by Carl Nelson

After seeing last year’s videos from Lone Star Championships down in Austin, Texas and hearing about the great time people had, I decided it was time to visit.

Austin is the center of live music and technology in Texas with events like SXSW bringing it international recognition.  Recent winners of the ULHS Showcase division Mike Roberts and Laura Glaess, and Stephen Jean, winner of the Advanced Jack & Jill at ILHC, reside there.  The scene is strong with a large contingent of high school students (the future of the scene) active both socially and as part of a dance troupe.

Lone Star has given Austin a new level of Lindy Hop acclaim.  The organizers, Scott Angelius, Tena Morales, and Don West, bring together an immense amount of experience putting on great events. Lone Star Championships was no exception.

Friday - Mansions and Music

The entirety of the weekend was at The Texas Federation of Women’s Clubs (TFWC), a historical mansion welcoming different groups for large social events.  It is a gorgeous venue with multiple sitting rooms full of old furniture, books and paintings, a beautiful main ballroom with high ceilings and a bandstand, and a number of other rooms of classes and the latenights.

The only downfall of such a great venue, the main ballroom had horrible acoustics.  Music would just disappear at various spots in the room.  Particularly during competitions, with the band on the stage, it was nearly impossible to hear the band adequately.  This resulted in the occasional what are they playing or where is the 1 moment during competitions.

Friday night the dances were DJed with the main ballroom open till 1am when dancing transitioned to a blues room and a lindy hop room.  I appreciate it when organizers move the late night from the main ballroom to smaller rooms.  It can appear empty in a large ballroom so when moved to a smaller room it maintains the energy of the room by confining it to smaller quarters.  One of the best things organizers can do when you host a big event with late nights - provide food.  Tables were setup with chips, fruit, drinks and burritos for the break between the main dance and the late nights.

The prelims for the Strictly Fast, the All-Star Strictly and the Solo Charleston competition were spaced throughout the evening.  While the competitions were well attended, the music for all three contests was poorly chosen.  The Strictly Fast prelims music wasn’t exactly music nor driving enough to get the crowd going.  The Solo Charleston music lacked that 1-2 feeling that older charleston music has and felt more like 40’s swing tunes.  Lastly the music for the All-Star Strictly was uninspiring and failed to showcase the dancers.  An All-Star contest is part competition, part show and when the music isn’t solid both parts fall down.

Not attending any of the classes, I’ll limit my comments to the atmosphere, dances and competitions.  For those of you who did attend the classes, let us know what you thought?  Comment.

Saturday - Competitions, Giant City and Jams

Competitions Saturday included the prelims for the Jack & Jill contests as well as the prelims for Strictly Lindy and Blues.  There were three Jack & Jill divisions to encourage dancers of all levels to get out on the floor.  Having a floor full of Newcomers with the crowds screaming their enthusiasm is refreshing and encouraging.

Giant City Sextet is a local Austin band that plays almost exclusively for dancers.  They played really hard throughout the evening for both social dancing and competitions.  They usually swung well and had a good repertoire.  I would have preferred to hear more of their bass player laying down fours; their dynamic could have used some work, partly it may have been the space working against them, especially on faster tunes the music felt flat (not in a tone sense).  Additionally during competition being positioned above the dancers caused the sound to miss the dancers.

There was a small show where two dance groups performed and Andrew Thigpen and Karen Turman did their infamous HoeDown routine.  Most inspiring was the local dance group made of up almost entirely of high school students, and as a note 8 girls and 2 guys.  They called themselves Bam Dynamite and received such amazing support from the audience.  These dancers, like any juniors, are the future of our dance.

Remind you of anything? It reminds me of this.

Finals for the Strictly Lindy, Strictly Fast, and Strictly Blues were during the main dance.  Giant City played for both the Strictly Lindy and the Strictly Fast.  The song they chose for the Strictly Lindy contest was really solid while during the Strictly Fast, for instance, they had ambiguous introductions and played faster than the tempo the judges were counting out.

Check out the video of the Strictly Lindy finals.

The Strictly Blues finals were DJed rather than having the band play.  Each couple had a spotlight and there was a final all-skate.

One of the things that I really enjoyed about the Strictly Blues finals was that different blues dance styles were showcased.  There is so much discussion, in the lindy hop scene and the blues scene, about what blues dancing is that seeing three entirely different styles place gives validity to each style.  Chris and Campbell’s winning performance is emblematic of the type of blues dancing most commonly associated with the blues scene, while Teni and myself brought a more soul inspired theme to our dancing, and Karen and Chance brought it back to the jook joints and the heartstrings of old time blues.

Croissants, jamba juice and other goods nourished dancers as the main dance closed and the late night rooms started up.

In the lindy hop latenight room, a couple of members of Giant City - Jon Doyle (clarinet/sax) and Oliver Steck (trumpet/accordion) - stuck around to play jam-band style for the dancers.  Mike Faltesek (guitar), Freddie Dickinson (pot and spoon), and myself (washboard) joined in for some of the songs.  In such an intimate setting the room filled with live music and inspired dancers.  We played until the Great City guys realized it was so late, one of them having missed a movie date with his girlfriend, and packed up.  It was an amazing experience and I feel rewarded every opportunity I get to play with musicians.

Sunday - Jack & Jill, Awards and Soul

Sunday had the finals for all of the Jack & Jills (Newcomers, Intermediate, Advanced and All-Star).  Jack & Jills are one of my favorite competitions, paired up randomly, it showcases not only how skilled of a dancer you are but how skilled of a partner you are.  It can often mean dancing with someone you’ve never met or danced with before.  (Or in the case of the All-Star Jack & Jill you dance with the partner you came to the weekend to teach with - Mikey & Nina!)

Awards wrapped up the weekend and rather than typing out all the winners for every event you can visit Lone Star’s home page for a complete listing.

Post-dinner there was a soul party at Copa in downtown Austin.  Crammed with most of the dancers from the weekend it had a well-stocked bar and some great music.  It is definitely a tradition, especially for events that Tena helps put on, for there to be at least one dance full of soul music.  This one even ventured into the realm of hip hop and other club music, prompting a jam circle where dancers strutted their stuff.  The most memorable part of the soul party was during a jam for Tena where Mike Faltesek got up and danced with her to soul music (something I doubt I’ll ever see again).

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