I recently got around to posting a few more galleries on my site and wanted to share with you this collection from a night with Pete Tong at Glow.
For those not familiar with Tong, his work transcends many years of dance music artists and styles. As a DJ, Pete has graced the decks of the best clubs and festivals worldwide. As a producer he's assembled the music for many different soundtracks and was the inspiration behind the hit film "It's All Gone Pete Tong."
Pete's success as a broadcaster, clubland DJ and music industry maven is his ability to create a balance between credibility and commerciality and is not afraid to drop the hits on the decks. "People forget it's entertainment," Pete explains. "I wouldn't be doing this if I couldn't champion new music, but a mix is the key. And it's supposed to be fun."
I was pretty excited to see Pete for the first time because he's a name I've become familiar with through the BBC-One essential mixes. I can't even begin to tell you how many DJ mixes I've listened to with the BBC (Radio)-One call sign announced. You almost begin to expect to hear it while listening to any dance music mix.
I wish I could say I was as excited about the images I captured from the evening. I like some of the color in these shots, but I was very disappointed with the clarity and sharpness of the photos. I've been over-thinking my nightlife photography, trying to use different techniques to pull out more color and style in my shots. What's happened is that I'm getting vibrant the color but losing some of the crisp and clean, noise-free shots I've captured on recent outings.
The following are some of the better images from the gallery. To be perfectly honest with you, the best shot came during the opening DJ set. I had everything set correctly and just got a little happy with my exposure settings throughout the night. I really can't wait to get back out and continue to refine my nightlife style and try to correct some of my mistakes in these shots. In the meantime, enjoy these photos and please let me know what you think.
I honestly can't believe how time flies these days. I started thinking about writing a small review of the recent International Lindy Hop Championships the day it ended and next thing you know, we're half-way through September. So now I'm going to attempt to put into words the greatest and yet most disappointing Lindy Hop event I have ever attended.
Did that catch your attention? You don't expect to see the words "disappointment" and ILHC used together do you? It's not really what you might think.
Let me get this out right away...ILHC was amazing. I've been lucky enough to attend some of the biggestLindyHopevents around the country over the past two years. Almost all of them are fun simply because it's next to impossible to gather a large group of Lindy Hoppers into a town and not enjoy yourself. I think it's in our blood to have a good time. But ILHC is more than just fun. It's the perfect combination of talent, competition, innovation, organization and, yes, fun!
I walked away from the first ILHC feeling it had set the bar among dance competition weekends. Everything moved so smoothly and the transition from workshops to competitions to dances was seamless. And never before had I seen as many professional Lindy Hoppers in one room. Well the organizers of ILHC improved upon 2008 (seriously, was there even room to improve?) and made the 2009 version of ILHC even better. This year they had a Thursday night dance at the hotel, great bands, excellent DJs and even more professional dancers than the previous year. Not to mention, there was a crazy increase in the general level of dance talent. It's hard to imagine topping the inaugural event, but they did. I'd say it's safe to assume ILHC is now the premier Lindy Hop competition.
The Disappointment I hope it's clear by what I just wrote, ILHC is in no way a disappointment. No, the disappointment here is within me and my desires to improve as a dancer. I've gone back and forth over writing about this particular feeling. I don't want to come off as arrogant or selfish. And I don't ever want to assume I'm a better dancer than what I really am. But this is my blog, and this is where I can express myself and vent my frustrations. And with some encouragement from The Godfather and ILHC organizer Jerry Almonte, I'm going forward with it.
In 2008, I made the open jack and jill finals and placed 4th dancing with Krista Parrish. In 2009, I didn't make finals. You have no idea how upset I was over this. You see, I've taken to competitions because I see them as a chance to judge my progress, take in some constructive criticism and because they embody what Lindy Hop was in Harlem in the '30s. So when you feel like you've made tremendous progress over a year, you expect to either move up or place higher.
I've had a personal rule to stay in a certain division until I place in the top 3 of that division. Because of my 4th place finish last year, I figured I'd stay in the open level, hopefully place and then move up to advanced in 2010. Prelims are always interesting because you have no idea who you're going to be paired with. And more and more, you're not sure you'll even know the person you're dancing with. I've embraced this idea all along and usually go into these comps feeling pretty good now. That was until I was paired with a few dancers who couldn't swing out and couldn't follow a basic tandem charleston. (For the record, my second dance with Sharlene Choy was awesome!)
Like I said, I've always tried to be modest in rating my abilities as a dancer and understand what level I'm truly good enough to compete in. But not making finals a year after you've placed 4th is pretty hard to swallow. And then watching the finals knowing you could/and probably should be out there really left me wondering. I suppose I walk away wishing more dancers would employ a similar personal critique I use and understand there is a time and a place to compete. And maybe ILHC is not the best time to throw your hat into the competition field when there are basic skills you have not mastered. Trust me, I would love to be out there in the advanced level looking like I belong. But this is a competition. I know my limits. I just wish others did as well.
The Memory For me, there are a ton of memories to walk away with. We'll start with Thursday night, seeing a few of my JCC dance students show up. They sat along the back wall and were mesmerized by the effortless dancing of Carla Heiney. They watched Crista Seipp and Andreas Olsson put on a show - one that was leading up to the two winning the open strictly. Side note on that: you could just tell Andreas and Crista were poised to win. Watching them dance that first night, it was clear they were "on." They carried it all the way through the finals. DC!!!
But I digress... my second memory comes from Friday night, competing in the open strictly with Caroline Seipp on my birthday. When we walked on to the floor, the amount of cheering and happy birthday wishes really warmed my heart. One thing is certain among the lindy hop world, we're a close bunch and I couldn't have asked for a better birthday than to spend it with them.
My third memory and the one that stands out comes from the Champions strictly final. So much has been said about this one particular competition. Putting these dancers on a floor against each other makes for natural excitement and inspiration. But what we saw that Saturday night was more than dancing. It was the entire spirit of Lindy Hop take hold of two couples and engulf the entire crowd watching. The spotlights ended with the standard swing out line. Most of the couples went into their own thing. Skye and Frida and Max and Annie continued to swing out. They didn't stop until a few moments before the end of the song. Each swing out lifted the crowd higher and higher to the point everyone in the room was screaming for them. Watching Skye's face light up in the middle of all this, feeding off the crowd and the music is something I will probably never forget. This is why we dance!
The Summary You know, there really isn't much more I can say about ILHC 2009. If you didn't go this year, you missed out on one of the best Lindy Hop events of the year. Congrats to the winners and thank you to everyone who helped make the event possible.
On Wednesday, July 29th, I returned to Los Angeles, one of my favorite cities in the United States. I've had many people ask me why is this one of my favorite destinations? Surely the cough inducing smog, cluttered freeways and endless miles of sprawl would turn anyone off. But that's not the LA I see. It's not the LA that I fell in love with on my first visit and continued my love-affair with this time around. You see, to me LA is a combination of everything I want in a city.
As you'll see in these photos I shot, LA is photogenic. It's a city that has it all. It has an amazing skyline with fabulous architecture, historic buildings, art-deco influences and modern impulses. It's a city that has grit and glamour. It has walkable neighborhoods with cute boutiques, wonderful coffee shops, and awesome restaurants only natives know about. It has energy, excitement and a spice of chill with the nearby beaches. It's warm. It has palm trees. And the population is made of up virtually any walk of life you could imagine. Trash, sprawl, traffic...they go hand-in-hand with any major city. But try finding the same type of glamorous sun-drenched energy of Hollywood on the streets of Chicago.
But the other reason I'm drawn to LA is for Camp Hollywood and the amazing dancing found in this part of the country. Last year I came to Camp Hollywood only knowing what I saw in pictures and YouTube clips. This year I returned knowing exactly what the event was all about and why I enjoy it so much. We spent 5 days in the California sun enjoying the city, shopping, eating great food, relaxing at the pool and then dancing the night away, sometimes until sunrise.
This year I competed in the Amateur Strictly Lindy and the Amateur Jack and Jill competition. The strictly was a completely last minute decision with my good friend Lora Abe from Las Vegas. We didn't expect to make finals or place because we hadn't danced together in almost a year. But we had so much fun getting out there and winging it just for the hell of it. The Jack and Jill however, was something I had looked forward to since placing 10th last year. After some pretty stiff competition, I ended up placing 5th. On one hand you want to win these things. But on the other hand, I'm honored to have placed at a competition that hosts so many amazing dancers.
I think the highlight of the weekend for me was the Underground Jitterbug Championships. The UJC was started last year by Nick Peterson of Las Vegas and was a huge success because of the no holds barred approach to dancing and air steps. It's an unsanctioned jam format competition that starts at 2 a.m. and is literally anything goes. You'll see kips, waterfalls, pancakes and even people doing the worm. If you can get the crowd fired up, you move on. Lora and I considered entering and just throwing whatever aerials we knew. But starting a comp at 2:30 a.m. has us rethinking the idea and so we figured it was better to just watch and enjoy. The final two couples ended up being Tiffany Wine and Kenny Nelson from Denver matched up against Dax Hock and Max Pitruzzella. It was a full scale battle on the dance floor with Tiffany and Kenny getting the victory. I personally enjoyed seeing Dax toss Max in a lamp post and pancake, but you gotta hand it to those Denver folks throwing tricks right up until the final measure of music. The video is below...
Overall LA and Camp Hollywood was exactly what I expected it to be. It was great dancing, great people and a great city wrapped up into a mini-vacation. Stay tuned for my full Los Angeles photo gallery to be produced sometime in the next week...
I figured it was time to post some photos from a shoot with Swedish house music DJ John Dahlback. This is now the third year in a row that I've found myself shooting photos of a DJ the Thursday before a July 4th weekend. I think this year was the best so far because of the range of images I was able to capture along the way.
We started our evening on the terrace where I was able to catch some amazing shots of the club and the lasers permeating the crowd of house heads below. I also captured some shots of my friends who were happy to give their best Zoolander face and pose for some provocative silhouette shots throughout the club. Having friends who are models is so rad!
So the part of the evening I enjoyed most was finding the ability to shoot some of these shots with such a low ISO setting. ISO settings for non-photo geeks measures the sensitivity of the image sensor. The lower the number the less sensitive your camera is to light and the finer the grain. Higher ISO settings are generally used in darker situations to get faster shutter speeds (for example an indoor sports event when you want to freeze the action in lower light) - however the cost is noisier shots. You can see this in some of my previous photo galleries where either the lighting was poor or the DJ bounced all over the place and I needed to speed up my shutter to keep my subject from blurring across the shot.
By shooting with a higher sensitivity, my shots of John Dahlback came out much crisper than normal. This was specially satisfying knowing I can print these shots in a much larger format now because the grain was kept to a minimum. It also doesn't hurt that the lighting in the Ultra Bar DJ booth is brimming in blue illumination.
The following are a few more shots from the evening. The complete gallery can be seen right here on dougvansant.com. Enjoy...
Well a small little era of lindy hop in DC has come to an end. And it's a bitter-sweet moment for me after working so hard to build a weekly night of dancing at downtown nightclub Muse Lounge.
After much discussion with the folks at Gottaswing and assorted players in the DC swing dance world, we all agreed to postpone our new series of classes and weekly dances until September. If Muse Lounge is down and we can attract more students, we'll return to this downtown venue before we know it.
But that brings me to the bitter part of all of this. I have to be perfectly honest with you all in saying I'm highly disappointed. Sure, I finally get one night off during the week to myself now. But that's not really the point, nor is it a true silver lining in all of this. The fact is, Tempo at Muse is postponed until September because very few were willing to support it. We started out very strongly with an average of 10 or 12 students in each class and about 30 dancers showing up. The range went from ridiculously good to fresh out of our first class beginners. The venue has a nice, strong air conditioner, a full service bar and a pretty darn nice sound system. Even the floor was pretty nice, soft and above all, clean! There were couches along the wall for people to relax in and you really couldn't beat being one block from 3 metro lines. I had even booked a solid rotation with some of DC's best swing-era DJs.
Our high point was having The Loose Marbles come through town. We had over 100 dancers squeeze into this venue with a bevy of the top names in Lindy Hop tearing up the dance floor right in front of the hot jazz combo. In my opinion, it was one of the better nights of dancing in DC because it was a combination of amazing music and dancers all thrown into this beautiful nightclub. I remember saying to some folks, this is quite literally what the social life was like back in the days of the Savoy in Harlem. Ballrooms were to dancers in the '30s what nightclubs are to so many today. So here we were, blending these two era's into something that really worked.
Fast forward a few weeks. Our dance has a total of 6 people. I can't even remember how many actually paid because I think 2 or 3 were from the class. We couldn't even pay our DJ for an hour worth of time so Lily took money out of her own pocket. How does a dance go from over 100 to 6 within just a few weeks? Maybe it was a just one of those nights? Maybe it was the rain? Who knows???
It didn't get any better the next week. Or the next. Or the next. Finally we book the Red Hot Rhythm Chiefs for the final week of our classes. We get about 30 people to show up. It was fun. The music was great! The venue rocked once again. But it was nothing like the success we had captured before. And clearly there was a large segment of the DC dance scene avoiding Muse Lounge.
At this point I guess there isn't a whole lot to be said other than I'm definitely confused. I'm confused at how a lindy hop scene can sit back so proudly and pat themselves on the back for having such a vibrant scene, yet won't support the majority of dance nights thrown their way. I'm always so embarrassed when people come from other cities thinking DC is "the shit" when it comes to having a dance scene. They know about the Jam Cellar. That's a no brainer. But they're always so surprised and disappointed when there isn't more dancing options throughout the week. Sure, we have CCB. We have Glen Echo. But we all know there is a large number of people who won't support those venues either. And frankly, some times the music leaves a whole lot to be desired.
Such as it is, we have venues. We have sheer numbers that other cities would die for. We have talent between DC and Baltimore that is unreal. But for some reason we can't seem to build upon these things. I have no clue why. Maybe it's politics? Maybe it's personal? As far as I'm concerned, politics and personal beefs have no place in dancing. Dancing should be that outlet to forget all that crap and simply have fun and be moved by amazing music. It's why we do this. It's why Frankie and his crew did it in Harlem.
Hopefully in September we'll return. Maybe we'll have a better marketing approach. Maybe we'll figure out the key to getting more dancers out. Who knows. For now we just lost another chance to engage in one of our passions in this great city.
A few weeks ago a group of us from DC traveled up to NYC for the Frankie 95 memorial celebration. This was a 5 day Lindy Hop festival celebrating Frankie Manning, the man we all look up to as one of the original Savoy Ballroom dancers and a true ambassador of Lindy Hop. The event was inspiring, exciting, moving and at times very hard to enduring knowing we had lost such a great person.
But like all true lindy hoppers, we took the celebration as a chance to do what it is we do best... have fun! If there was one thing I know Frankie Manning would have wanted of the weekend, it was that everyone was dancing, smiling and having the time of their lives. With that said, the weekend was a massive success.
One thing that I knew would bring a smile to my face was the chance to explore Manhattan with my camera. I knew time would be limited, so I had to pick and choose when I could seriously enjoy the urban fabric of this great city. I was given a golden opportunity to get my start shooting nightlife photos at Cielo, one of the powerhouse clubs of New York on Thursday night, May 21st. I figured this would be a great way to kick off the weekend because Thursday night events at dance weekends tend to be the slower of the evenings activities. So Manuel Ferdinandus and I hopped a cab for the meatpacking district and found ourselves shooting photos in what is regarded as one of the top house music clubs in the U.S.
Shooting photos in Cielo was a bit challenging because it's not a very large club. And the DJ booth is actually quite small. The best way to describe this venue is it's a glorified recording studio. Seriously, it's one room about the size of a moderately sized clothing store with one of the top sound systems ever constructed. The walls and ceilings are covered with a soft material and padding, giving the room the acoustics you'd expect in a recording studio. One giant crystal ball hangs in the center of the sunken dance floor which is flanked with VIP tables facing out around the room.
The club has a small patio for those wishing to get some fresh air or smoke, but that's basically it. I think the thing I really enjoyed about this venue was that despite the high-level design and attractive people coming and going, it's clear Cielo is all about the music. After shooting for several hours and shaking hands with house music ambassador Frankie Knuckles, Manny and I decided to wander the neighborhood and see what we could find. It was clear the Meatpacking District was a see and be seen type of district. Most of the clubs had long lines of trend-setting style mavens hoping to squeeze their way past NFL sized bouncers upholding an iron-fist like command of guestlists and tables.
At one point, with camera's in hand, Manny and I were mistaken for paparazzi. As you'll see in my "Meatpacking District" gallery, we found several beautiful cars parked in front of one of the more popular clubs. It wasn't the fact that a Lamborghini was parked in front of a club that caught our attention. It was the orange construction cones that were placed on top of said fancy car that had me grabbing my camera. It was at that point a large group of nocturnal participants began mingling close by. One of them coyly asked, "are you guys paparazzi? who's inside???"
Manny and I simply said... we can't tell you, it would compromise our jobs.
Long story short, this trip to New York City was dedicated to shooting photos in this ultra-hip district that was once known more for butchers rather than bling. But after spending Thursday evening and part of Saturday in the neighborhood, I think I captured some of the spirit as best I could on limited time. Enjoy...
I'm falling behind on my blog updates, so I figured it was time to get everyone up to speed on all the happenings in DC. Last week was absolutely incredible in the amount of energy and things to do. We had dancing, we had playoff hockey, we had great food and we had mothers day. No rest for the weary!
So as most of you know, I've started hosting a weekly lindy hop dance at Muse Lounge. We call the dance "Tempo" and it's typically DJ'd by some of our local jazz music talents. About a month ago when all of this was announced, Lily Matini sent me a note asking if Muse could handle a band. This is a lounge/nightclub in downtown that usually has house music DJs pumping tunes while go-go dancers strut their stuff on perfectly positioned podiums throughout the venue. So my first reaction was... nah!
But Lily kept after me, we talked with the GM and we quickly learned they in fact could handle live music. So the table was set to bring in New Orleans jazz band The Loose Marbles. Most dancers in the lindy hop world know of Loose Marbles because they were the band who performed the music for the competitions this past year at ULHS. So when we announced this band was coming to DC, reception was very broad and positive.
Well last Wednesday night the Marbles performed to a packed house at Muse. We had over 100 people show up on a rainy night in the middle of the week to see this band. I didn't even dance that much because I was too busy socializing and just enjoying the sight of so many dancers showing the DC love to the band. It was a special night to say the least.
I want to send out a special thank you to Lee Tucker for DJing the band breaks, Paul Roth for taking these photos, Debra Sternberg for booking the band and Ms. Lily Matini for being the thorn in my side to make all this happen. And thank you to the 100-plus dancers who came out to support one of the truely talented bands of our time!
As most of you already know, this week has been quite the emotional roller coaster. On Monday morning the Lindy Hop world lost our beloved Frankie Manning. He touched all of us dancers more than we could have imagined and so his loss hit pretty hard. So we spent the day mourning and then honored his legacy by dancing the night away. We continued remembering this amazing man last night with a memorial tribute at The Jam Cellar. Ann Mony and Steve "DC" Grimes put together a beautiful video, several dancers told personal stories about their time with Frankie and we all did the Shim Sham.
Between all the reflection and memorials, I had tickets to game 7 of the Capitals Stanley Cup playoff game against the Rangers. On one hand I felt like I needed to mourn longer. But on the other hand, Frankie lived his life with such joy and happiness and would want us to do the same. So last night prior to The Jam Cellar, I attended what I think goes down as the greatest sports event I've ever seen in person.
Last Wednesday night, the Caps lost to the Rangers, 2-1 in game 4. The loss put the Caps down 3 games to 1 in the opening round series. Teams coming back from a 3-1 deficit is about as rare as finding a democrat that lowers taxes. It just doesn't happen very often. So I think the entire DC region shrugged off the loss and figured it was yet another first round exit for this incredibly talented hockey team. I mean, how would the Caps come back from this?
Two games and five days later, the Caps find themselves battling the Rangers in game 7 with the series tied 3-3. The Caps were at home. DC was rockin' the red! Everything was in their favor. We had tickets to the game and you can bet we were going to scream as loud as humanly possible to help bring our franchise a playoff series win. But the Caps didn't show up for the start of the game. Oh, the players were on the ice. But the team was thoroughly dominated in the first two periods. The Rangers scored first and the Caps followed to tie the game, but clearly New York wanted it more.
Then the third period began. You could sense the Caps finding their game. You could see simple possessions were now on the Ranger end of the ice and not stuck behind the Caps net. The Caps had 2 shots on goal in the first period while NY had 8. The Caps had 13 in the 3rd period and held NY to just one. It had to happen. It was going to happen. Caps nation was about to explode as scoring chances mounted. Then with 4:59 left in the game, Russian superstar and NHL veteran Sergei Fedorov beat Ranger goaltender Henrik Lundqvist to give the Caps a 2-1 lead. I've never seen an arena erupt with such celebration and emotion. You just knew the team that scored would win. For the final 5 minutes of the game, the crowd stood chanting C. A. P. S. Caps, Caps, Caps!!! I've never seen anything like it.
The Caps won. DC moves on in the playoffs. And in honor of Frankie Manning, I danced, cheered, and laughed all night long. What a roller coaster ride!
Below are two more small and crappy images I shot with my phone. The one above and just below are from inside the arena and the third is the crowd spilling out into the streets of DC.
Today is very sad day! This morning, April 27, 2009, Frankie Manning, a friend, teacher and inspiration to myself and dancers around the world passed away. He was 94 and is survived by friends and family and the dance he helped create.
There has been so much said about Frankie over the years that I can't possibly begin to sum up everything he meant to us. What I can do is explain what he meant to me and why this man was such an inspiration to the world of dance. You see, Frankie was one of the original Lindy Hoppers. Little did he know back in Harlem, running around with his friends and hitting up ballrooms to dance his butt off, that he was creating an American dance that would be alive and well decades later. Frankie was creating moves because he loved dancing and performing. He tore up the Savoy Ballroom floor so many times because he loved the spirit of Jazz and Lindy Hop.
When I first started dancing Lindy Hop, I knew very little about the dance, the history, or this man who helped cultivate it. My ex-wife passed along a photo she had taken with him while she was still out in California. It was then I started looking into the history of the dance to learn about Frankie. I then found out I'd have the chance to meet Frankie myself when Tom & Debra of Gottaswing announced their annual Frankie Weekend Workshop. Around that time, I bought his book and started reading. I finished the book about a week before he arrived in town with the utmost respect for this man. I almost felt, because of my passion for Lindy Hop, that Frankie was like a brother to me. Reading his stories and hearing how down to earth this living legend was, connected you to his soul. Here he was, 93 years-old, teaching, dancing and living life to the fullest surrounded by the dance he loved eternally. And because of this, dancers all over loved him eternally.
I had an amazing opportunity to interview Frankie for the AARP that weekend. And of course I took many pictures from the events. Talking to him about his life was one of the coolest things I think I have ever done. It was such an honor to sit there, cameras rolling, listening to this man talk about all the things he did, the people he knew and places he went. Words can't even describe what it's like meeting a legend like that, knowing this person had such an impact on the very hobby you love so much. Half the time I wanted to listen, the other half I just wanted to thank him...for being Frankie.
Today is a very sad day. The dance world lost a true legend. And for Lindy Hoppers all over the world, we lost a friend. But we all share his spirit in our hearts. We know Frankie lived every day to the fullest with a smile on his face and in his heart. And we know his passion and energy was communicated to us through his feet every time he moved. Even up until a few weeks ago when he led the Shim Sham at Lindy Fest in Houston, Frankie was moving with the energy of a 21 year-old. He was happy. His job here was complete. He inspired us and gave us that passion and energy to carry his message of dance forward. From this day on, we will live and dance for you Frankie! We'll miss you!!!
So I thought about posting this photo in the "Random Photo of the Day" section but there was just too much of a story to go with it.
I just returned from Lindy Fest in Houston and was greeted by this photo waiting for me in my inbox from my buddy Stephen Grimes. The photo comes from Lindy Focus, which a large group of us attended in Asheville, NC over the New Year's weekend. I honestly can't recall which night the photo was taken, but the band performing was our favorite Boilermaker Jazz Band.
What makes this photo so absolutely hilarious was the fact that we noticed this cat walking around with the Boilermaker t-shirt. As James 'Droz' Andrews (Jeremy Piven) says in the movie PCU, "Gutter, don't be that guy. Don't be the guy who wears the shirt of the band you're going to see!"
Seeing this as a photo opportunity, Stephen and I put on our best rock-on pose with the guy wearing the shirt of the band he's going to see.
...I just love the stain in the middle of his shirt. Priceless!
Update: I found video from the strictly lindy finals! It was a phrased battle and ended with an all-skate. Video embedded below...
I'm still trying to get the prelims on YouTube, so come back and I might have that posted as well.
I just returned from Austin, Texas yesterday where I was competing in the Lone Star Championships. I had never really been to Texas except for my drive through Amarillo when I moved back to the east coast, so I figured it was time to explore this corner of the country. I had also started meeting some cool dancers from the area and figured this lindy event was worth the trip. My good friend Stephen Grimes wanted to go as well because one of his good friends lives in Austin and it would be a good chance for him to try his hand in competing. So off we went last Thursday into the part of Texas locals call "weird." Or as Austinites say... "not really Texas."
We spent the first part of our day checking out a portion of downtown, checking into the hotel and enjoying the 80 degree weather this capital city offered us. Our first stop was a pub on the famous 6th Street where we enjoyed a local beer and an excellent burger. I can't recall the name of the joint, but the live music was great and we got to see a guy so drunk he fell off his bar stool...at 1 in the afternoon! After lunch I walked around with my camera while Steve took off for his friends place just north of the city. I was able to shoot some fantastic shots of the capitol building, have a coffee while sitting outside and just enjoy some down time before the weekend of dancing. The above photo was shot Thursday evening just before I went to dinner downtown and off to the opening dance.
Friday was pretty nice because the weather remained in the 80s, which was perfect to explore even more of the city. The photo below comes from my afternoon of wandering. I know some of the locals hate this condo tower because they think it takes away from the character of the city. But it was my favorite building downtown and one of the more impressive condo towers I've seen in the many cities I've visited.
Friday night was the official opening of the Lone Star Championships and it included several competitions. The event was held at the Texas State Women's Federation building, which was a massive mansion with a large ballroom along the back of the building. I didn't have any comps Friday night, but it was a good chance to catch up with friends like Mike Roberts, Laura Glaess, Carl Nelson, Teni Lopez-Cardenas, Andrew Munoz, Rye Crowen, Andrew Thigpen, Yossef Mendelssohn and many others.
Saturday was the real meat of the schedule for me because I had two comps scheduled. The first was the Advanced Jack and Jill. This is where you enter as an individual and are randomly paired with a partner. Overall I felt it was a good competition but I knew the chances of making the finals would be tough based on the number of amazing leads entered. Needless to say, I wasn't one of the 5 (or six, can't remember) selected. The good news in that was the final were Sunday, so even if I had made it, my flight was at 7 a.m. Sunday morning.
The next comp was the strictly lindy where you enter as a couple. My original plan was to do it with a friend from New York, but I wasn't sure she'd make it to Texas. So I asked my friend Beth Hartzel from Nashville if she'd do it with me. She said yes and so later that afternoon Beth and I proceeded to kill it in the prelims. Here's where I need to make a special note. I've often heard about dancers finding a connection with their partner and getting into a "special" zone during competitions. I've been wondering when my time would come. When would I feel that connection where everything you do just works? Well this is when it happened for me. Beth and I were just on. I can't really explain anything about the feeling except we nailed every move we tried and just timed everything perfectly. When the fast song came on, we did about 8 swing outs in a row as the crowd cheered louder each time. We didn't know if we'd make finals or not (again, the competitions was amazing), but we both knew we just danced our asses off.
While at dinner, a local dancer says to me "hey, you made finals in the strictly." I was like... uh, sweet!!! So Saturday night Beth and I competed in a phrased battle style finals where we again proceeded to nail everything we tried. My only complaint was being the first couple out to start it, but otherwise I had an absolute blast! I can't recall another competition where I've felt so comfortable on the floor. Everything at Lone Star just came together for a perfect night of lindy. I also can't thank Beth and Yossef enough for being there. Hopefully I'll find some video of my dances soon. In the meantime, here's a photo from the finals...
Overall Austin is a great city with great people. And the Lone Star Championships was a well run and well attended event. I will most certainly be back next year!
Some of you have probably noticed the acronym ELHC floating around the past few days and wondered what it stood for. Like a number of Lindy Hop events, it follows the same format other events like ALHC, ILHC, ULHS, etc., etc. But ELHC is not one lindy event. It stands for "Every Lindy Hopper Counts." ELHC is a propaganda video that surfaced at Lindy Focus in response to a daily late night video being shown by some of the Lindy Focus instructors. Let me explain the details...
Like most dance events, Lindy Focus had late nights. Late nights tend to start around 1 a.m. and can last until sunrise or a set time like 4 or 5 a.m. Some are heavy with blues, while others are Lindy Hop til you drop type dances. Lindy Focus had a large room dedicated to Lindy Hop and a small room for blues. To be honest, the blues room was just a place to go to set up your hookups for the night. (it's not really a secret anymore ya know)
So in order to encourage dancers to participate in late night, instructors Dave Madison and Andrew Sutton decided they would hold a count at the end of the night. They would count how many people were from which city and the next day they would announce it at the camp meeting. In the end, the city who had the most dancers at late night got recognition. Dave and Andrew also shot humorous videos each night that parodied the late nights and the things that go down past 5 a.m. The videos were a riot!
Long story short, DC had been killing it each night. We had a solid number of folks in for the event and were representing quite well in the comps and staying out all hours of the night. We also had the reputation for hosting the most parties in our rooms, which always seemed to be ours. So on the third night, we decided DC would take over the late night. We had about 12 people in the room around 5:30 a.m. At one point we were even doing the worm and dancing to Boy's 2 Men. Hey, there's not much more you can do at 6 a.m. to keep going. So at 6:10 a.m., Dave Madison strolls in and takes the count. DC rolled!
The next day we find out the Dave and Andrew came back in the room at 6:30 and said "now that the posers are gone, we're going to take a second count." At the camp meeting, DC was counted as having only 3 people in the room...two were in the DJ booth. As Stephen Grimes said... "not cool man!!!" He actually wasn't that serious, and we did laugh at the movie that was shown that parodied the people sleeping in the counter of the room just to get counted. But as true dancers at any dance event, we decided it was time to get even. So we began to circulate word of ELHC. Some thought it was an underground comp. Some wondered if a new event was happening this year in DC. But others knew it was a viral campaign to turn around and poke fun at our light night counting instructors.
So we got to work early that evening planning our video. We used various characters from the event and pulled off what I think was one of the funniest little ploys I've seen at a lindy event. The next night we showed it to Dave and Andrew and they agreed to show it as that nights "late night" video. The entire Lindy Focus crowd laughed in hysterics at the parody of Dave Madison and his raver pants. And using Davis on his knees as Andrew Sutton (who is decidedly shorter than Dave) was priceless, specially when they held hands. So what you see below is the video that made waves at Lindy Focus and could be the start of a tradition going forward.
Side note: We want to thank Dave Madison, Andrew Sutton and Andrew Thigpen for being such good sports and supporting us in showing the video at Lindy Focus. Seriously, it was all in good fun and I think we all had an absolute blast producing it.
I've been a bit out of the loop for the last week because I've been in Asheville, NC since the day after Christmas for Lindy Focus. LF is a six-day dance camp and competition that attracts some of the best dancers from around the country. This was my first year at Lindy Focus and I was joined by fellow DC dancers Steve Grimes, Manuel Ferdinandus, Ann Mony and Jerry "The Godfather" Almonte. There were a bunch of other DC dancers in the mix, but that would be too many to list.
So we left DC on Friday, Dec. 26th and drove down to Ashville. The drive took about 9 hours because we made a visit to The Green Bean, one of my favorite coffeehouses in Greensboro. By the time we arrived to the hotel we were a bit loopy but ready to dance our butts off. The entire event was absolutely amazing. It was basically eat, drink, and sleep Lindy Hop. Heck, we really didn't even sleep.
I competed in the advanced jack and jill on Saturday evening. I had some great partners but it definitely wasn't one of my better comps. Oh well, that's life in the competitive dance world and there's always next time. Our roomie Ann also competed in the JnJ and the Strictly Lindy comp and kicked some serious tail in a final that included her and Terrace Ellis doing battle with Carl Nelson and Teni Lopez-Cardenas. All I can say is... HOT!!!
The highlight of the camp though, has got to be the creation of ELHC. I'm planning to post about it just after this post goes live but for now here are some photos from the event. Two are from a night when Mr. Grimes and I snuck away from the hotel to shoot the downtown Asheville skyline with the sun setting behind the mountains. The final two photos are from New Year's Eve when myself, Steve, Manny, Amy Tran, Laura Jackson, Davis Thurber, Marc-Andre Vachon and Gina Helf all enjoyed a nice dinner at Table in downtown Asheville. Enjoy...
Ever since we competed together at ALHC, Kelly has wanted to shoot more videos of us social dancing so we could work on some things and see how we look. The following is a video she posted on her blog of us dancing one Monday evening at the Chevy Chase Ballroom. It's not the best of videos, but it's kinda cool to throw on the blog for friends and family to see. Enjoy...
Welcome to urban marinade...a blog that lets you stew in the cultural crock pot of Washington, DC. I'm here to rant and rave about anything and everything in my little urban world. Generally speaking, that includes nightlife, photography, dancing and DC urban development. So there!
I recently got around to posting a few more galleries on my site and wanted to share with you this collection from a night with Pete Tong at Glow.
