"How do I become a professional lindy hopper?"

I am often asked this question when I teach at events in the US, and it’s often by the people who I would least expect.

I really enjoy being asked this question, but I don’t really know how to field it. I can recount my experience about how I started, what I spent my time doing, and skills I wish I had picked up along the way, but I don’t know that if someone had the same experience that it would mean they could become a professional lindy hopper.

Whatever. This is what I tend to say; the content is serious, but it's said semi-sarcastically (as most of the things I say are):

- LEARN as much technique ASAP so that when practicing, you are building “good” muscle memory vs. “not as good” muscle memory

- SOCIAL DANCE a lot

- TRAVEL to dance. I cannot stress that enough - if want want to go pro, you need to travel. There is so much great dancing going on and you should be there in the thick of it. Get out there!! (Don't forget to enroll in a Frequent Flyer Program - I like Skyteam, but have membership with United Airlines as well. If you want to go pro, assume you're globe trotting on a regular basis)

- TECHNIQUE - keep working on your basics. Technique, technique, technique!!!

- CREATE - choreography. Learn to choreograph quickly and work with your strengths. This helps if you want to do a showcase or classic, or are putting jam material together.

- COMPETE - people/judges need to familiarize themselves with you by seeing you. Familiarity breeds attraction, so get familiar!!

- CROSS-TRAIN - protect your tool (your body). Just dancing every day isn't going to keep you in shape the way cross training will. Lift weights, run on an elliptical, stretch, do pilates, P90x (and look like this), or whatever, but do something other than lindy, charleston, and aerials to keep your body in shape.

- GO VIRAL and get your stuff on Youtube. It’s a fabulous tool to get you and your name out there. And make sure you label your videos properly; if you have the greatest clip in the universe but people can’t find it, it won’t matter much.

- POSSE - get a group together so you travel in a pack. Show up places together and throw down!

- COSTUMES - find something you (and your posse) can wear that will represent you. Find you signature style (i.e. Ninjammerz - all black, white shoes, white tie, white belt)

- acquire a NOVEL SKILL - if you and that group of friends of yours decided you want to put on a show, you’ll need “Spacer Skills”. This is a skill that (hopefully) requires less energy, can be done in a variety of costumes, and creates a breather for the audience. A perfect example: Fatima from the Harlem Hot Shots, creating rhythms while brushing her teeth.

- BODY MOVEMENT - is uber important! Take other dance classes, check yourself in a mirror, dance solo, learn to point your toes, do whatever, but do it!

- TEACH - people will most likely want to learn from you, so figure out what you are doing, and start teaching. Learn to teach, and then people can fly you out places so that you can influence and inspire their scene.

- COMPUTER SKILLS - having web skills will greatly help you out. Get a website together (or blog), keep it current, post videos, learn to edit music, etc

- DANCE - dance with people, lots of people, and have fun!!!!

So yeah, I say something along those lines when I am asked. So all you out there who want to go pro, look at the list every day, then go practice, buy some keds to dance in, and rock it Jack Black Style.

ILHC 2008 - Showcase - Kevin and me

Here you go!!!

Highlights of ILHC

This was the most well run event I have ever attended. The people at the registration desk were very quick, efficient, and nice, as well at the people over seeing the competition side of things (thank you Tony and Aurelie). When there was an issue, things were resolved there on the spot, instead of having to deal with more people than necessary. There was no bullshit. It was lovely.

Competitions ran on time. I think there was one competition we ran a tad behind on, but only by 10 minutes or so. It was amazing - I've never seen lindy hoppers be so punctual! The dance floor was great, the hotel rooms were nice, and there was lots of food within a 3 minute walk from the hotel. Fucking sweet. And let's not forget the music: it was great all weekend long and the sound was nice and full. I applaud everyone who made that event as wonderful as it was.

Ok, now to the juicy stuff, and in no particular order:

The Junior Division
I cried. I totally cried. The first couple came out and I lost it when Derrick did the first move. While watching Derrick and Sioban, it finally struck me why children are truly such little treasures: they mean the future. There is a possibility that if a child learns something, then that "something" has a chance to be past down. Derrick and Sioban mean there is a future for lindy hop. I think everyone shed a tear while they were dancing; I don't know if it was for the same reasons, but nonetheless, we were all moved by them. Here they are:



The Solo Charleston Division

One name, two words: Marty Klempner.
One color, and a five piece outfit: a red zoot suit.
One dance, twelve dancers: the Big Apple.
Now watch:



One word: Truckin'.


I have to give props to Max and Annie as well. I give them "The Best Use of Props in a Showcase" award, hands down. Dax threw Max a hat in the middle of the routine, then Annie does the Flying Lotus and takes the hat from Max, whereby placing it on her head, and then Max steals it back. All done in one shot. They didn't even need a back-up plan! Check it out:



Finally, I must give mad props to Stefan and Bethany. They are such an inspiration and they thrown down. They never compromise their style, and the just DANCE. They are my movement heros (and will appropriately be at Inspiration Weekend this Labor Day): Just watch them:



Otherwise, I am super proud of me and Kev doing two brand new routines in about 2 weeks. We've never done that before, so it's a first for us. At some point we are hoping to see our showcase, so if you see it first, send me a link to it! Oh yeah, and I took 2nd in the Charleston contest and I have been out of the solo dancing loop for some time now. I give myself 2 pats on the back.

ILHC Competition Results

Champions Lindy:
1 - Nick Williams & Carla Heiney
2 - Max Pitruzezlla & Annie Trudeau
3 - Jeremy Otth & Laura Keat

Open Lindy Strictly:
1 - Juan Villafane & Sharon Davis
2 - Jamie Cameron & Crista Seipp
3 - Carl Nelson & Joanna Lucero

Showcase:
1 - Max Pitruzzella & Annie Trudeau
2 - Nick William s& Laura Keat
3 - Kevin St. Laurent & Emily Hoffberg
4 - Stefan and Bethany

Classic:
1 - Zack Richard & Carla Heiney
2 - Dax Hock & Alice Mei
3 - Kevin St. Laurent & Emily Hoffberg

Invitational J&J:
1 - Max Pitruzzella & Bethany Powell
2 - Todd Yannacone & Annie Trudeau
3 - Dax Hock & Marie Mattsson

Advanced J&J:
1 - Stephen Jean & Laura Glaess
2 - Jamie Cameron & Crista Seipp
3 - Mike Roberts & Kate Hedin

Team:
1 - Northern Lights
2 - Team Canada
3 - Hot Mess

Solo Charleston:
1 - Hurley (from FL)
2 - Emily Hoffberg
3 - Juan Villafane

Pro-Am:
1 - Lee Tucker & Kelly Arsenault
2 - Andrew Thigpen & Emily Hoffberg
3 - Abigail Browning & Nick Williams

Juniors:
1 - Ian Herrick & Ellie Hanus
2 - Derrick Summerville & Sioban Tompkins
3 - Catalino Lopez & Sasha Cross

Cabaret:
1 - Kelly Arsenault
2 - Rockstep Brothers (Kevin St. Laurent & Juan Villafane)
3 - Lady with the Fan (Sharon Davis)

Preparing for ILHC

OMG OMG OMG! There is sooooooooooooo much to do!!!!

Kev and I are trying to finish our Classic Routine and just started on our Showcase Routine. This is super stressful because we need to finish both, and polish them by this weekend, and I don't know if we can get all the work done that we'd like to have done.

We've been doing 2 hours on and 2 hours off at our dance studio. In the 2 hours off, Juan and Sharon are polishing their Classic and finishing their Showcase. OMG, there is so much going on in the house too. So so so.... in our "down time" we are still coming up with ideas so when we have the space, we can actually dance it.

There is not enough time in the day to choreograph 2 routines, watch the Olympics, prepare material for classes, teach group classes, and privates. And spend time with your significant other. Oh my word.

Well, that's the rant for the day. More after ILHC. I am sure we are going to pull something together.

Cheers.

Wicked Lindy

The Drzewiczewski 's throw two awesome events each year - the first is Boston Tea Party and the second is Wicked Lindy. Check out the highlight reel:



And yes, if you were wondering what some of the was, it was a 1998 Neo-swing swing jam!!!! The instructors had their J&J and then Steve (I presume it was his idea) made sure it was a jam that would always be remembered.

I danced with Peter Strom in the instructional J&J and had an awesome time. During the all-skate at the end, he tried to poke my eye out, but luckily I blinked so hard I caught his finger before it could do any damage. But we had a make-up moment when Prince came on and I got to kiss his cheek. AND THEN we jammed like swing dancers from '98!!!
But truly, the highlight of the Instructors J&J was Marty and Alice. Marty did some awesome trucking and Alice followed right along. If the clip gets posted, I'll link it, but otherwise, start looking for it!!!

It was an awesome weekend of fun and games. Here are some of the bloopers:



And Marty did get his knickers taken off of him.

Driving to and from Wicked Lindy....

.....was somewhat stressful and terribly time consuming.

We rented a Chrysler 300 for the drive so that Juan, Sharon, Kevin and I had enough space for us, our luggage, and some food for the weekend. It was rather roomy, but apparently had no pick up. Kev and Sharon were the drivers for the weekend, so Juan and I got to take it easy sleeping in the back.

The drive from Pittsburgh to New York took us six hours. We stopped through NY so we could get our hair done at Laicale, Kevin's sister's salon. The next morning, we didn't get up at 8am, like we were supposed to, so we were running late (about 3 hours). We wanted to be out the door at 9am, but we got up at 10ish, had breakfast at a darling cafe downstairs, stopped by a photo shoot for Kev's sister's new clothing line, and then headed off. By leaving around 12:30pm we got stuck in traffic an hour outside of Boston. Traffic sucks. A lot. And it also started to rain. Rain and traffic together really sucks. To top that off, we were running late and were most likely going to miss our class. And what really did us in was the fender-bender we got into. The people in front of us were driving along at a slow pace of 20mph and then all of a sudden slammed on their brakes. We would have stopped in time had we not hydroplaned into the car in front of us, and that car into the one in front of them.
After dealing with insurance companies and the lot of them, we decided to stop somewhere and get some real food. We were hungry and tired, so it seemed like a great idea. We pulled off at the next rest stop and looked around for food. We saw a Subway, but wanted something more substantial. Unfortunately, there wasn't a whole lot in the area and were about to give up until we saw a chinese food restaurant. We assumed it would be good food because it was in a nice neighborhood and was most likely a good hole-in-the-wall sort of place. We were so very, very wrong. The food was super nasty and super greasy. What a mistake.

In total it took us 14 hours to get from PIT to BOS over the two days. Luckily, we only had a 10 hour drive on our way home, so we felt like we got off easy. Let me say, don't plan to do that much driving unless you are well rested, and really like a road trip. I was fun to be in a renal car, but otherwise, I could have totally skipped on the experience.

Ciao

Camp Hollywood

What an awesome time in LA we had being at Camp Hollywood. The weather was lovely, Hillary (the organizer) took great care of us, and the students were amazing!

We taught some new Flash & Trash, Charleston Challenge, fast lindy, aerials, and Jam Routines and the classes were packed! There were about 150-200 people in our two largest classes (OMG). And everyone was so nice. Not to toot our own horns, but Kev and I were given an impressive amount of positive feedback about our material and our teaching style - it was really nice.

On the competition side of things, Kev and I, along with our buddies Juan and Sharon, cleaned house!

1st place - Advance J&J - Lead - Juan
1st place - Advance J&J - Follow - Sharon
1st place - Showcase - Kevin and Juan
3rd place - Showcase - Kevin and Jo
2nd place - Pro Lindy - Kev and Jo
5th place - Pro Lindy - Juan and Sharon

We had so many trophies that we couldn't take all of them home, especially with the new excess baggage fees.

And a special shout out to Nick Williams and Laura Keat for their showcase piece. It was lovely, innovative, musical, and well performed!

Beantown Camp

This week Kevin and I are at Beantown Swing Camp outside of Boston, MA. We arrived on Thursday, taught a class on rhythms and syncopations, and then had a teacher's meeting where we were fed fresh fruit, ruhgahlas, and nuts and had beer and wine. Nice! That night we hung out with Bobby and Kate and had the BEST time exchanging stories about dancing. We completely lost track of time, and at about 3:30am (whoops) we packed it up and headed back to our dormitory.

On Friday we got up around lunch time, had a great meal and taught tracks 4 and 3. In both T4 and T3 we worked on technique and by the end of the class, people looked like lindy hoppers, instead of good wedding dancers. The highlight of Friday was in T4. There was a student who felt like what we were doing was sooooo elementary and wondered if we were every going to move on. Well, he left class after I corrected (for the 3rd time) how he was (not) leading a triple step and complained to Tony (one of the organizers of Beantown) that we were terrible teachers and that the class was awful. Tony came and told Kevin that we had some complaints and that we needed to do a better job. T4 was a great class and people really enjoyed the material, just as the people in T3 did (and I say this because a number of the students came up and gave us positive feedback). At dinner, Tony came over and apologized for saying anything, and that we were given rave reviews and that people loved our class.
Having a student leave and complain that we are the worst teachers and that the material we were doing was elementary (when they themselves couldn't do it), and then later getting rave reviews from a number of other students is very satisfying. He had the opportunity to improve his dancing and work on his technique and he wasn't ready for it.

After dinner, Kev and I taught T5a some lazy fast and it went over well. Some people were doing exactly what we were looking for, and others were close. After class, we choreographed our routine for T5b (the best of the bunch) in one of the dorm rooms (i.e. tight space) but had a blast doing it. We are doing it to Mainstem by Duke Ellington. After choreographing, Kev went to dance and I went to bed because I was exhausted and was feeling like I was going to start getting sick.

Just as my first night, I didn't get a good night's sleep last night. It has been too cold for me to stay asleep and I have been having weird dreams. Not sure what's up there. But tonight I am going to use Kev's sleeping bag, so we'll see if that makes a difference. Still battling not getting sick; hopefully my efforts will be fruitful.
After Breakfast Kev had a private and then we taught T5b and they rocked it! I am jumping the gun here, but I think that was my favorite class of the weekend.

Oh, and on a general note, Kev and I have been off the hook this weekend. We have been playing off each other seamlessly and the class (i.e. audience) was laughing and playing back. OMG, it's been awesome. We love the campers at Beantown, yes we do.

More later.

New Videos

Greatest DUI, ever



and

The YES dance:

May 6 - We're in Italy!!!

I can hardly put my Italy Experience into words, but what I can say is that I have arrived.

Let’s back up. I woke up at 4:45am and started packing. Kev woke up a little after 5 and after he finished packing, we headed down for breakfast, which was more impressive than dinner. There were pastries, breads, bagels, and cakes; fruit, yogurt, and fresh squeezed juice; waffles, French toast, veal sausage, and eggs; lox, meat, and cheese section. It was the best breakfast I have ever eaten. Bloody amazing. Perhaps we ate more than was necessary, but every bite was out-of-this-world.

After our morning feast we headed over to the airport and checked our luggage in. We were off to Munich and then to Genova. Sweet!!!! This whole situation couldn’t have worked out any better. The flights were easy, security was a piece of cake, and there was internet. Life was looking good.

While we were taking the bus from the plane to the terminal, in Genova, we saw a darling, old couple who turned out to be from the Bay Area. The Missus and I chatted about her and her husband’s adventures and then our luggage showed up. I caught myself looking at the luggage sign; part of it was in English and the other was in Italian. Holy shit Batman, I am in Italy. I am really here!!!
I verbally exploded onto Kevin about how excited I was to be here but had to cool my jets once we exited baggage claim because I didn’t want to startle our new host, Silvia and Bruno. She has dark brown hair that is cut at neck length and is about my height and curvy, and Bruno looks like an Italian Rock-a-billy. They are darling!
Bruno must go back to work so Silvia takes us to her place so we can drop her stuff. Once we arrive, her three dogs happily greet us. They have a 12 y.o. husky, a short haired golden lab, and a new puppy that looks like a mastiff. We eventually get inside after lots of wiggling and petting and the view from her “villa” is amazing! Jaunted green hills stick out for miles and they are peppered with villa with orange-tiled roofs. Just lovely. It’s just as I was hoping it would be.
After dropping of our stuff and doing a quick change, we headed to lunch. Many windy road later we arrived at a place that didn’t look open; however it was overlooking a cliff that had a spectacular view. Here is me and Kevo: (coming soon)

Kev had a salad, some of the best pesto gnocchi ever made and some ice cream. I had a salad, handmade lasagna strips with pesto and Crème Brule, and Silvia has penne with pesto. Apparently everything is handmade there, and pesto is very popular in the region (go figure!) :-D
Ooh, we also talked about government and the Italian government sounds worse than ours! They have a president they compare to Bush (note: this is not a pro-Bush author), and their vice president is a huge racist! He doesn’t like Muslims, Blacks, Jews, Homosexuals, and other minority groups. Apparently they government is trying to do away with abortion and there are no gay rights. Appalling, just appalling. And and and, it’s so expensive to raise children there that there is now a negative population growth. The reason it’s so expensive there is that most things are now privatized meaning there is no help from the government (i.e. no tax breaks or free education). Everything needs to be paid out of pocket: primary school, middle and high school, and a college education cost about what ours does. AND to top it off, most college graduates can’t find work so they learn a trade afterwards. They are most likely going to do some form of manual labor. Wow. Oh, and they are trying to privatize health care too. OMG!! Well, other than all of those details, I’d still love to live in Italy, ride a Vespa, and say “Ciao” while my scarf is blowing in the wind.

After stuffing ourselves, we headed back to the house for a nap. After a few hours of rest, we got up and then went for drinks and tapas. OMG, there is so much food! And people are drinking! Not that that is a problem for me at all, but it seems like alcohol is appropriate to have at lunch, before dinner, at dinner, and then again as a digestive. Wow. But nobody seems to be an alcoholic here. Hmm…..makes me think about American Society….shame we can’t drink responsibly. Note: I am not saying drinking that much (above) every day is responsible; I am purely noting that people in the US seem to either drink like Frat Boys or not drink at all.
After drinking and eating, we headed to go teach class. And what a surprise, we taught people how to lead and follow again. I am kind of feeling like there is a trend here…people are not learning to lead and follow when they learn to dance; however, people are still dancing and having fun, which is “most excellent”. After class, we headed to a pizza joint, and I had the best pizza, ever. OMG, food is insanely good here. Italians really do Italian food!!!! I can’t describe it other than saying that think of the best pizza you’ve had, and it was better than that (unless of course you ate it in Italy). Kevo and I had beers, and I only made it about half way through before I was heavily buzzed.

We are now home and Kevin is watching the first season of Weeds, and I am organizing my Itunes. I have soooooooooo many songs: 38.4 days of music. Wow. That’s completely unnecessary, especially since I listen to the same 4 hours worth of stuff regularly. It’s about 4:15am so it’s time for bed.

Playing Dress up in Kiev

Swinglandia 2008 Theme Party - Traditional



Swinglandia 2007 Theme Party - Africa

May 5 – travel day

Today has been a surprisingly great day.

We found out yesterday that we are flying into the wrong city. Our hosts are in Genoa but we are flying into Bologna. That's a three hour drive from one city to the other. But no problem, we can catch a train. It will take us four hours and cost us 65 euros, but that is a relatively inexpensive solution to our big problem. So that incident could have dampened our spirits, but it didn't.

We left for the Kiev airport via taxi and the drive was easy. There were few people at the airport so going through security was a breeze. We were fed sausage, bratwurst, and mashed potatoes on the plane and they were delicious! Then we arrived in Vienna and it was rather grey and cold out, but the airport had some great places we could do some window shopping at. After we got to our gate, Kev went off in search of food and found that there was free wireless. Sweet!!! And then it started to rain.
It didn’t just rain, it poured. They were big fat drops coming down in sheets. It was incredible. I haven’t seen rain like that in years. And then it thundered. And then there was lightning. It was a beautiful display of Mother Nature flexing her powers.
And then our flight was canceled. Apparently there was a malfunction with some of the wiring on the plane, or something of the sort, so we would be re-booked on the next available flight. Many people were not pleased; however, this potentially provided us with a chance to get rerouted to Genoa without an additional cost to us. A stewardess lead the pack of nixed-passengers to the departure which required us to leave the airport and then reenter it.
I somehow managed to stay at the front of the cue of people so Kevo and I were helped out first. And life just got better and better. Not only were we going to be rerouted the following day to Genoa (albeit we’ll now have a transfer in Munich), but they were going to put us in a hotel, get our luggage for it, and give us food vouchers! Yeah!!! Oh yeah, and the hotel was across the street – 50 feet across the street!! And to top it off, it was a very, very lovely hotel. The bathroom is in my Top 10 List of all time great Hotel Bathrooms, ever.

I watched the news and took and nap while Kev indulged himself by taking a bath. After a wee bit, we headed back to the airport to pick up our luggage and to get free wifi. After about 30 minutes, we headed back to the hotel, got our workout gear on, and headed down to the Wellness Center (i.e. that is code for gym). We did some light cardio and some stretching. Life was good.
But then things took a turn for the worse. My luggage was damp. No, not damp, wet. I would say that 90% of my clothes were wet in some way or another. The bottom and the entire left side of my luggage must have been sitting in a puddle. How depressing. Kev and I were cheery customers and were flexible….why was I thanked with wet luggage? Yes, it was raining cats and dogs, but come on. Sigh. I spent the next half hour hanging up my clothes (t-shirts, performance outfits, pants, and all my socks) around the room. Some of them were over lamp shades, near the tub, and on hangers in the closet or the bathroom. The only hope was that everything would be dry by morning.
We had to move on from this unfortunate moment, so we headed downstairs to eat dinner. OMG, it was lovely. There were three platforms of food: salad bar and mini fixings, hot food, and dessert. Kevin made himself a monumental salad and I grabbed bits and pieces here and there. Highlights: lasagna, grilled vegetables, a breaded tomato thing, pesto-crème vegetables, chocolate pudding, and the satisfaction that I was able to order drinks in German with a flawless accent (the downside of that, of course, is then I was presumed to speak German and then when I was further questioned about something or rather, I couldn’t answer). I felt like I was making progress towards my goal of being a secret agent who, naturally, spoke six languages fluently. Note: I don’t speak any languages fluently….English pending. :-D

Then it was off to bed. We’ll be getting up in less than 5 hours. I will need to repack my luggage, eat, and check my luggage in.

Kiev, Ukraine - Highlights

Many people were taking pictures of us constantly, even when we weren’t doing anything. Kevin and I could be standing talking, or eating, or wiggling, or anything, and a few people would take our picture. I am so grateful I am not famous on a Hollywood level because I am sure it would suck having every move recorded by strangers. It’s weird feeling like any of the small things you do are worth documenting, but that’s exactly what was happening, all weekend long.

The room we stayed in was WAY nicer than the previous one. However, this means that we were royally shafted last year. We also had heat this year (yet we sacrificed our hot water….it’s luke warm at best).

People were sneaking into our classes all weekend long. Perhaps it was because we are foreigners, or hopefully it was because people couldn’t get enough of our material. We would like to assume it’s the latter, but we’ll accept “both” as an answer.

People were totally digging the technique, and we knew this because all the classes were focused the whole time on the material. It was awesome to see people improve so much by the end of a class. In some cases it was night and day. That feeling is what keeps me teaching; I love feeling helpful!

I learned the Slip Slop Shim Sham along with the students and was still able to teach it. And it was tough. I was challenged mentally and physically. I dig it.

We recognize a number of the campers from last year and more of them speak English. I certainly enjoy that because I feel that they have a chance to improve more as Lindy Hoppers because LH is primarily taught in English (I am sure someone could challenge this statement).

Breakfast on Day Three was awesome. Those biscuit/English muffin things rocked my world! I was in such a great mood that day.

Kevin and I got to work on our routine and did some working out. We are pleased that we made time for our routine and to work out this weekend (even though we are working many hours and are very tired).

Kiev, Ukraine – Day Three

We barely got our asses up for breakfast this morning, but I was sooooooooo happy we did. I had an awesome breakfast here last year that was jam with a soft biscuit/crumpet/big English muffin thing and we had it this morning. We ate with Olivia and Natasha and talked about politics while trying to guess which country belonged to which flag on the side of the cereal box.

We taught 2 classes, had lunch, and then worked with the Advance plus group again. We messed their stuff up again!

After class, it was nap time for both me and Kevin. I also decided to skip dinner, because I'd rather sleep, but I ended up still nibbling. Immediately after dinner we taught our taster class.

The taster class was enormous. I had no idea we were going to have that many people. I continue to wonder whether it’s the material we are teaching or that we are foreigners (or that we are so darn funny and personable) that brings people in hordes to our classes. We taught the ballroom lift, the loop-de-loo, and the Jeremy. We would demo the move, give the class some pointers on what to look for, and then let them go. Everybody took what they needed from that class; the lower levels were able to absorb what we gave them while the advance dancer only needed the little we gave because they saw what the move took. Nice. I compared that class to a Disney film: there is content for children and the adults that must take them. The layers; the layers!!

After class we headed back to the room and watched some Talladega Nights and slowly got ready. At about 9:45pm we headed down to office and were give Ukrainian costumes to put on. Kev and I were going to open the show along with a few others. We had to sing a Ukrainian song, and truthfully, it was a little bit of a disaster, but it was fun. After that, we rushed backstage, changed back into our performance clothes, and then we immediately got back on stage and did Swingin’ at the Cotton Club. It went well as usual.
And then for the next hour and half we got to enjoy the show. For me, the highlights of the show were the fillers in between each number. There were four characters: wife, Ukrainian man, priest, and a Muscovite. There were drinking games, kissing games, card games, confusion, the YMCA, a baby mix-up, and so on. The four of them were quite the quadruplets!

Instead of going to bed after the performances like I should have, I ended up chatting in the little Ukrainian room with Olivia & Natasha, Terrance, Kevin, and Katia We chatted about holidays, family differences, public transportation, and military. The conversations I have had with this group have been some of the best in a while; very enlightening.

Kevin and I dragged ourselves back to our rooms by about 2:15am or so. Detective Kevin investigated whether or not we had hot water, and low and behold, we did. He showered and announced the water was hot and therefore I should shower while there was hot water. Even though I was in bed with the lights off, I dragged my booty to the shower for a warm rinse, and washed out my performance clothes. That was such a great shower.

Bed time.

Kiev, Ukraine – Day Two

We skipped breakfast and decided to sleep in because we were beat. Our dance day started with the Advance-plus class and it took us about 45 minutes to break them. What I mean is that it took that amount of time to help them realize that they weren’t really leading, following, and/or balancing on their own. It was an awesome moment when the students realized what it took to actually move a follow and what it took to stay balanced. Fabulous!
By the end of class I was starving so we rushed up to lunch. We had chicken of some sort over rice and some beet salad (as in, just beets). We left lunch early so we could work on our routine a bit more and then hustled back for our advance class. But it was in vain because the teacher before us went over about 17 minutes (but who’s counting anyways?). I was not very pleased because that ate into our time with the advance dancers. Grrrrrrrrrr. Perhaps what perturbed me the most was the fact that the instructor didn’t acknowledge that Kevin and I were there for about 15 minutes, waiting. He didn’t look at us, say hi, say he was almost done…nothing. Not cool.
We ran the advance class 15 minutes into the next time slot and then did the same for the intermediate level too. I was really antsy until we started our final class because I don’t like running classes that late. I feel bad about making people wait that long because it’s rude. Now, that said, I myself and not a terribly punctual person, but 15 minutes without a heads up is inconsiderate. I am done sitting on my high horse. :-D
We ate dinner and headed back to the room for a quick nap. At 8pm we taught our Slides Taster and it was the most work I’ve ever done in a class. We taught the Slip Slop Shim Sham which means Kevin danced it and I put words/mnemonics to it so people could do it. At the beginning we had a bunch of students, but as the class progressed, we started losing people. We still had a fair number at then end (started at 75, ended at 50) and they were all drenched! It was awesome. Hopefully a video of it will be posted and then I’ll link it.
After class we came back to our darling little room, I showered and did laundry while Kev watched a movie, and then it was nap time. We needed to judge J&J prelims and finals which were going to start around 1am again.
At 12:30am people came to knock on our door to wake us up. We were already awake, but it was helpful. Many of the campers were dressed as witches, fairies, goblins, or other such fanciful characters while Kevo and I were in all black. We were also told that we missed out on all of the shows that were put on. Sigh – you can’t win them all.

The J&J was fun to watch and all the judges’ scores were very similar. A jam soon after broke out and Kevin did some handstand stuff….the pictures are sure to be great. I found some butter in the kitchen to put on some bread which made me a happy camper. And now we are off to bed.

Goodnight.

Kiev, Ukraine – Day One

Oxana made us breakfast this morning; what a great way to wake up! We had some combo of bread and butter/jam/honey, tea, and a sampling of meat and cheese. Our ride came to pick us up on time and of course we weren’t quite ready. Andrei enjoyed some tea while Kev and I wolfed down our food. Andrei had a perfect British accent, but was Ukrainian.
As we grabbed our luggage, I realized the handle on my suitcase wouldn’t open all the way. Man!! That sucks. Actually, it will suck when I have to roll it around the airport. Moving along. We stuffed our luggage into the trunk of his 1985 Lada (which looked like a 1960’s Fiat) and then stuffed ourselves into the backseat. It was somewhat roomy, which was a pleasant change from last year. Previously, six of us were crammed into at 5-seater Volvo AND we had all of our luggage on our laps. ALL of our luggage.
We stopped at a grocery store so we could grab snacks and water for our trip and then we were off. Or so we thought. We picked up another person and their luggage. Kevin and I thought we were going to have a comfortable ride to camp, which we did more so than the previous year; however, there were five people in the car, a few bags, and a sound system. Wow.
A video of part of the ride:

About 30 minutes later we arrive at camp and it was exactly as it was last year, except there were more dogs around and the weather was warmer. We got our room key at the reception and then dragged ourselves (and luggage) upstairs three flights and then slowly opened the door. We didn’t really know what to expect because last year the room could have been compared to “camping indoors”, but perhaps this year would be different. We walked in the room and sun was shinning through the new door/window combo. It was double pained and it was lovely. And warm! The heat was on this time (last year they didn’t turn the heat on until it started snowing)!!
The beds were a bit nicer, we had a TV and refrigerator, and the bathroom had a mirror (last year I have been stolen from the room) and a toilet seat! OMG, it was fabulous! As time went we realized how badly we had been shafted last year.

We taught three classes today and chose who would be in the advance plus class. We taught technique under the guise of dancing, as per usual, and the lower levels were awesome! They were so ready to learn because they were still in the place of “I don’t know very much, but I am here to learn” whereas the higher levels think they know a lot , which they do, but they aren’t actually leading or following movement, just patterns.
On top of that, we also worked on our new routine for two hours, got dressed up in traditional Ukrainian garb and did a skit for the camp and then judged the J&J prelims which started at 1am. Holy tired teachers Batman! Here is a clip of Kevin and I doing our “Dress Up and Dance in Costume’s in Ukraine” clip:

(here is a link to last years silliness)

Euro Invasion

A happy, go-lucky time suddenly turned into a monstrous disaster.

Sunday night and Monday

Sunday night all the instructors were taken out to dinner to a pasta restaurant and the food was lovely. After the feeding we headed to the last bit of the dance. It was clearing by the time we got there, but there were a bunch of people for us to chit chat with. I got a bunch of social dancing in, which was nice and somewhat unusual for me. The highlight of the night for me was when Kevin and I did a pseudo-neo-swing performance. I asked Kevin to dance and he begrudgingly agreed, but decided to spice things up a bit. More people wanted to watch our old-school moves than dance, so it became a performance.

We headed home and I showered and washed out my clothes. Kev watched a movie while I played on the internet, but I didn't get to bed until 2:30am or so because I just wasn't tired.

Well, this morning we were awaken at 11am by a Swede. We said we thought check out was at noon, and he said that would be fine. Jane picked us up, took us to her place, offered to help us with our laundry, and then we headed to rehearsal. Kev needed to eat so we stopped by a nice place near the studio. We then needed time to digest so the first hour of rehearsal was spent reading Wired Magazine. Then we did calisthenics. It was much easier than our Friday practice, but we were still huffing and puffing at the end. We then did some ab work and then worked on the roll at the beginning of the routine. Janne (our current host) came to pick us up and then we headed back to his place. Dax and Alice stayed with him over the weekend and managed to leave a number of their belongings at the house. I assume they packed immediately before they left.

No surprise: Kevin and I hopped on the internet and did some emails (or tried) and then looked around on the internet for new dance clips. After a few hours we headed down the street and got some pizza with banana and curry....yum yum! We happened to eat enough to send us into food coma, so we laid down for naps but didn't manage to get up until about 1am. It's almost 3 am now.

Saturday night and Sunday classes

We decided to perform our Swinging at the Cotton Club routine this evening and the performance went amazingly. I think it was our best performance ever. The energy was unreal - it fucking rocked. Even though the room was long and had very high ceilings adorned with large chandeliers, the audience packed themselves in tightly. We had a nice welcome out, and after the first few swing outs, the room erupted with claps. And the audience was on beat too! I was right under one of the sizable chandelier when we threw the lotus (and the back flip) so that added the dynamic of death to the whole thing. And we got the double applause: once at the bow, and then again after the flying vice. It was awesome. And then the audience kept clapping until we came back out and did a second bow (triple applause, I guess). It was so.... gratifying. And not only that, but afterwards we got some AMAZING feedback. People gushed about how great the dancing was and the performance, and the aerials. Even though many had seen the routine on Youtube, they said it was so much better in person (naturally).

Those 3 minutes of the evening are what I live for.

Ok, enough tooting of our horns.

After that we got home around 2:30am and probably got to bed around 3am. Kev and I woke up this morning exhausted but had to push on. Classes went well today. We had level 5 and level 2 after lunch. At lunch Kevin and I talked to Love & Ulrika (some local instructors) and they were really cool. He was very laid back and has a rather laissez-faire attitude (his name is pronounce Loo-veh) and she was bubbly. I think we made some new Swedish friends - nice!
Level 2 was an awesome last group to have. Even though it was after lunch and most of them were ready to take a nap, we did a bunch of 20's charleston stuff with them and they loved it! And people were laughing at our jokes as well (a nice pat to our egos). They were either better cross-cultural jokes, or the group knew each other better than the larger groups and felt more comfortable with us sooner. We also taught then some flash&trash and the ate it up. Sweet. Definitely one of the best class and group of people we have taught in a while.

All the instructors then had a goodbye meeting with the students. They thanked us and then said we were going to dance one more time for them, which I didn't know we were going to do, but we ended up jamming (not by choice). They put on Jumping at the Woodside and then we had to perform. Kev and I were happy with the stuff we did and fucking rocked the pancake (with my glasses on, I might add). We finished off the song with the California Routine and the students enjoyed it.

There was a quick run home, a nap, dinner at a restaurant, and then dancing. More on that story tomorrow.

Day One - Sweden

Today was a fulfilling day.

Kev and I got to sleep in until 11am (and we went to bed early last night) and it was soooooooooo nice. We have cute little beds that are nice and warm and rather conducive to a good night sleep, might I add.
I got up and showered and Kev got to his emails. After a bit, we realized that we were hungry, so we took ourselves to the restaurant we ate at last night and ordered the lunch special. Kev had a pizza (again) and then I ordered a Greek Salad, which I thought had meat on it. I was unpleasantly surprised to find that it was just like the salad they had at the “salad bar” thing, but with olives, feta cheese, and lots of onions. Now if you know me, you know that I don’t like uncooked onions at all. They taste bad and they make me smelly.

I digress.

Lunch was nice, but we still hankered for more. We headed down the street a little ways more and bought some goodies at the local grocery store before we had hustled back home to prepare for training.

Jane drove us to the studio and her card didn’t work so we couldn’t get in. Kev and I danced around for about 45 minutes before someone showed up and let us in. We realized how out of shape we were after our 20 minutes cardio session, but we prevailed. And to top it off, we did a fast Charleston song to push ourselves even though we were tired. I am so glad we did that, but MAN and I out of shape.
And then we worked on choreography. We have some good stuff, but we need to start stringing our ideas together.

Jane came and grabbed us around 5:15pm so that we had some time at home before the dance. I read through emails while Kevin napped and then we showered quick-quick and got ready for dinner and dancing.

The dinner was serve-yourself style and was nice and basic. Ooh, and there was a rhubarb cobbler for dessert. It was a tad tart, but still nice. Kevo and I danced a bunch, took some pictures and recorded some video of the evening, saw a performance, attended the teacher’s meeting, and headed home. We are getting up a little before 8am tomorrow, and we had classes to plan, so we figured it was best to head home early. And now it is almost 1am!

I am going to shower and then head to bed.

Goodnight!

We have arrived!

We finally made it to Sweden around 5pm their time and it was a lovely day out. It was sunny and even a tad warm (when there was no wind). After Kev filed a "lost luggage" claim, we exchanged some money and headed to the Nice Bed &Breakfast. It's a very cute yellow building that looks very well insulated. In fact, all the buildings look well insulated, but no surprise since the Swedes truly have winter out here.
I laid down for a nap while Kev played on his computer. I think at some point he napped because we both got up around 8pm to take showers and then meet Jane (one of the organizers) for dinner. The showers are very cute, but require that one squeegee the floor. There is no basin or anything to stand "in" so the water seems to spray/splatter all over the ground. After that, we headed outside and down the street about a block, there was Jane and Steven Mitchell! The restaurant we went to for dinner was only a block from our place and the place was super cute. The ambiance was calm and modern and the food was excellent. We all ordered pizzas which were thin but large. Kev and I both had a Tropicana (ham, banana, pineapple, and curry), Jane had something with meat, and Steven had an egg and something.
After dinner we headed out to meet up with Dax and Alice. It was great to see them again. We hung out at the dance studio briefly and then Steven and I headed home because we were exhausted. Kev stayed back and hung out with the gang and had a great time (so he told me the next morning).

Off to bed!

Goals for the Three Weeks

Work on our fast dancing – increase our endurance
Put together some mini-routines – hopefully 5
Finish our routine

Learn some jazz off of some of the videos I have
Work on Flash
Go through video collection – edit/pair down
Strengthening and conditioning

Create/polish Charleston routine
Work on girl routine
Work on the Big Apple (new version)

The Three Week Adventure Begins

Yesterday (or today really; I haven’t slept yet) Kevin and I left for our trip to Sweden and it was off to a great start, until I realized that I forgot my jacket and gloves! Total amateur hour! How could I, Miss I-am-cold-all-the-time, forget my jacket when I am going to Northern Europe and the Easter Block? Oh yeah, that’s right….because it was hot in Pittsburgh when I left!

Well, there has been lots of flying since that discover and still no new jacket in sight. At PIT I tried to find a jacket and couldn’t; at DTW I tried again and found a sweatshirt (I have one of those already, btw) for $120 which is WAY too pricey; and here at AMS I have found some sweatshirt things, but they are in Euros and I just cringe at the thought at how much it will really cost me.

The flight from DTW to AMS was pretty easy. I watched a movie and then watched some dance clips on my iPod and now I am pumped to dance! And guess what?! I have 4 hours until my next flight, so realistically, I have the time to dance before I take off for Sweden.

I didn’t sleep on that flight. I think it was the fact that I was thinking about dancing, choreography and all the things I want to accomplish, or I could chalk it up to the fact the seats were uncomfortable. Highlight of the flight: Kevo stopped by a Japanese restaurant before we left DTW and bought some sushi (which I got a bite of) and a bean cake for me. Delish!! He’s so thoughtful!!!

Currently, Kev and I are sitting in the internet area typing away at emails. After we write a bunch we are going to hop online, send these guys, upload the new ones, sign off, write some more, sign back on, and do it all again.

Last thing (this is amusing/ironic for me). I don’t like to check luggage because I feel wherever you go (unless you are moving), you shouldn’t have to check luggage. This trip required that Kevin and I check our heavy and oversized luggage and I was betting that my luggage would be delayed because that would make life even better (forgetting the jacket SUCKS, but having my luggage go missing on top of that would super suck). Yet it isn’t my luggage that will be delayed; it’s Kevin’s! It’s sad to hear, but oh so ironic.

More later. Cheers.

Gummy Bear Scream

This is one of the greatest things I have EVER seen!!!!

Rugcutter Workshop - We're Super!

A picture of how super we are:

Rugcutter Aerial Workshop

We did not expect such a wonderful turnout. I think we had something like 29 couples for our first class and the number stayed rather steady the whole day!

The Schedule:

Dips & Trick: 1:30-2:45 PM
Lift and Jumps: 3:00-4:15 PM
Lindy Hop Aerials: 4:30 – 5:45 PM

Dips and Tricks did not require partners because we intended the moves to be socially leadable. In it, we taught "The Jeremy", a lunge, and the Ninjammerz Dip.

"The Jeremy" named after Jeremy Otth and was inspired by a move he did at the US Swing Dance Open this past year. We weren't entirely sure it was the move he did, but it was our interpretation of it. But we particularly enjoy the move because it's rather similar to one that was popularized during the Neo-Swing revival. Next was the lunge which is a move Kevin and I often use during our social dancing and choreography. We felt like it would be good for our students to know because it's in their current Rugcutter Routine. Finally, we taught the Ninjammerz Dip, which is the final move of the Ninjammerz routine.

We then moved on to Lifts and Jumps where we required people to have partners. We taught technique on how to prep aerials, how to base, and how to land. We started the class with a climbing exercise we call the Monkey because the follow must climb around their base (normally the lead) without touching the floor. This is a challenging exercise in slippery pants. We taught the Frog, the A-Frame (or Russian), and the Liu Kang (a bicycle kick throw-out). I think most people enjoyed the last one.

In our final class we taught a pancake. We walked the students through the technique for the prep and the actual aerial. Many of the students went through the aerial all the way!

We were so proud of all the students who came to the workshop. Every arrived ready to laugh and learn and to push themselves. We were very impressed and thrilled that everyone was so receptive to our humor! One of my favorite moments was when we started doing the "meatball prep" which is where I hold a V-position (looks like Downward Dog if you do yoga) and Kevin was pretending like he was skiing over my butt (picture him in a crouch position and I am under his legs). But of course, I didn't know this until I was told after classes.

So the long of the short of it is:

• We love our Pittsburgh lindy hoppers
• We love laughing with them
• We love teaching them
• Kevin and I are VERY funny
• I love working with Kevin

If you have any photos or videos, can you send them to me?

Lindy Leap Year - Sunday

What an extraordinary way to end a workshop. Today was a day like no other.

We started our teaching day with the warm-up we normally do at home. We run around in a circle, then kick our heels up, kick our knees up, do the elephant, and then crab walks. As we were running, students started to join in (we love those sorts of students). As we cycled through, finally we got to crab walks - this is where you look like table top; hand and feet are touching the floor, and you are looking - and all of a sudden, a Crab War broke out! Kev scuttled around the floor as if he was a crustacean! He knocked my feet out from underneath me and then continued to attack the other students. One by one they all went down. However, a few students got their crab legs underneath them and went 2-on-1 with King Crab Kevin. One went for the legs while the other went for his hands. Kevin pulled out his best Sammy Davis Jr (check the end of the clip), avoided the take down, and then ATTACKED again! It was a momentous occasion.

Round 2 - Lunch Special:


Our first two Charleston classes went really well. We taught the yo-yo, a syncopated yo-yo, Charleston Jumps, and then trucks (or skates). Next we had two aerial classes (more of a tricks, then an aerial) where we did a climbing exercise I like to call "the Monkey and her Tree", a Frog (where we explained prep, jump, and landing technique), the Lu-Kang (a trip that turns into a throw; named after a Mortal Combat character), and then we did the Fly (a favorite of ours). Finally, we finished off with a Blues Class.

Highlights of the day:

• Crab Wars
• Randomly singing "The Good Ship Lollipop" and then having Kevin turn it into being attacked by pirates, which I then turned to our favorite pirate, Captain Jack Sparrow. Oh Johnny Depp.
• Telling the students they could only have the doors open for a few minutes, and after a bit I said that the window had to be closed now....and it was. I wondered if my "wishing" powers would extend beyond closing doors, and so I wished for Johnny Depp. Unfortunately he was a no-show.
• After aerials, we did a cool down and then some of the boys started to work out. At one point, they were all standing on their heads (on a towel). Sommer sees this and joined the fun. She was standing on her head and moving her legs about. She is a total yoga star and the boys had NOTHING on her.
• After aerials, I thought we were done. I was wrong.
• Kevin on his soap box: He told the room that girls like to dance and learn how to move their bodies at a young age. Boys learn how to throw, hit, kick, and catch (stereotypically). Girls dance and they want boys to dance. Not only that, but they want them to lead as well. Boys don't always know how to control their bodies, but they need to learn to control theirs in order to control someone else. It. Was. Awesome.

What a wonderful way to end the weekend. The students were stellar and came ready to learn. Wow-e-wow-wow.

Lindy Leap Year - Saturday

What a stellar day of classes!!

We started the day off with 2 beginning classes, and they were packed! I think there was something like 120 students in each of them. It was incredible. And they all learned something, which was even more incredible. We worked on connecting to your partner from open and closed position, how to change weight across the body, how to lead rock steps from open and close, and how to lead triple steps. There were more nuances in there, but that is a general overview.

The class was very receptive to our humor and that really revved us up. Nothing gets us going more than having a group of enthusiastic students who want to learn, are receptive to the information, and are ready to laugh with us.

We then moved to The Great Hall, and it was just beautiful. And on a side note, the John Hopkins Campus is just divine! There is red brick and green grass and street lights, and little paths leading off yonder.....uh! Just great! Anyways....the Great Hall has a Great Window and a very slick floor. It wasn't as big as the room we were in for the beginner classes, but still sizable. Our third class of the day was Flash & Trash (named after our DVDs), followed by a routines class.

Highlights of the day:

• During the beginner class, while trying to explain what to visualize while leading a triple step, we did the motions and asked the class what it looked like. Normally we get something along the lines of a "W"; however, this time someone shouted out that it looked like a lowercase omega. Kevin and I were so surprised by the brilliance of the answer (notice I didn't say it was right or wrong), that Kevin conceded and then moved on.
  
• During Flash & Trash, I received more questions that I have ever gotten during a workshop. I took the first couple and then Kevin tried to step in, but the question was for me!!!!! This is huge, because most often the girls don't ask a lot of question, but everything was asked! Footwork review, timing, leading (the leads should have asked about this), was it a variation, how did we know, weight distribution, etc. In hindsight, this leads me to believe that I also must not have taught very well, otherwise these questions wouldn't have been asked. Hmmmm......
• During the routines class, I was showing the girls the timing on a forward swing out with kicks on 7 & 1. I didn't tell Kevin that I wanted to do the next swing out, so he assumed that we were going to stop on 1 like we had been doing. I, however, made the assumption that Kevin would "just know" what I wanted and then I went for it. Because the floor was slippery, I wasn't in sticky shoes, and I didn't inform Kevin about what I was doing, I totally bailed. I was on the floor! It happened so slowly too, but I couldn't stop it. Then I was on the floor, Kevin couldn't help me, and then I started wiggling around in order for me to try and make my fall into something graceful. Needless to say, I tried, but not much else happened. I used this as a lesson to show that the leads should not stop to watch a variation, but continue to lead through to the next move.

After classes we headed home and then took one car to sushi. And it was great sushi too. We ordered so much sushi that a sizable boat arrived with our dinner! I used almost all of the Japanese I remembered in order to get some special service (and impress Dorry and Sommer) and only ONE person responded to my "Sumimasen" yelp. As I later found out, only one person spoke Japanese there. After eating more than necessary, we headed back home, got into our performance clothes and then headed to the dance that night.

Almost minutes after arriving at the dance, Kev and I got ready to do a social performance. We performed live to Sac au Lait, who were just phenomenal, and Dorry sang Dinah with them. We had such a fun time performing with them, even when they sped up the tempo on us. And Dorry's voice was amazing as always!

A few hours later we were ready to head home and get into bed. We could hardly wait for the fun that was in store for us on Sunday.

Sucess in Baltimore

Friday

The original plan was to leisurely get up, briefly review over our class material, and then go to the Museum of Art and see the sites. However, this is not at all what happened. I woke up, but not leisurely (thank you cell phone and iPod going off at 7 am!!! And that was totally my fault), and we didn't briefly run over our material or see a museum, or see Baltimore. But no point crying over spilled milk!

Actually, the day was very successful. Kevin and I had a good warm-up, we ran through our class material and routine, and then had some great lunch at Py (a fabulous pizza joint). After that, we came back and did 2 half privates, and then got ready for the dance.

Dorry and Sommer headed out early and Kev and I took naps before the dance. This meant that we then had to drive ourselves to John Hopkins University. We made it to the campus just fine, but we had NO idea where to park. After taking in an unexpected view of the campus, we finally found a spot near a meter. Then we realized we didn't know what building it was in!

After wandering around, we found the Great Hall. The Boilermakers Jazz Band were playing and they were ON that night. Their sound and energy was great! Not to mention, the very lovely Naomi Uyama was there singing with the band. Even more fabulous was that Dorry & Sommer hired Naomi to teach the beginner lesson before the dance. Apparently this had never happened before. Word to event director who hire the Boilermakers: If Naomi is singing with them, you are SILLY to not hire her to teach your beginning lesson. For goodness sake, she is already there!!

So anyways.....Kev and I did some social dancing and then we pumped ourselves up for our performance. This would be the um-teenth time we would have done our "Swingin at the Cotton Club Routine", but we were still nervous. I don't worry about forgetting the choreography because my body will remember it as well as Kev will always lead it...but I was worried that I wouldn't have the stamina to get through it. It's not terribly long, but it's fast.

The performance went well and we were very pleased with it, however we were so tired afterwards that we headed home so that we could get into bed early. Fortunately or unfortunately Sommer and Dorry came home before we went to bed and then cooked us late-night breakfast. It was soooooooooooo good. Yum yum.

And then it was bed time.

Getting out of the cold

We are so ready to leave this cold weather. It's like it never goes away!

The snow is still novel to me; it reminds me of Christmas. In fact, I'd prefer it to snow than rain any day of the week. However, snow requires cold weather and I am not a fan of cold weather. I feel like I have come a long way since my Southern California days and am now able to bear the cold weather. 40 degrees no longer is all that bad! But when it gets down to 30, I have a hard time with it.

Kevin and I are normally traveling and we go visit other weather climates, and then we briefly return to ours momentarily. These days, however, we've spent a significant amount of time in Pittsburgh (we'll, for us it has been) and it's just plain cold. The cold seeps into the walls at night and my legs and feet get so cold that I can hardly fall asleep.

But no more!!! We are going to Baltimore!!!

This weekend we are teaching at the Leap Year Lindy Weekend and we are looking forward to different (and hopefully better) weather. We are leaving very early tomorrow (7:45am - eeeppp!!!) for a warmer climate and to go see Dr. Ron (a chiropractor) that Kevin knows in DC.


Hopes for this weekend:

warm weather
cute brick buildings
a "cultural" experience
seeing Semi-Pro with Sommer and Dorry
teaching students who have a great sense of humor and are ready to learn
eating some great food
lots of laughing
hearing great music
having some great social dances

Keep on Dancing - Robots

A friend of a friend made this cute little thing.



If you want to know more, go to the website: Keepon & the BeatBots.

Ode to a Glue Gun

Oh Glue Gun
How have I known of you for so long
Yet have kept my distance until now?
Yes, a home-improvement project united us
But don't be upset by that
Because now I understand that I shall never live without you again.

Your sleek design, and slender sides
Are delicate to the touch.
Glue hangs out your backside, but I don't judge you for that;
You were just designed that way.

I feel so powerful around you Glue Gun.
I am able to turn you on at a flip of a switch
And then you warm to me.
Not only that, but you get hot for me.
I feel like I could run the world.
What inner power I must have!

You are more powerful than the elements!
The Sun cannot melt your work.
The weather cannot make you freeze.
Water cannot dissolve your gobs of desire,
And not even fire can keep you from doing your duty.

I perch you upon your head-stand while you warm to my touch
You sit there knowingly
Knowing that there is almost nothing you can't do.
And that is what drew me to you:
You are confident in your abilities
And you are smoking HOT!

Fabrics and jewels, they bow to you.
Doll houses and decor, they devour you.
Fake flowers adorn girls head as an ode to you,
Saying, "Thank You" for making my wishes come true.

You are warm to the touch as I pick you up.
Slowly I squeeze your trigger
And you ooze with delight.
When I stoke you just righ,
You work consistenly and provide me what I need.
And Ode to you as you make my curtain wishes come true.

Oh Glue Gun!
Never again, will I live with out.

When there is snow....

It's cold here in Pittsburgh. "It's cold here everyday. What is this, Miami Beach?"
- Bill Murray in Groundhogs Day

Kevin and I have watched that movie twice now and we are bemused that yet another movie has taken place in Pittsburgh. Very cool.

Moving along....

It's snowing and it's cold and there are a few things that one should do in such occasions: sit by a fire, sing Christmas carols, drink hot chocolate (some spike is optional), and make snow angles. Well, I have done all of things except make a snow angle, so TODAY IS THE DAY!!!!!

Here are some pictures of me posing by the freezing car:








































And here is one of me making a snow angle:

















I realize that after I start flapping that cotton doesn't protect you from snow. In fact, I might go out onto a snow-covered limb and say that cotton wicks up the cold and moisture!! This is relevant because I am wearing cotton stretch pants at the time of my brilliant angelic stunt.

Oooh, actually, I need to add make a snowman and carve an ice sculpture (thanks Phil Connors!!!) to my list. Two more things to do before the snow is gone!!!

New Goals

Personal dance-related Goals

learn how to build a website
learn how to cut/edit music
learn how to cut/edit video
get a curtain/backdrop made for filming
hang curtains
film 50 clips by the end of March
post them on our iLindy website
make money off of our Lindy Hop DVD

be stronger
increase endurance
increase flexibility
continue to inspire and be inspired

Paint to a New You - Part II

I woke up this morning a little confused. I slept in one of our guest bedroom and even though all my belongings were there with me, I woke up feeling lost. One of our guest bedroom is cave-ish insomuch as it's very dark (it has one window that looks out onto another person's roof that is about 2 feet away) and cold, whereas my room is incredibly bright at all hours (either a street light is glowing into my room or the sun beams into my eyes starting around 7am).

I didn't start my morning off the way I normally did; however, today is a new day for me to paint my way to a new me. What do I mean by this? I love remodeling. I dream of remodeling. I imagine the endless things I could do to Hoodstock (the nickname for our beloved house) with unlimited amounts of funds. So, I am getting to reinvent myself on a smaller scale. No longer will someone come into my room and say, "Wow, your walls are filthy" or "Is that a window I am trying to look through?" or "Yikes! Is this where you live?" or anything else of the sort. No one has actually said those things, but after today, no one will ever be able to say those things about my room (or me for that matter). I think your room or any other personal space one has says something about that person (this is by no means meant to be profound), and up until recently, I was living in a space that said "only for a little bit" instead of "this is me in my space."

But more to the point, I wanted to change my room, and I FINALLY have a weekend free to do it! Kevin and I have been at Hoodstock since mid-September and this is the first time we've gotten to do a home-improvement project. Yeah!!!

So there was lots of painting to do, but we went through it much quicker than we did with the primer. At first I was trying to be gentle and not splatter, and basically have perfect brush strokes, but today was a different story. I was over pussy-footing around; I needed to slap the paint on so it could start drying!

Kev did the walls and I did edges and detailing again, but it wasn't nearly as exhausting or draining as it was the day before. As the heat radiated from the radiator and as the tunes crooned from my iPod speakers, Kev and I happily painted away, enjoying the new walls and the new room.

As white swept the inner walls, white blanketed the outside. It was snowing so hard that we ended up canceling dance class. We made the assumption that the storm might not let up, in which case many students probably couldn't or wouldn't come. Since we have 2 routine classes, we didn't't want people missing the material, so canceling felt like it would be the right decision, which in turn lead us to calling half the student body to make sure they knew class was canceled.

Phone Tree
Kev and I had a pretty good system worked out and we motored through about 80 names rather quickly. We noticed that our messages became more concise the more we left, and that when we bobbled, it was very amusing. We'd also say the name of the person right as we were calling and hope the other person hadn't already called them before someone on the other end picked up.

We made some phone calls, had some Subway sandwiches, and then headed back in the Ivory room. It was already looking so much better. I was so pleased. We definitely need to do another coat tomorrow, but it's looking wonderful. I feel like the value of Kev's house has just gone up!!!

I took some pictures; hopefully I can get them up in the next few days.

Cheers!

Paint to a New You

It's painting day!!!!!

I am so very excited because today is the first day real progress will be made on my room. It's going to receive it's first proper paint job ever (from what I can tell).

Yesterday I moved all my belongings out of the room: boxes, books, hangers, clothes, shoes, junk, etc. Thank goodness there are 2 empty rooms upstairs for me to stash my stuff in, otherwise I have no idea where everything would go! After that, Kevin came in and taped off the room. My goodness was that time consuming. I had been fantasizing about how easy it would be to paint my room, but there were so many edges and nooks and crannies; the amount of work seemed endless!

But the work didn't end there. No-no. We scrapped off the large paint globs that had been left, swept the floors, vacuumed, and then scrubbed the walls.

Yes, we scrubbed the walls. I didn't even know that one would do such a thing unless you had children and crayons or markers! But the walls were filthy and it had ot be done. The walls were still a depressing shade of baby blue, but much less dingy now.

Fast-forward to today. I got into some grungy clothes and Kevin got into his painter-suit and we busted out our new painter toys. We had rollers, extenders, sponge brushes, bristled brushed, primer and Ivory paint in an eggshell finish. I was put on edges while Kev got to use the roller. Honestly, I was a little jealous because I wanted to roll around the room with the big roller and make the major changes; instead, I was down in a crouch position dealing with molding. Sigh. But it needed to get done, and I wanted to do it.

As music blared, we hummed along, wiggled a bit, and made some serious headway with the primer. However, after hour 4 rolled around, we needed to take a break. I was feeling overly anal-retentive doing so much detail work, but I KNOW it had to get done. Man! All those edges, nooks, and crannies were really doing a number on my psyche. I was tired of looking at cracks and edges, but there were soooooooooooo many of them that were vying for my attention. Finally I had to say enough.

We took a break to eat and watched a little TV before returning to my space. Kev helped me finish up with the details and then we called it a night. Tomorrow we'll switch over to the Ivory paint and start the real transformation.

Yeah!!!!!

Sword Fighting

Kevin and Jeff

Superbow Sunday

What an awesome game that was!! OMG, I had so much fun watching my first Superbowl, I could hardly believe it. (Note: I have seen bits and pieces of past games, but haven't watched a whole game). However, the part-time show was not up to par according to my standards. I understand that having Janet's tatas hang out the other year didn't go over so well, but really, Tom Petty? I am not denying that he is a great singer/performer, but for a half time show? And did you see when the "arrow" entered into the "heart" to kick off the show?! How phallic-looking was that?

Anyways.

The commercials were stellar. I am planning on visiting their myspace page to watch the superbowl ads in the next few days (if you missed them, check them out). My top favorites: Budlight - Will Ferrell pretending to be Jackie Moon, Budwiser- the draft horse and the dalmatian, Vitamin Water - Shaq being a jockey, Bridgestone - Richard Simmons, and Budlight - I can fly. Every time I figured I could get up, grab a snack, check on something, whatever... I couldn't out of fear I'd miss a brilliant commercial. Well done ad-creators, well done.

And the fourth quarter - my god was that good! On one side we had the New England Patriots (NE) who went undefeated the entire season, and if they won this game, they'd go down in history for a perfect season. On the other hand, if the New York Giants (NYG) won, they'd get to say the stopped an almost unstoppable team as well as the quarterback's family would have 2 sons that won Superbowls. For me, it was a win-win situation; both outcomes seemed great. But moving along...
I stood up for the last 10 minutes of the game. Right when I figured that NE had one, the NYG started making some serious yards. As they inched towards the goal line, the clock ran down. The three minute mark rolled around and it felt like it was over, but the NYG held on. Finally, after 3 time-outs and a lot of running, a pass was made and then the NYG were up!!! OMG, they've won! BUT WAIT - not quite. There was still a minute to go and Brady and Moss were an killer duo.
Brady threw his first pass and they moved down the field. Time-out. Brady threw his second pass and Moss missed. Time-out. Brady threw his third pass and Moss couldn't hold onto it. Time-out. And now there was 0:01 seconds remaining. The NE coach knew the NYG had won and congratulated their coach and then left the field, but the game appeared to not be over. What was going on?
Finally it was announced that the New York Giants won.

What an incredible game. I don't know all the rules, but it was quite the spectacular.

Reuniting Forces

Tonight is the first night Batman (me) and Robin (Kevo) reunite!

Last month we both decided to vacation in warmer climates: Kev went to Perth, Australia and I went to Buenos Aires, Argentina. While being jostled around on the 28X bus, we exchanged stories and just grinned at each other. It was so wonderful to get to see my dance partner again and to catch up with him and the adventures of his life!

Our goals for February:

• Get www.iLindy.com up and running
• Make a curtain
• Film dance clips
• Book more gigs
• Find music for a competition pieces
• Choreograph something for class

And that's the news for now. More later!!!

Rant: Education for Afghani Women

I just read this article and it makes me want to take action.

Recently I have been doing a lot of reading and havne’t been moved by almost any of it. Cruise continues to prove he is missing some marbles, there is still a race between woman and African-Americans (Hilary v. Obama), we’ve done some cloning, Steve Jobs is still doing Apple thing, society is still concerned about pedophiles (as they should be), and the Bust Administration is finally realizing that it should probably do something about the dire stare of the economy. However, reading an article about women’s education in Afghanistan pulls on my heart strings and makes me want to do something. As sad as this is, I don’t really know what to do, but I feel action is necessary. And for starters, I will try and spread the word.

Please read this article: The Girl Gap

It is wonderful to hear that women are no longer ban from receiving an education, and it's wonderful to hear that people realize how important education is; however, with that said, there are so many obstacles the Afghan women (and education system on a whole) have to face. Here are some stats that struck me:

The negative:

Sarwary's tiny school doesn't have enough classrooms.
There is no playground or running water.
The toilet, a pit latrine located at the far corner of the school compound, serves 1,500 students.
Only two of the 23 female teachers have graduated from high school.
Half the second-grade students, ranging in age from 7 to 12, can read.
In more than 80% of rural districts, there are no girls in secondary school at all.
Only 28% of the country's accredited teachers are women.
Fewer than 30% of eligible girls are enrolled in schools, and
the infrastructure is so poor that only a tiny fraction are likely to get the education they need to enjoy the fruits of emancipation.
Finally, most Afghan families won't allow their daughters to be where they may be seen by men (and most of the teachers are males)

On the upside, since the Taliban were overthrown in 2001:

Women can now vote,
they have a quarter of the seats in parliament, and
they are legally allowed to find jobs outside the home.
Foreign donors and nongovernmental organizations have expended a great deal of energy and capital on building women's centers and conducting gender-awareness workshops.

Important: Every social and economic index shows that countries with a higher percentage of women with a high school education also have better overall health, a more functional democracy and increased economic performance. Educated women are a strong bulwark against the extremism that still plagues Afghanistan

The long of the short of it is that we people, women and educator especially, need to be aware of this and need to find a way to help. I understand that it is not entirely feasible to go over to Afghanistan and lend a hand, but look for ways to make a difference. Issues like education abroad (not only for women) are extremely important and often don't receive the attention they deserve. It is vital that each country has an educated populous. Spread the word and support education however you can.

Thank you for reading my rant.

In My Spare Time

I am doing exactly what I need to be doing and exactly what I want to be doing on my Argentinean vacation: relaxing.

Currently, my version of relaxing is getting to spend an inordinate amount of time on my computer either on the internet reading or relabeling my iTunes or learning something about how a website actually works. I have done other things since I have been down here, but spending time with my cute 12.1 inch dell has really made me happy.

Some sites I have been looking at (and in no particular order):

The New York Times
Time Magazine
The Week Magazine
International Herald Tribune
PsychBlog
Think Simple Now
Technology Review
Del.icio.us - if you are a member, let me know your screen name
How Stuff Works

If you have any recommendation for sites or blogs that I should read, let me know.

Gaaahhhhh!!!!! The longest Wednesday Ever!!!!!

I am sitting at the PIT airport and it's the 3rd time I've been here in 24 hrs.

Quick recap: I flew in from Boston at 6pm yesterday (Tuesday), met up with Kev and then went home. Kev did some laundry, we ate some nachos and talked about what we wanted our new year to look like, pondered over the meaning of life, played on the computer, and packed. Notice, I did not mention sleeping.

So 4:40am rolls around and I need to take Kevin to the airport so he can leave for his flight to Australia for the month. This is the 2nd time in 24 hours.

I was very tired because it had been a very long day (because I hadn't slept yet, that means it was the same day still) and now it was snowing and I had to drive home in it. Are you kidding me?!?! I had never driven in snow before and my license had just expired, 2 days ago. Illegally driving in snow for the first time, while sleep deprived. What a way to start off the New Years, huh?

Well, as much as a huff as I made about it, I made it home fine. I rotated my laundry, cleaned up my room, unpacked and repacked my suitcase and then took a nap; I think I got 3 hours of sleep.

And then I had to get on a bust at 2pm to head back to the airport. OMG, NO MORE AIRPORTS!!! I am so done traveling. Oh and guess what? Someone forgot which bus she needed to take to get to the 28X.... was it the EBO, the EBA, or the EBX? Was there an EBX? I got on the bus that was supposed to take me down town and help me connect to the 28x. I of course picked the wrong bus, but I did manage to make my transfer and get to the airport. I also got to enjoy my first standingonastreetcorner-lettingthewindblowthroughme moment while waiting for my bus transfer. Less than pleasant let's say.

So I thought I was in the clear. It had been a rough 24 hours (and 3 airport visits), but I was there. What else could go wrong?

I realize I booked myself on an Alaska Airlines Partner and not an NWA partner (trying to move my miles over) meaning I wasn't going to get the miles in the correct mileage account and I didn't know if there would be personalized TVs on this flight. Normally I don't care about that because I ALWAYS sleep on flights, but for an 11 hour flight across 2 continents, it matters. Ok, fine, so I am on the wrong partner, whatever. But I still had to get through security.
Well, I was a retard and gave the "check-in" guy my newly expired license, so he had to write me up and then I was sent through the special blowing-air machine (which was kind of fun but mostly amusing). Sigh.....what an amateur I was!!

So I am here waiting at the airport and I have sooooooo much time on hands! My computer has been freezing on me and my flight has just been delayed. Super. Super duper.

Well, here-here to the start of a New Year! The only great thing about the beginning of this year being such a disaster is that it can only get better.

I am off to Buenos Aires again to teach and vacation. Kevin is off to do the same thing in Australia. Perhaps we'll see you guys with some nice tans!!