"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.

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.

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?

Boston - the adventure

Kev and I had an awesome time. We were picked up at the airport immediately after we arrived, we drove back to Aurelie & Tony’s house. After unpacking, meeting their cat Belle (who was not terribly friendly, but awfully curious), and checking out their old school photos in their dance room, we were off to dinner.

We tried to get into a Mexican Restaurant but it was packed, so we headed over to Ruby Tuesdays. Kev got sliders and access to their salad bar and I had soup (and I don’t remember what T&A ordered). I did, however, get to steal food from Kevin – and this just makes my night. Food often seems better when it is on somebody else’s plate. But the really-really of it all is that I fill up quickly and I only want a few bites of many different things. I am a happy camper when I get to nibble!

After dinner we headed back home, hooked up to the internet (which was an event in itself), did some homework (all work related), and then headed to bed.

Saturday morning we got up, showered, ate, and headed off to the workshop. Kev and I drove separately; we got to take their Prius (wish Kevin calls Pious after seeing a South Park episode) and use Tony’s navigation device. It was an easy 35 minute drive and the car was quiet the entire way. Not only that, but we were getting 99 mpg during part of the trip. Kevin was learning how to coast and speed up in order to get the best gas mileage, but he was still paying attention to the road.

If you haven’t driven around Boston, you might not know about the tolls; they are freaking everywhere!!! It felt like every 10 minutes or so we’d have to pay a new toll, and we were driving at least 30 minutes everywhere we went. I couldn’t believe it! So many tolls!!! I guess they were instated in order to pay off a bridge, but the committee that was created in order to oversee the budgeting and the project found a way to funnel the money around to various projects, whereby never really paying off the bridge. It’s something like that; mostly, the people behind the organization don’t want to look for a new job, so they have found other ways to make the company useful so that it cannot go out of business. Genius.

Class went really well; once we found our students’ rhythm, we cranked through material at an appropriate pace, we fed them one liners all afternoon (there was lots of laughing, just as we prefer), and they were asking intelligent questions about technique (they were obviously thinking about the material instead of just trying to do the move). It was fabulous!

After class, Kev and I grabbed some food with some buddies at an upscale pizza joint. We ordered salad (which were sizable) and three different thin-crust pizzas that were just amazing, and the boys indulged in a blueberry flavored beer which was outstanding. And the waitress was so nice – she basically read me and Kev the menu (which was short, but still….) and gave us recommendation while the boys (Davis and Dave) parked the car. The service in Boston is outstanding; the best I’ve seen actually.

Oh yes, and another FYI – there is NO parking in Boston. The streets are parked up for miles! It felt like a super-duper cold San Francisco.

The dessert menu was rather limited at that restaurant, so we headed out to a chocolate shop. We didn’t get very far because Kev found a tea store and then decided that he needed some Bobba. What you might not know about Kev is that he is a fan of bobba. If we drive by something that says the word “Tea” on it, we almost always stop in (or he jumps out of the car) and see if they’ve got some. He got his drink, I grabbed a mochi, and then we headed to the chocolate store.

Now this was no ordinary chocolate store. No no – this was a Chocolate Delicatessen. I saw chocolates in the shapes of penguins and mice (as well as the standard triangles and squares) and they were about $3 a piece (holy moly). Not only did they have a lovely window display of truffles and treats, but at the other end of the store they made hot drinks. Apparently the best hot chocolate in the city was at this store.

After hearing such a statement, I then HAD to see for myself. A small hot chocolate was ordered for me (you had the choice of demi, small, and medium) and then I got lost staring into the pastry window. Low and behold there were macaroons (but they called them Luxemburg’s). The last time I saw these delicate cookies I was in the south of France, and they were expensive! A cookie the size of a half dollar (picture it looking like a petite ice cream sandwich) cost 3€! However, the lovely treats that sat before me were a mere 75 cents. I told the lady behind the counter what I was looking at and she just gave me one. I was shocked; again a staff member took time to talk with me and bothered to listen to me, and then gave me a free cookie! In my mind, Boston is the best Service Oriented City in the world!!!

Hot chocolates and Bobba drinks were enjoyed on the way back to Davis’ place. Once there, we got ready for the Saturday night dance. I begrudgingly got dressed (it was really cold and I didn’t want to get out of my warm clothes into cold ones) and then convinced Davis that he needed some eye makeup for this evenings soiree.

Kev and I, plus the boys, headed out to the dance. After finding parking, Kev and I couldn’t locate the entrance to the dance venue. We were running up and down the street, with our luggage in tow, freezing. It was about 30°F out; I was dying – I was not built to live in this kind of weather. After banging on what appeared to be a door (we were able to see dancers checking in at the front desk) there was a mild sense of defeat. I felt more like Rick Moranis in Ghostbusters when he was chased down by one of the stone dog-creature things, made it to a restaurant, couldn’t get in, and ended up sliding down the outside of the window before the dog got him. The “dog” in my case was the cold.

But we finally got in, finished getting dressed, threw an aerial, and then performed. We did Swingin at the Cotton Club again and the audience loved it. We did not, however, do our new ending; I wasn’t feeling up to it.

After some social dancing and cake, we headed back to Davis’ place to chill. After a cup of hot water and a good stretch, Kev and I finalized our Sunday material and headed back to T&A’s place. Bedtime: 4:14am.

Sunday

We wake up, shower, pack our bags, grab breakfast, and head out (and all of this was done in 40 minutes). We got to class, Kev warmed up the students, and then we did some jazz. Again, the students were great and worked really hard at learning the choreography.

In between classes, I got Seth and Davis to sit on the children’s benches in the bathroom. They were too big for the bench, but they decided to amuse me anyways.

Lots of great 80's movie references were made as well as some potentially inappropriate ones. Most of the students laughed; it was awesome that they were all on board with our humor.

After the four classes had finished, the boys decided to do some calisthenics which eventually turned into playing basketball and then hanging from the hoop.

After game time, we got dressed and headed out to dinner with T&A. They took us to Legal Seafood which was phenomenal. After reading the first page I was afraid to turn to the next because there was so much good food! I narrowed my choices down to 10 dishes and then decided to go with the New England Clam Chowder ("When in Rome...."). T&A and Kev ordered salads and a main dish; I got to nibble off of them.

After our meal, we begrudgingly looked at the dessert menu; and thank god we did! We got 2 orders of Bananas Fosters and a Boston Creme Pie (again..."When in Rome...") and stuffed ourselves. It was one of the best dessert nights I had all year!

After our meal, we headed back to Davis' house, watched Dogma, and did emails. Then it was off to bed.

Monday

We got up, ate breakfast, and headed to the gym. The boys did 20 minutes of cardio and then hit the weights; they did chest, arms and back. I did 30 mins of cardio and then flitted from machine to machine; I did arms and legs. After rolling ourselves out on the pilates rollers, we realized we had to get going in order to make our flight.

As we walked home, it started to snow. It was almost like we were in the movies. The streets were a little bit slushy, but there was a fresh batch of snow on the ground and flakes were floating down from the sky above. It was cold, but it was lovely.

We got to the airport with 40 minutes to spare, or so we thought. Our flight had been delayed 45 minutes so we decided to pony up to the counter and eat at Johnny Rockets. We had a strawberry-banana milkshake, fries, a burger and a tuna melt. We were happy little piggies.

And then we flew home on Jetblue Airlines, which is one of the best airlines out there. The direct TV rocks and the flight attendants are always nice. Oooh, and there is more legroom in coach than anywhere else!! Support Jetblue if you can!!