Camp Hollywood XIII (2010)

So lemme just tell you how awesome Camp Hollywood XIII was:
VERY MUCH SO.

 I’m not sure if this year was just an incredibly great year to be there, but Camp Hollywood just meant more to me this time. I think it has something to do with all the friends that I’ve been making while dancing; as I become more involved in the ‘swing scene’ / get to know more about the people who are so active in the community, the events  become more and more significant.

Special thanks go to Nathan, Susan, Alan & Heather for letting me crash at their hotel room in between dances / classes / competitions.

Speaking of which – on to the Competition videos!

Unfortunately, I don’t think I can accurately describe how many people “brought it” this year in words – I’m just not that good a writer.

ALSO unfortunately, there was some rule about not filming the competitions unless you had some kind of “video pass” (which I knew nothing about).

What’s even more discouraging was the fact that my camera decided to crap out on me after only a few pictures (same problem as last time, too!)

But FORTUNATELY, a lot of other people have already uploaded youtube videos from this weekend that I can use!

1st PLACE IN THE TEAM COMPETITION: The Fly-Rites

1st Place (?) for "Showcase" (couples performance):  Patrick & Natasha

SHOWCASE HONORABLE MENTION:  JOEL & VALERIE

Look at how amped the crowd was by their performance.

UNDERGROUND FINALS

If you’re noticing that people are tired in this video, it’s because this contest was held at 2:00AM with even more dancing afterwards. I didn’t got to bed until 4:00AM myself that night.

As for my competition (the amateur Jack & Jill contest), I did about as well as I expected. In other words, I didn’t make it to finals. That’s about as specific as the scoring can get when the judges have to keep score for over 100 people. Either you stand out, or you don’t. I had a lot of fun though, and that was the whole point. 

Dance Ever-y Day

So I dunno if I've been getting too annoying about this, but it feels like I’ve been blogging an awful lot about swing-dancing. Probably because it’s how I’ve been spending a lot of my free time. (cuz of the upcoming Camp Hollywood so expect to see at least one more after this weekend) 

But what's a couple more blog posts here & there, right?   

Speaking of which - did you know that, if you wanted to, you could go out dancing here in L.A. EVERY NIGHT?

Sundays: Maxwell DeMille’s Cicada Club (Downtown, LA)
$10 cover / free with a dinner reservation
Live bands / Formal Dress code (enforced!)

Mondays: Memories (Whittier, CA)
$3 cover
DJs / all ages

Tuesdays:  Dance @ Joes (Burbank, CA)
No Cover!
Live Band / also on Mondays / 21 & over only

Wednesdays: Strutters Ball (Orange County, CA)
$10 cover
DJ? / tons of workshops & classes

Thursdays: Lindygroove (Pasadena, CA) 
$7 cover
DJ / where I go to dance / all ages

Fridays: Atomic Ballroom (Irvine, CA)
$8.00 cover
DJ & live band (depending)

Saturdays: Pasadena Ballroom Dance Association (Pasadena)
$15.00 cover
Live band / free snacks / all ages


That’s A LOT of places to go to dance – and I don’t think I covered all of them…..! How many other cities (in the world) can even make this claim? 


ALSO – here’s a video I took this past Saturday of some friends who competed in a “Strictly Lindy” competition to prep for Camp Hollywood. (they’re the guy in the white shirt / girl in the blue polka-dot dress)

Also – the gray-haired guy standing in the middle with his arms folded (one of the judges) is our dance teacher.

But as good as they were, I don’t think they were able to compete with some of the pros who were also there. Below is a video from the semi-finals. (Take a look at some of the aerials they do)

I have yet to see a video of me dancing (and show it to me) but I hope one day to get caught on camera…..and look good.

My First Jack & Jill

Now that I’ve had a day for my legs to rest, lemme tell you about the Jack & Jill! 

So I obviously didn’t place / win, (you should’ve seen who entered) but I think it was a good learning experience for the Jack & Jill at Camp Hollywood. There were over 40 dancers (20 couples) competing, so they divided the preliminaries up into two rounds. (I was in the second round)

A couple things I’m going to whine about:

• The songs they played were a lot faster than the ones they played for the first round.
• I thought it was a little unfair that some of the “pros” were in this competition with the rest of us amateurs.

But here’s what I learned the Judges look for:

• “Everyone can dance the basic steps, so do something that will set you apart right away.” (duh, obvious but I didn’t think to do it)
• “Smile!”
• “Make your movements big!”
• “Ask the judges for notes afterwards”

So basically what it boils down to is ‘showmanship.’ It’s technically a performance, so you gotta PERFORM.

(Again, duh – but I didn’t think to do it)

Training for Camp Hollywood

I’ve been making an effort to go out dancing more often in an attempt to train for the “Jack & Jill” competition I signed up for at Camp Hollywood. 

The competition’s in a few months, so I figured I should get started now. Of course my “training” just consists of me trying to dance with as many follows at as many venues as I can think of & trying to watch / remember / learn as many steps as I can from other dancers.

This will be my first lindy hop competition and I’m not really sure what they’re going to be judging us on other than musicality, form and how well we can improvise with our random partner.

For those of you who don’t know what a “Jack & Jill” competition is, it's:  

…..a competition in partner dancing, where the competing couples are the result of random matching of leaders (male dancers) and follows (female dancers).

Even though it’s one of the larger Swing events in the world, I figured I would sign up for the Jack & Jill at Camp Hollywood because of how less pressure there would be to do well. As many as 30 couples are out on the floor at once and judges can only look at so many people at once. I figure not that many people will be watching me specifically so if I royally embarrass myself, no one will really notice.

I’m actually more worried about signing up for the Jack & Jill this weekend at Third Saturday Swing – it’s advertised as a “Practice Jack & Jill” to prep everyone for Camp Hollywood, but since it’s a smaller venue (where amateurs will be lined up with pros), more people will be watching. (Yikes)

Here’s some videos I found of other “Jack &Jill” competitions to give you an idea of what it’s like.

Oh boy....wish me luck!

For the Fun of it

As most of you know, I’m a big fan of swing – the lindy hop in particular.

In fact, as soon as I got a car (which I’m forever grateful for, Nico) I drove on down, took me some free lessons and learned me to dance.

And I like to think that I’ve gotten pretty decent at it after five years.

But I recently joined this lindy hop dance practice group to basically become a better dancer. The people in this group are all really good dancers….and they’re constantly critiquing my form.

I understand why they’re doing this. See, everyone in the group takes this advanced class at the Lindygroove (where I go to dance) except me. Why? Because you have to *audition* to get into the advanced class. The instructors there like your form to be a certain way because it helps you learn what they teach you, I guess….

Everyone in the group wants me in the class because we tend to go over a lot of the stuff they learn there. And I actually did try out for it (the class) a few years back……..but didn’t get in. That was a harsh blow to the ole’ self-confidence, I tell ya. For a while afterwards, I focused a lot on making sure I was doing everything as I should’ve been….and it actually made me worse.

Eventually, though, I shook it off because I realized that this course of action didn’t make any sense. At that point, I knew I was a pretty good dancer - maybe not up to their standards, but decent enough. So why put myself through all the criticism and self-consciousness of getting someone else’s approval?? The whole point of lindy hop (or any hobby really) is to have fun. And I felt that if I did end up taking the class, I’d be more worried about where I was stepping or correcting my posture than anything else.

And that’s kind of how I still feel about trying out for that class.

I’ve heard a lot of people argue the opposite though: if you really like something, you’ll strive to improve at it because that’ll make it more fun….and I guess that’s the logic that I’m subscribing to at the moment.