Many people will be suprised to discover that The American Lindy Hop Championships took place last weekend. In case the suspense was killing you, results are online.
ULHS 2009 Videos: Sunday Evening Competitions
Solo Blues Music played by: The Loose Marbles
Preliminary Round
Final
Dancers in order of appearance:
- Dax Hock
- Nikki Marvin
- Sara Deckard
- ??? (Anyone know?)
Preliminary Round Heat 2
Final
Dancers in order of appearance
- Michale Darigol & Sara Deckard
- Giselle Anguizola & Chance Bushman
- Tommy Blacharz & Annie Trudeau
- Todd Yannacone & Alice Mei
- Ramona Staffeld & Peter Strom
Winners: Ramona Staffeld & Peter Strom
AIR pt. 13: Give It Up, Turn It Loose
The most important creative decision concerning the Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown had nothing to do with the format of the competitions. The event director, Amy Johnson, not only allowed people to film the contests with their own cameras, but also to let them distribute their footage freely. It was probably the most significant marketing idea in modern Lindy Hop history.
Q & A with Skye Humphries pt. 2
What are some of the “core moves” of the Lindy Hop?
The basic of the Lindy Hop is the Swing Out: a circular step done in eight beats in which the partners come together and then move apart. I have never seen anything so perfectly put together, there is no more versatile or meaningful basic in any dance I’ve seen.
ULHS 2009: More Impressions From Not That Much Closer
Just a few more thoughts on the ULHS footage that's currently online. I don’t have much to add to my initial reactions to the Choreography Showcase, Solo Jazz, and Jack n Jill.
But I should mention how impressed I was with the Ultimate Lindy Hop Combo and the job they did for the Choreography Showcase. They played the diversity of material they were asked to do incredibly well given the time constraints.
I’m also glad that the New Mexico team, Groove Juice Special, won the Showcase. They had a great energy to their performance that still comes across pretty well over video.
ULHS 2009 Videos: Saturday Evening Competitions-Solo Jazz and J & J
All contests music by Uncle Jack's New Orleans Dance Orchestra. Solo Jazz
Preliminary Round
Final
Dancers in order of appearance
- Hurley François
- Vincenzo Fesi
- Sarah Decker
- Jana Grulichova
- Bobby Bonsey
- Ramona Staffeld
Heat 2
Winners: Vincenzo Fesi & Alice Mei
ULHS 2009 Videos-Friday Choreography Showcase
The Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown Choreography Showcase Live music for all performance provided by a special band put together for ULHS, appropriately known as the Ultimate Lindy Hop Combo.
All performers had to submit a sample of their music and a video of their performance about a month before the event to give the musicians time to create and rehearse a complimentary arrangement. All performers were given time to rehearse with the musicians on Thursday and Friday of the event.
Winners: Groove Juice Special
Cats In The Corner
Laura Glaess & Mike Roberts
Sister Kate
Alain Wong & Marie N'diaye
Philly Bloomers
Q & A with Skye Humphries Pt.1
How were you introduced to dancing in general? Were you a trained dancer before going into swing? If swing was your first exposure to dance, what drew you to it/ made you want to become a dancer.
I always had an interest in movement- though not necessarily dancing.
I used to want to be a clown. I loved the old movies of Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Keaton, and Harold Lloyd. My brothers and I would recreate slapstick scenes, walks, and a million other little motions we watched in those old movies. I loved the way those guys moved, I loved the way their specific movements felt when I watched them and later when I tried them myself.
ULHS 2009 Videos: Battle Footage
Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown: A Lindy Hop Battle This year The Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown lived up to its name by adopting a tournament style format, whittling down couples until there was only one left.
Random DCenes: Dark Eyes . . . Toniiight
I wandered through the National Law Enforcement Officers’ Memorial on my way to Chinatown last night. I do that often enough that it didn’t take me very long to notice how unusually bright it was. I noticed them replacing many of the light fixtures around the memorial not long ago. Apparently it’s been a long time coming, because not only was everything brighter, but light was coming from little niches that I didn’t even know were supposed have them. As I popped out of the other side, I noticed that F St. by the Verizon Center was blocked off. Judging from the police and tents, I thought that it was some sort of emergency preparedness drill until I spotted skate boarders casually rolling past the tents.
Flashback to about a year ago, doing the same walk and finding the same scene. Not nearly as pleasant as it was last night. Raining lightly, but heavy enough to warrant an umbrella. The sounds of Fats Waller’s band playing the moody “Dark Eyes” on my ipod.
As I approached the tents, I smelled them before I noticed them moving. Horses. Lots of them. A sign for the Washington International Horse Show hung on the fence separating the passerby's from the makeshift corrals.
I stopped for a moment under a street lamp and got a better view of those handsome creatures. I made eye contact with one of them and I forgot where I was going for a moment, wondering what I was looking at. Fatigue? Sadness?
Back to last night. I'm greeted by the same scene. Horses at rest. Humans at work. Stalking the stalls, shuffling hay, checking out the competition.
No ipod for me , but I still hear music as I approach the metro. Less Russian inspired Harlem jazz, but instead more like early 80’s r & b.
“Toniiiiiight I celebrate my lovvvve for you . . .”
There’s something off. It's not a recording. Someone is singing. And not very well.
I round the corner into the metro entrance to find a guy playing a keyboard on the sidewalk. A Middle-aged Asian man. He’s singing a duet with a much older black gentleman whose reading words from over the piano players shoulder. A similarly older Asian woman tries to get me to stop. She doesn’t need to waste energy since the sheer surrealness of it all keeps me from ignoring them. Its only when she tries to convince me to sing the next song that I snap out of it to peel myself away and hit the escalator down.
“What I want most to doooooo Is to get close to yoooooou
Toniiiiiiiight . . .”
