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.

Camp Hollywood 2011

Ahhh Tucson, I am back from my dance shenanigans!

I think this was the 14th year that Camp Hollywood has run? It is driving distance! I am not sure why other Tucson people didn't come (except for you Rob).  Anyways...

This is the second year in a row that Howard and I have gone. Good god, the music ROCKED this year. It was definitely better than last year.  Of course this is largely due to Jonathan Stout, but the icing on the cake was the Careless Lovers, you know, the Black Coffee peeps. Yeah, late night live music rocked. Anyways, enough gushing about music. Really, there is nothing more joyful for me that swingin' music. It is definitely the reason why I dance.

Plus, the competitions were fun to watch! We made Bal finals. Good god I was terrified, but psyched at the same time. Great experience and now we are fired up to get better. I also made JnJ finals, which of course I blew big time. But still, it felt good to make finals. Bottom line, we had a blast. Plus, I love watching comps! Check out Morgan and Emily's awesome Mario NES homage. Super creative and it sparked nostalgia from everybody. I loved it!





Also, check out Alice and Peter! So creative and cute. Story telling in choreography at its best.




Oh, this video is for Bill Morse! Haha, lindy hoppers are multiplying!!!



Anyways, there are a ton of other videos on Youtube if you are interested. Browse at your discretion.

Not only did I get to dance all weekend and hang out with super awesome friends (thanks to my roomies Debra and Booty!), but I made it up to SF to dance. Great times in CA. :)

Anyhow, I am super pumped to do another swing event. We might be going to ULHS, we shall see.

Swing out and prosper!

-G

PS Tucson, get ready, a Bal venue is the works :)