Boston Tea Party 2009
by Carl Nelson
Event Name: Boston Tea Party
Event Date: March 26th to March 29th
Event Location: Danvers, MA
Event Website: http://teapartyswings.com
Event Hosts: Steve & Rebecca Drzewiczewski and Dan Mez
Event Teachers: Instructors Listed Here.
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
Music: DJed Music
Class Levels: Beginner, Intermediate/Advanced, Balboa, WCS
Competitions: Strictly Lindy, Strictly Balboa, Jack & Jills
Venue Floors: Portable Ballroom Floors
Tea Party is probably one of the most successful crossover events in the U.S. It has exceptional competitors from both the Lindy Hop and the West Coast Swing scene, talented DJs and a host of great instructors on site.
This year a large majority of the Lindy Bloggers team was in attendance and we got a few group pictures snapped and some of their highlights and opinions on this years BTP.
Boston Tea Party is organized by Steve and Rebecca (last name unspeakable by normal man) in Danvers, MA. It kicked off on March 26th and lasted till the 29th (yes this review is quite delayed).
I arrived Friday afternoon and settled into my room. Having attended BTP for a number of years now I see many familiar faces from all over, it is a social event for many dancers as well as a dance event. We dine, relax in the hot tubs, work out (P90X it), and party together on top of all the dancing. Hotel events definitely enable this mingling atmosphere.
Friday night is the prelims for the Strictly (west coast and lindy hop) and the Invitational Strictly. I appreciate how the Invitational Strictly is the prelims for the Invitational Crossover Jack & Jill which is one thing that makes BTP truly stand apart from other events.
Social dancing at Tea Party is, in my opinion, quite exceptional since it draws so many high level dancers. This year though the crossover room was relatively empty when I made my way back there despite it being one of the most popular rooms last year.
The DJs that they hire for the event are top notch and help keep the energy going throughout the evening and late into the morning. Yet as any lindy hopper I crave live music and many national events are featuring not just social dancing to exceptional bands (like the Boilermaker Jazz Band) but competition finals to live music. While live music doesn’t really fill the westie need it is as much part of lindy hop as the swingout.
If we really want to show the Westies what lindy hop is about we need a live band to drive our swingouts in the finals.
Saturday held more classes and I volunteered throughout the morning so I got to peek in a bit. The classes, as always, are packed at BTP which I think is sort of unfortunate as teaching 150 people definitely flattens out the level of material. It might also appeal to advanced dancers to offer a small selection of masters classes (like other events are doing).
Saturday afternoon held the prelims for all of the Jack & Jills. This took a great deal of time and it might be nice if they cut off registration earlier to limit the numbers. The Advanced Jack & Jill only had 1 heat and the entire floor was packed with dancers. I’m all for a full floor but it might be a bit easier to split it up into 2 heats, I wouldn’t have wanted to be a judge during those prelims.
The Strictly finals were in the evening. Each year the Strictly Lindy finals at BTP are a showcase of some of the best dancers throwing it out there to be judged. In a way the format is a little dry, there is a song to warmup, then a fast song with jams followed by an all-skate and potentially a second all-skate to an even faster song. While it’s great to really cut it up and blazing tempos, a Strictly competition shouldn’t just be about fast dancing. It would be nice to see a spotlight format where each couple gets a minute and a half of a clear midtempo song to showcase their dancing. There can still be Hand Clappin’ at the end.
Lastly on Saturday is the Crossover Jack & Jill. The highlight of BTP where the best Westies and Lindy Hoppers pair up to bring us shocking inter-dance-style greatness. There is only so much you can say about a competition where Tatiana dresses up like Two Face (as a lindy/westie crossbreed), Peter Strom pitches a faux aerial into the ground then rolls around, and Arjay … (never mind, you had to be there). My advice, if you haven’t been to BTP and you need a reason this is it.
The weekend wrapped up with the Jack & Jill finals and people saying their farewells alongside the awards ceremony.
So for some finals thoughts, here is Aba with some lovely words to leave off this review.
Boston Tea Party.
Although it conjures either thoughts of doilies, finger sandwiches, cubes of sugar and steamed milk or masquerading revolution, BTP, as a Swing event, encapsulated the beauty of both traditions. A highlight of the former being, of course, the midnight buffet of crisped bacon, eggs, fruit, and a myriad of carbohydrates that would upset Atkins himself. Why was this one of the highlights of the weekend? Well, when the midnight buffet came around, it was a time that everyone paused for a minute, shared a bagel, and shared time with the scattered constellation of friends we’ve acquired from around the globe. Those shimmering moments of refueling, dance and non-dance talk, laughter and universal quotations were at the essence of this particular event. The mature and foundling friendships fostered great dancing all weekend, and whether masquerading as a Westie or cruising in the Lindy Living room, I was happy to take a moment to love my friends and love my bacon.
And, while winning competitions is always a rewarding tangible value, taking pictures with your fellow dancers, friends and LindyBloggers holds a different but similar type of achievement.
As a summation of these thoughts, I’ll end on a quote from Sir Francis Bacon: “Overt and apparent virtues bring forth praise; but there be secret and hidden virtues that bring forth fortune; certain deliveries of a man’s self, which have no name.”
