.....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
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
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!
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!
Sunday, June 29, 2008
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.
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.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
