A happy, go-lucky time suddenly turned into a monstrous disaster.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
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.
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.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
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.
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.
Friday, April 25, 2008
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!
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!
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