HAWKEYE SWING FESTIVAL 2007!
Okay. The Swing Festival officially began when Me, Leslie, Neb, and Kristin all met to head over to the Old Brick for Friday night dancing. I was the navigator (I know, bad idea huh? but no I got us there perfectly) and they said they were so happy to have me navigating them from the parking garage to the Old Brick. When we got there we got swing festival passes (ooh laminated!) and were all ready to dance! I was "shocked" to see Casey there (I thought he might be... his phone call asking when we'd be there was a little cryptic and I wondered if it meant his rehearsal had been cancelled - but I like letting him surprise me!) and we all started dancing.
Here I'm happy to spend the night swinging with Casey. We really worked on our "style!" that night because everyone there was SO good and quite stylish.
The band was really good, especially the singer, but the problem with dancing to a live band is that you get VERY tired because they draw their songs out so long! I don't have the stamina for live band dances - my calves scream at me. Here's an example of the dancing, and in this photo see if you can find Neb, Casey, and Kristin! ->
Leslie and I had set up our Cornell group's home base over in the corner chairs, and Froze (AH! COLD!!!!) when Michael "I'm-an-amazing-dancing-cartoon-character" Brafford opened up the window behind us. We tried to keep the curtian in place for awhile, but after the competitions (which we just watched - Leslie and I chickened out of the Jack & Jill competition but decided after seeing it that we totally could have done it and are going to next year) we just closed it. Here Leslie and I cuddle for warmth:
Matthew asked why so little of the Cornell crew had come because it was just the four of us! The rest of us weren't coming until tomorrow, and we mentioned that Ashleigh had come too but not with us and didn't really hang out with us at all. Here's Me, Leslie, and Neb:
My favorite dance of the night was to the band's rendition of "Rockin' Robin" which was a LOT of fun. The whole night was a blast. Time flew by and the Cornellians ended up staying way later than they intended just because it was so fun. The competitions - especially the fast dance - were incredible.
After the dance I ended up staying in Iowa City (obviously) so Leslie drove me and Casey to Anomy and we pointed her towards the fastest way home. We had to get up early the next morning because our first class was at 9:15 am! I kept bugging Casey that we were going to be late so we rushed over to Brugger's for some breakfast and then headed to the IMU for registration. We were already checked in because of the dance last night, and we were way earlier than we needed to be. So at 9:10 we headed to where Jazz Basics, our first class of the day, was being held over at the Old Brick. But it was empty! WHA? Where was everybody? I got frustrated because I knew that's where we were supposed to be and we decided they pry just weren't there yet, and that we should head back to the IMU and try to catch them on their way or something. ("YES! THIS HILL!") We walked all the way there and all the way back. Class started late obviously. I was very excited to see the other Cornellians - Robyn, Page, Leslie, Josiah, Lucio, Neb, Casey and I were all in Jazz Basics together!
We learned the SHIM SHAM! (Ian "I-have-a-stick-up-my-butt-about-the-shim-sham" MacDonald would have been so ashamed of us!) It's essentially a choreographed swing line dance, and we learned it and all its jazzy steps and some variations and had a really good time. Haha held magic:
Lucio: "So is the *magic* on beat six?"
I really liked the silly walks we learned at the end. I can't WAIT to go to the Merc and show off my frankie manning shim sham skills - they love that silly dance there!
After that we hung around, and a lot of people split to go to Vintage Blues (which I hear was sexy) but Me, Casey, Neb, Page, and Lucio stuck around for Lindy Basics I. Casey and I already know the Lindy, but our footwork and technique is SLOPPY and in most cases nonexistant, so it was good to get a nice sense of the basic elements of the dance. We learned the six count Lindy first, (walk, walk, triplestep, triplestep) with Billy and Lindsey which was a little frustrating at first because it went slow and I wasn't sure I was learning much (I realized by the end of the class that I was actually learning a ton) and then also frustrating because they talked SO much while we were standing waiting to try out what they were still TALKING about. I swear Billy explained the everything four different ways, and I thought he was talking about 4 different things, which was confusing. When I figured out what he was talking about, things went much more smoothly. However, I think it was a very valuable lesson, and I DO love the six count lindy, what a cute fun dance.
Then for lunch the five of us went to BWW - YUM! Neb bragged about how manly he is and how many blazin he can eat, which we rolled our eyes at, and we introduced Lucio to the magic that is BWW. I LOVE that he's a huge wimp about spicy things and just doesn't enjoy them, because we have that in common. Mmm honey bbq and ranch...
After Lunch we headed back for Lindy Basics II. Everything was always late this weekend, so class didn't start right exactly on time and we had got to just chill awhile and let our wings digest. We, as is demonstrated by this picture, were already getting quite tired from our first two workshops:
But we perked up and started goofing around. Here Casey was holding me in a nice dancey pose, and then decided to pretend to drop me right as Page took the photo. I however, did not notice, and continued to smile. We'll attribute that to my trust that Casey would never drop me. ->
Lindy Basics II was also helpful, but a little slow, with a lot of talking, which made me antsy to dance. I think the most helpful things we covered were that toaster concept, reviewing footwork, and the look-over-the-shoulder thing. We rotated a lot, and I was always happy to get back to Casey.
After Lindy Basics II we ran (cause class got out late) over to Lindy Chorus I, which was back at the IMU with the other instructors Joel and ... funny girl. They were from california and very funny. "Boo-tre!" I loved their teaching style! They'd show you something which would look extremely complicated and absolutely impossible, but before you had a chance to freak out they'd make you try it, and then they'd break it down step by step with lots of silly little ways to help remember it, and then they'd have you practice each bit and the transitions with a bunch of different people because we rotated SO often. It worked because then if you didn't get it with one person, or the next, or the next, maybe the next person would help clue you in, and suddenly you'd get it! The class was really a little too advanced for me and Casey, but we survived and could DO IT by the end! It was absolutely amazing! I can't believe how hard they worked us though or how tough some of the things were to get. here's some of the more amusing parts that I could remember:
- the performance lindy smiley thing
- the circle and STOP! run run spins with kick steps to the corner
- the inline charleston into chays charleston transition (ack hard)
- the susie Q step that was pretty fun and a nice break between hard stuff!
- the 3 shimmy thing
- point, point, shakey, shakey!
- all those jazz steps (I liked the cross spin and the step with the slide because I felt cool doing it!)
It was SO hard to put it all together though. When we'd finally learned it all the instructors asked if we wanted to do it again and the entire crowd yelled "NOO!!!" because we were so exhausted. I think everyone went back and took a nap, cause by then it was five and we'd danced all day since 9am, and had just completed the deadly Lindy Chorus choreography. I know I did! I got back and just FELL ASLEEP, like dead asleep unintentionally on Casey's bed. He tried to talk to me, realized I was asleep, and covered me up, which was very sweet. Apparently he made toast awhile later and tried to wake me up for a snack but I was just gone. I didn't wake up 'til he kissed me and then I was a little startled! We made a linguini thing and I woke up, and we headed over to the theatre building to see Ghost Sonata in the Mabie. It's an old play and the author was this crazy lonely man who wrote it while on absinthe, but apparently it's genius. While the imagery, set, and acting were all good, I didn't appreciate the story at all. The moral basically was: Everyone you know is a terrible person that lies and cheats and kills, and the only person that doesn't and that tries to call out people for what they really are, will die alone in a madhouse. It was pretty depressing.
We remedied the depression with some delicious delicious DQ. Casey, being his usual Casey self decided to try something he'd never had before that had a potential to be disgusting, and ordered a pumpkin shake. I didn't particularly like it, but he did. Ick. I went in thinking I wanted to try the Kit-Kat blizzard because the commercials made it seem heavenly, but had decided just to get my usual, a butterfinger blizzard, when Casey pushed me to try the kit-kat one. It was delicious for sure, and I'm glad I tried something new. However, I still think the butterfinger one is better. We laughed quite a bit at DQ.
We then went back and got dressed for the dance. I felt particularly cute in my last-year's-culture-show shirt and swing capris with a bright blue ribbon in my hair. The fun thing about swing dancing is that you can put a piece of ribbon tied into a big bow in your ponytail and still fit right in. I felt adorable and had a great time. Well, I chickened out of the Lindy Chorus performance at the dance when Casey and I messed up the beginning, and felt sorry that I got so frustrated and quit so quickly. We practiced it facing one direction and it was hard to duplicated it, the dance being so hard as it is, when we flipped it to face the other way. Robyn and Ian also got flustered and left the routine half-way through. Casey was a little bugged at me because it was just supposed to be fun and I got all flustered and gave up. I forgot that somewhere along the way. I mean, I was in the back anyway, who cares if we mess up? Idk what my deal was. But anyway the rest of the dance was a lot of fun. We didn't stay terribly long though because it had been a long day.
The Swing Festival was certainly a humbling experience. There were so many amazing dancers there. I used to think like, okay, I'm not a beginner swing dancer, and I'm not like Advanced but I felt pretty confident about my status as a good dancer for intermediate. In that crowd I felt in the lower intermediate bracket. *pout. They're sooooo amazing. Casey and I decided that we'll strive to be better, but we're okay that we'll probably never be THAT good. jeebus. What I liked about all the rotating in Lindy Chorus though was seeing that NOBODY could do the whole thing flawlessly and that everyone had at least one trouble spot, and that everyone messed up, and that it was okay, and we were just having fun and learning something new and very challanging. It was a blast.
Sunday class didn't start until 10:15 - thankfully. We met up with the Cornell People again and Casey navigated us through the Field House to find our room for Dips and Tricks. It was the SUPER HOT room we had Musicality in last year, but since it wasn't 90 million degrees this year, it was actually quite nice. Since it was dips and tricks, we were given the option to not rotate if we didn't want to, and form a little colony of people we'd feel comfortable with. Casey, Leslie and I totally colonized! It was good cause I didn't really feel okay with strangers tossing me and potentially dropping me, and neither did Leslie, but we trusted Casey and his judo skills not to drop us. We learned three really cool moves. The first one was a variation on the basic dip more technically explained (which is Good for Casey) and the next one was like a backwards drop with a pop thing, and then the last one was a bit like sidecars, but cooler and with a potentially nice pose. It was a loooooot of fun (other than crashing hip bones) and I think Casey, Leslie, and I worked well together. Woot!
Then we went to Lindy Charleston, with Joel and Alison (the funny/HARD instructors from Lindy Chorus) who taught us a whole bunch of Charleston stuff, like kicks and spins and inline and chays and tucks and stuff, and put it all into a choreographed line of moves that was really challanging but the good kind of challange. I'll admit when I first saw them do it all my jaw dropped like "omg. i'm way out of my league. there's NO way I can do that" but by the end of class after TONS of rotations and breaking down the steps, Casey and I could do it! And we did it again on Monday, so we retained it as well! I remember Casey saying that it was fun to get me in the rotations cause it was like getting a fun cute new partner that he danced really well with, which was exciting and that he loved that. made me smile too cause he got so into the charleston one. I do love to charleston.
After lunch, for which we walked ALL the way to Jimmy John's from the field house (it was a nice day so we survived, but we were already so tired from the workshops that it was rough on the calves), we all decided to at least go to the first class of Balboa. I got a little confused and frustrated with the footwork, but when Casey reminded me that it was just about having fun and practicing our leading and following and connection, I regained my enthusiasm to have a wonderful time. My arches and calves were screaming at me, but all in all I think Casey and I were balboaing better than most of the people in the room by the end of it. Pry cause we weren't afraid to get close, and weren't rotating. I think it was an extremely beneficial class. Afterwards though we were too dead to continue on with Balboa II, the last workshop of the festival, and turned in early.
THE FESTIVAL WAS AMAZING. Time to go to Slick Shoes and help teach people what we learned!
In other swing news, I'm running unopposed for VP of Slick Shoes! Score!
Here I'm happy to spend the night swinging with Casey. We really worked on our "style!" that night because everyone there was SO good and quite stylish.
The band was really good, especially the singer, but the problem with dancing to a live band is that you get VERY tired because they draw their songs out so long! I don't have the stamina for live band dances - my calves scream at me. Here's an example of the dancing, and in this photo see if you can find Neb, Casey, and Kristin! ->
Leslie and I had set up our Cornell group's home base over in the corner chairs, and Froze (AH! COLD!!!!) when Michael "I'm-an-amazing-dancing-cartoon-character" Brafford opened up the window behind us. We tried to keep the curtian in place for awhile, but after the competitions (which we just watched - Leslie and I chickened out of the Jack & Jill competition but decided after seeing it that we totally could have done it and are going to next year) we just closed it. Here Leslie and I cuddle for warmth:
Matthew asked why so little of the Cornell crew had come because it was just the four of us! The rest of us weren't coming until tomorrow, and we mentioned that Ashleigh had come too but not with us and didn't really hang out with us at all. Here's Me, Leslie, and Neb:
My favorite dance of the night was to the band's rendition of "Rockin' Robin" which was a LOT of fun. The whole night was a blast. Time flew by and the Cornellians ended up staying way later than they intended just because it was so fun. The competitions - especially the fast dance - were incredible.
After the dance I ended up staying in Iowa City (obviously) so Leslie drove me and Casey to Anomy and we pointed her towards the fastest way home. We had to get up early the next morning because our first class was at 9:15 am! I kept bugging Casey that we were going to be late so we rushed over to Brugger's for some breakfast and then headed to the IMU for registration. We were already checked in because of the dance last night, and we were way earlier than we needed to be. So at 9:10 we headed to where Jazz Basics, our first class of the day, was being held over at the Old Brick. But it was empty! WHA? Where was everybody? I got frustrated because I knew that's where we were supposed to be and we decided they pry just weren't there yet, and that we should head back to the IMU and try to catch them on their way or something. ("YES! THIS HILL!") We walked all the way there and all the way back. Class started late obviously. I was very excited to see the other Cornellians - Robyn, Page, Leslie, Josiah, Lucio, Neb, Casey and I were all in Jazz Basics together!
We learned the SHIM SHAM! (Ian "I-have-a-stick-up-my-butt-about-the-shim-sham" MacDonald would have been so ashamed of us!) It's essentially a choreographed swing line dance, and we learned it and all its jazzy steps and some variations and had a really good time. Haha held magic:
Lucio: "So is the *magic* on beat six?"
I really liked the silly walks we learned at the end. I can't WAIT to go to the Merc and show off my frankie manning shim sham skills - they love that silly dance there!
After that we hung around, and a lot of people split to go to Vintage Blues (which I hear was sexy) but Me, Casey, Neb, Page, and Lucio stuck around for Lindy Basics I. Casey and I already know the Lindy, but our footwork and technique is SLOPPY and in most cases nonexistant, so it was good to get a nice sense of the basic elements of the dance. We learned the six count Lindy first, (walk, walk, triplestep, triplestep) with Billy and Lindsey which was a little frustrating at first because it went slow and I wasn't sure I was learning much (I realized by the end of the class that I was actually learning a ton) and then also frustrating because they talked SO much while we were standing waiting to try out what they were still TALKING about. I swear Billy explained the everything four different ways, and I thought he was talking about 4 different things, which was confusing. When I figured out what he was talking about, things went much more smoothly. However, I think it was a very valuable lesson, and I DO love the six count lindy, what a cute fun dance.
Then for lunch the five of us went to BWW - YUM! Neb bragged about how manly he is and how many blazin he can eat, which we rolled our eyes at, and we introduced Lucio to the magic that is BWW. I LOVE that he's a huge wimp about spicy things and just doesn't enjoy them, because we have that in common. Mmm honey bbq and ranch...
After Lunch we headed back for Lindy Basics II. Everything was always late this weekend, so class didn't start right exactly on time and we had got to just chill awhile and let our wings digest. We, as is demonstrated by this picture, were already getting quite tired from our first two workshops:
But we perked up and started goofing around. Here Casey was holding me in a nice dancey pose, and then decided to pretend to drop me right as Page took the photo. I however, did not notice, and continued to smile. We'll attribute that to my trust that Casey would never drop me. ->
Lindy Basics II was also helpful, but a little slow, with a lot of talking, which made me antsy to dance. I think the most helpful things we covered were that toaster concept, reviewing footwork, and the look-over-the-shoulder thing. We rotated a lot, and I was always happy to get back to Casey.
After Lindy Basics II we ran (cause class got out late) over to Lindy Chorus I, which was back at the IMU with the other instructors Joel and ... funny girl. They were from california and very funny. "Boo-tre!" I loved their teaching style! They'd show you something which would look extremely complicated and absolutely impossible, but before you had a chance to freak out they'd make you try it, and then they'd break it down step by step with lots of silly little ways to help remember it, and then they'd have you practice each bit and the transitions with a bunch of different people because we rotated SO often. It worked because then if you didn't get it with one person, or the next, or the next, maybe the next person would help clue you in, and suddenly you'd get it! The class was really a little too advanced for me and Casey, but we survived and could DO IT by the end! It was absolutely amazing! I can't believe how hard they worked us though or how tough some of the things were to get. here's some of the more amusing parts that I could remember:
- the performance lindy smiley thing
- the circle and STOP! run run spins with kick steps to the corner
- the inline charleston into chays charleston transition (ack hard)
- the susie Q step that was pretty fun and a nice break between hard stuff!
- the 3 shimmy thing
- point, point, shakey, shakey!
- all those jazz steps (I liked the cross spin and the step with the slide because I felt cool doing it!)
It was SO hard to put it all together though. When we'd finally learned it all the instructors asked if we wanted to do it again and the entire crowd yelled "NOO!!!" because we were so exhausted. I think everyone went back and took a nap, cause by then it was five and we'd danced all day since 9am, and had just completed the deadly Lindy Chorus choreography. I know I did! I got back and just FELL ASLEEP, like dead asleep unintentionally on Casey's bed. He tried to talk to me, realized I was asleep, and covered me up, which was very sweet. Apparently he made toast awhile later and tried to wake me up for a snack but I was just gone. I didn't wake up 'til he kissed me and then I was a little startled! We made a linguini thing and I woke up, and we headed over to the theatre building to see Ghost Sonata in the Mabie. It's an old play and the author was this crazy lonely man who wrote it while on absinthe, but apparently it's genius. While the imagery, set, and acting were all good, I didn't appreciate the story at all. The moral basically was: Everyone you know is a terrible person that lies and cheats and kills, and the only person that doesn't and that tries to call out people for what they really are, will die alone in a madhouse. It was pretty depressing.
We remedied the depression with some delicious delicious DQ. Casey, being his usual Casey self decided to try something he'd never had before that had a potential to be disgusting, and ordered a pumpkin shake. I didn't particularly like it, but he did. Ick. I went in thinking I wanted to try the Kit-Kat blizzard because the commercials made it seem heavenly, but had decided just to get my usual, a butterfinger blizzard, when Casey pushed me to try the kit-kat one. It was delicious for sure, and I'm glad I tried something new. However, I still think the butterfinger one is better. We laughed quite a bit at DQ.
We then went back and got dressed for the dance. I felt particularly cute in my last-year's-culture-show shirt and swing capris with a bright blue ribbon in my hair. The fun thing about swing dancing is that you can put a piece of ribbon tied into a big bow in your ponytail and still fit right in. I felt adorable and had a great time. Well, I chickened out of the Lindy Chorus performance at the dance when Casey and I messed up the beginning, and felt sorry that I got so frustrated and quit so quickly. We practiced it facing one direction and it was hard to duplicated it, the dance being so hard as it is, when we flipped it to face the other way. Robyn and Ian also got flustered and left the routine half-way through. Casey was a little bugged at me because it was just supposed to be fun and I got all flustered and gave up. I forgot that somewhere along the way. I mean, I was in the back anyway, who cares if we mess up? Idk what my deal was. But anyway the rest of the dance was a lot of fun. We didn't stay terribly long though because it had been a long day.
The Swing Festival was certainly a humbling experience. There were so many amazing dancers there. I used to think like, okay, I'm not a beginner swing dancer, and I'm not like Advanced but I felt pretty confident about my status as a good dancer for intermediate. In that crowd I felt in the lower intermediate bracket. *pout. They're sooooo amazing. Casey and I decided that we'll strive to be better, but we're okay that we'll probably never be THAT good. jeebus. What I liked about all the rotating in Lindy Chorus though was seeing that NOBODY could do the whole thing flawlessly and that everyone had at least one trouble spot, and that everyone messed up, and that it was okay, and we were just having fun and learning something new and very challanging. It was a blast.
Sunday class didn't start until 10:15 - thankfully. We met up with the Cornell People again and Casey navigated us through the Field House to find our room for Dips and Tricks. It was the SUPER HOT room we had Musicality in last year, but since it wasn't 90 million degrees this year, it was actually quite nice. Since it was dips and tricks, we were given the option to not rotate if we didn't want to, and form a little colony of people we'd feel comfortable with. Casey, Leslie and I totally colonized! It was good cause I didn't really feel okay with strangers tossing me and potentially dropping me, and neither did Leslie, but we trusted Casey and his judo skills not to drop us. We learned three really cool moves. The first one was a variation on the basic dip more technically explained (which is Good for Casey) and the next one was like a backwards drop with a pop thing, and then the last one was a bit like sidecars, but cooler and with a potentially nice pose. It was a loooooot of fun (other than crashing hip bones) and I think Casey, Leslie, and I worked well together. Woot!
Then we went to Lindy Charleston, with Joel and Alison (the funny/HARD instructors from Lindy Chorus) who taught us a whole bunch of Charleston stuff, like kicks and spins and inline and chays and tucks and stuff, and put it all into a choreographed line of moves that was really challanging but the good kind of challange. I'll admit when I first saw them do it all my jaw dropped like "omg. i'm way out of my league. there's NO way I can do that" but by the end of class after TONS of rotations and breaking down the steps, Casey and I could do it! And we did it again on Monday, so we retained it as well! I remember Casey saying that it was fun to get me in the rotations cause it was like getting a fun cute new partner that he danced really well with, which was exciting and that he loved that. made me smile too cause he got so into the charleston one. I do love to charleston.
After lunch, for which we walked ALL the way to Jimmy John's from the field house (it was a nice day so we survived, but we were already so tired from the workshops that it was rough on the calves), we all decided to at least go to the first class of Balboa. I got a little confused and frustrated with the footwork, but when Casey reminded me that it was just about having fun and practicing our leading and following and connection, I regained my enthusiasm to have a wonderful time. My arches and calves were screaming at me, but all in all I think Casey and I were balboaing better than most of the people in the room by the end of it. Pry cause we weren't afraid to get close, and weren't rotating. I think it was an extremely beneficial class. Afterwards though we were too dead to continue on with Balboa II, the last workshop of the festival, and turned in early.
THE FESTIVAL WAS AMAZING. Time to go to Slick Shoes and help teach people what we learned!
In other swing news, I'm running unopposed for VP of Slick Shoes! Score!