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!