I was perusing the Herrang teacher line up just to check it out even though I don't have any plans on going. Being the center of the Lindy-verse, it's a just interesting to see who they're bringing in each year. I have no plans to do another analysis like I did last year, but I noticed a few new names including Laura Glaess & Mike Roberts, Alice Mei & Thomas Blacharz, and Sarah Breck & Dax Hock. One name that jumped out at me was Marty Lau, which is funny because I was talking about him with a few friends just this weekend. He's teaching Balboa during week three with Sylvia Sykes.
Then & Now: Jo & Nick
Hopefully I’ll talk a bit about the Lone Star Championships by next week. Until then I thought I’d point out Jo Hoffberg’s dance with Nick Williams in the Invitational Jack & Jill of that event.
Live to Suck
Sarah Breck and Dax Hock were on the television show "Live to Dance" recently. Unfortunately for them, Dax injured his back before their performance in the semi-final round. However, I think it probably was for the best because it gave the judges something to talk about other than the dance itself.
The Blue Dress Dance
Over on Swungover, Bobby ventures once more into the breach of dance analogies by busting them all out. They're all fun, but I thought I'd put this one in context.
The Spotlight On the other side, these are the dances where the leader gets an electric follower setting everything around them on fire. A smart leader just takes a back seat, becomes the dancing equivalent of a hype-man, and lets the magic happen. A few will understand exactly what I mean when I say “Nina Gilkenson Blue Dress Dance.”
He's referring to Nina dancing with Marty Klempner in the Cats' Corner Division (Champions Strictly Lindy Hop) at The 2007 American Lindy Hop Championships. And yes, they won.
I remember riding back down to DC with Naomi Uyama, which is about a 7-8 drive from Stamford, CT. Every once in awhile, no matter where we were in our conversation, we would just suddenly stop and say something like , "Damn, that Blue Dress Dance was amazing." Over and over again, the whole way down.
Favorite Performances 2010: Introduction
There really is no method to my favoriting madness. The actual dancing in a video doesn't necessarily have to be good for me to like it. Given the volume of videos I see, I tend to appreciate effort more than execution. Random things will often jump out at me in a clip that have nothing to do with dancing. I’ll even favorite videos of dancing I don’t like if only to watch it later to make sure I don’t. I have some vague hope that I would help compile some sort of sociological/anthropological/psychological study/historical record of our scene. Until then I’ll have to settle for “Hey look! This is eff’n kewl!” along with the occasional wardrobe malfunction and people falling down.
Proof
I remember back in ye olden days of the early aughts and surfing Lindy Hop message boards, trying to figure out who knew what they were talking about was such a pain in the ass. Often times people who were actually knowledgeable would be the least serious commenters. Rayned Wiles would answer half the time in verse while Reuben Brown delighted in threading the line between snark and trolldom. I remember thinking that Peter Loggins and Jenn Salvadori needed editors or be a bit less quick on the draw with their posts and how polite Mike Faltesek was when he was slamming you and everything you stood for. Out of frustration with less knowledgeable posters, David Rehm half jokingly devised a whole merit system where people would only be allowed to post on a topic based on their dance experience.
Your Dancing Sucks But This Post Isn't About That
I'm a big fan of Bug's Question of The Day which is a Facebook page started by a dancer named Bug Brockway. It's a pretty simple concept: She poses a dance related question and people chime in. A question from last weekend read:
Why is there such a resistance to fusion dancing and how can we fix the way fusion is perceived?
This isn't the first time I've seen a variation of this question asked over the years, and the initial answers were pretty unsurprising. “Outsiders just don't understand,” “Purists hate new innovations,” etc. Pretty much par for the course for these kinds of discussions.
Connection Collision
I'm going to start off with this new clip because it amuses me to no end. All building on a point I was making last week. Nina Gilkenson & Nick Williams at a recent workshop in Kansas. Two of the best dancers in the world, not necessarily used to dancing with each other and showing it. The story is all on Nina's face.
Connection Through Culture
My parents visited me this weekend which gave me a lot of time to think about a few things. Dance related and otherwise. My mother cooked dinner because she bought me this new fangled cooking machine and wanted to show me how to use it. And by show me, she just did everything herself as my dad and I watched a movie. Even though we were far away from where they raised me, I found myself immersed in familiar sights, smells, and sounds. My parents speak English fairly well. My mother's is better than my dad's. But they mainly speak Pangasinan or Tagalog to get their point across to close friends and relatives or just to each other. It used to annoy me growing up. Not so much anymore. I've come to appreciate what it means to be able to fully express yourself in the most comfortable way.
Video Review: Jo & Peter Invitational Jack & Jill ILHC 2009 and ILHC 2010 coverage.
I thought about posting ILHC videos like I did for 2008, but Dave over at Jazzpirations already did that. Instead, I thought I might as well talk about one particular dance by Jo Hoffberg and Peter Strom from last year that caught my eye a few months ago.