogs and forums for ideas. My two main go to sites areYehoodi and Jerry's FB feed (Like Wander & Pondering -JSALMONTE). Jerry's blog is also linked on my page below. There is a whole world of lindy hop going on as your read this damn blog. That's the beauty of all this lindy mania... as a lindy hopper you share a love for dance and music with people from all over! Almost every city, no matter what country, if the town is a decent size there is a high probability that there is a lindy scene there.

Now for perspective and fierceness. Also long as your dancing is approached with the purpose of having fun, well you will be just fine. Check your ego at the door and just enjoy yourself. Nothing is more of a buzz kill then a snooty lindy hopper. That being said, be fierce about what you are learning. Ask respectful questions in class, get in touch with how you learn, you'll always have a better experience for it. Just remember, no matter what, there is always something to learn from any situation. 

So, get out there and try this recipe for Badassery.

Swing out and prosper!

-G

PS feel free to add anything that I missed!

ILHC 2011 Alternative Judgement

Wowser. The ILHC videos keep getting better every year. The event was sold out this year and the level of dancing was pretty damn amazing. Props and thanks to the organizers. Also a big thanks for  wonderful Patrick Smitz for his high quality videos is in order. With out them, we Tucsonans would not have the opportunity to watch the outside world of lindy. Thanks Patrick!


So, since we didn't get to "live" the event...I have rounded up a small panel of Tucson dancers to do an alternate reality judge panel for the classic lindy showcases for this year's competitions. Why, you ask? Well, just because we are bored out here and wanted to have a little fun.

As a disclaimer to our little fantasy world I would like to point out the obvious of how as "after the fact" viewers, we have some disadvantages and advantages. I must point out that there is something about the aesthetics of watching live performance, which is a moot point for us since we were not actually at the event. However, the judges at ILHC obviously don't have the opportunity to re-watch and debate their choices like we do.

Also, ILHC has what I call "lindy giants", a.k.a. badass lindy hoppers as judges. Feel free to check out the list of judges on the ILHC website.  Seriously, if you don't know who these people are, look them up! While we Tucsonans are not lindy giants (or even lindy specks), but, we are cheeky enough to say "tumble weed" instead of "snow ball". That has to count for something, right? Last, but not least, there is also the fact that like any other art form there is a degree of subjectivity, personal tastes, and "in the moment emotions" that are involved in judging. Plainly speaking, judging is not a science. Phew, now that we have covered our disadvantages and advantages, well, mostly disadvantages...

We chose to judge only the Lindy Hop Classic routines and pick our top 5. Here is the ILHC website description of the competition requirements:

Competitors will display their choreographed creativity without aerials, air-steps, acrobatics and lifts in this division. “On the ground” moves (such as drops, slides, and splits) are allowed. Competitors will select their own music. Routines must be a minimum of two-minutes and a maximum of four minutes in length.

Our judging rubric is as follows: Execution, choreography, showmanship

Tucson's ILHC 2011 Panel Information

Now, since we did not rank ALL participants, AND we only had 4 judges, it is impossible to use relative placement. So, in our case, we are just using an average to determine our ranking.

1st Place: Thomas & Alice
Comments from each Tucson judge were consistently pointing out the creativity, precision, and joy that was seen in their choreography. After all, choreography is the main focus in this competition according to the description. I'll be honest, my first reaction to the video was a giant silly smile plastered on my face. It was an aesthetic experience that left a lasting impression on me.

2nd Place: Kevin & Jo
What can we say? Kevin and Jo are always interesting and polished. They often explore a wide range of dynamics in their dancing, from slow to fast, from soft to hard, and the managed to tell a pretty damn cool story. Why 2nd place you ask with all of the positive feed back? Sometimes, they look TOO polished. Looking too polished can lose some of the energy and edge in a performance.

3rd Place: Skye & Frida
Now, this placement was tricky and a bit controversial for us because we basically worship Skye and Frida's lindy godliness. However, my first reaction to the video was "sheesh, I have already seen this before". Their routine looked like they were social dancing, instead of performing a choreographed routine. I also saw micro execution errors as well. Frankly, I was in want of something new and refreshing, and they just didn't deliver. Why did they still place third with all of my negative comments? Because they still danced like freaking bad asses!

Reading Jerry's blog on how they basically slapped the routine together further validates our initial feelings on why we felt our lack of enthusiasm for their choreography. I promise, we did these rankings weeks ago, BEFORE Jerry's blog post, and did not sway on our placements.  Are they still the reigning king and queen of swing? Hell yeah.

Conclusion and Tid Bits
Tucson's placements for these couples are not that different than the official placement. Skye/Frida and Thomas/Alice are just swapped. One big difference, however, was that none of the judges placed Thomas/Alice first. Zip. Nada. Howard and I speculate the reason for that is the amount of stops and lack of swing outs in their routine. Hmmm, food for thought. Should a minimum amount of swing out content be established for a competition? Oh, wait ALHC...let's not go there. So, it goes with out saying that the ILHC judges have contrasting tastes. Like I said earlier, there is not a science to judging artist competition.

On another note, I must say something about Peter and Naomi. Their routine was sophisticated, graceful, and a damn fine example of dancing mastery. In some ways, equally on par with Skye and Frida as far as dance skill goes. Unfortunately, smooth grace seems to be out of style these days. But, Peter and Naomi, you guys are some smooth mother fuckers.

Also, I have to tip my hat to one of the Korean couples. Soo Chan Lee and Hyung Jung Choi made it to the sixth spot on my list. Their choreo was adorable and executed well. So, go KOREA!

If you are curious about the Tucson panel's rankings for the top five, here is the full disclosure.

Katy: 1st Thomas/Alice, 2nd Skye/Frida, 3rd Kevin/Jo, 4th Nicholas/Mikaela, 5th Juan/Sharon
Kat: 1st Thomas/Alice, 2nd Kevin/Jo, 3rd William/Maeva, 4th Skye/Frida, 5th Mike/Laura
Howard: 1st Thomas/Alice, 2nd Skye/Frida, 3rd  Kevin/Jo, 4th Peter/Naomi, 5th Nicholas/Mikaela
Gayl: 1st Thomas/Alice, 2nd Peter/Naomi, 3rd Nicholas/Mikaela, 4th Kevin/Jo, 5th Skye/Frida


Anyways, I am looking forward to what ILHC will bring us next year. Are you? :)

Swing out and propser,

G

PS Soooo sorry for missing my usual beginning of the month deadline. I will endeavor to be more timely for October's post, which will most likely be on the Arizona Swing Jam.