Here are the results for the Lindy & Balboa competitions at Boston Tea Party.

Stay tuned for the full review and a picture of the Lindyblogger crew live from Tea Party.

Balboa Jack & Jill

1       Paul Salter & Abigail Browning
2       Jason Platt & Natasha Ouimet
3       Patrick Wall & Nikki Marvin

Novice Lindy Hop Jack & Jill

1       Nathaniel Allen & Ellen Murray
2       Mortimer Gerdon & Alicia Wagner
3       Brian Zimmer & Stephanie Bourque

Intermediate Lindy Hop Jack & Jill

1       Mark Muthersbaugh & Lisa Casper
2       Douglas Van Sant & Amanda Fong
3       William Ewanick & Vicki Grenier

Advanced Lindy Hop Jack & Jill

1       Alain Fragman & Crista Seipp
2       Andrew Thigpen & Natasha Ouimet
3       Carl Nelson & Caroline Rossi

Strictly Balboa

1       Jason Herron & Andree-Anne Tremblay
2       Patrick Szmidt & Natasha Ouimet
3       Davis Thurber & Valerie Salstrom

Strictly Lindy Hop

1       Michael Pedroza & Nikki Marvin
2       Joshua Welter & Melanie Huot-Lavoie
3       Andrew Thigpen & Karen Turman

For full listings of the competition results go to here.

Pardon for the initial error in the Intermediate J&J results.  I blame the lack of sleep that Tea Party brought upon.

Filed Under: Event Reviews | Monday, March 30th, 2009
Tags: balboa, boston tea party, competition, lindy hop, results, swing dance

This past month, swing dance teachers in Denver Colorado teamed up for Swing for the Cause, a special one day workshop at the Denver 1st Presbyterian Church with all proceeds going to The LindyHopper’s Fund.

Participating teachers included Kenny Nelson, Joe DeMers, Nelle Hatley, Heather Ballew, Ford Childs, Delilah Williams, Miranda Longaker, Becky Vigil, Teni Lopez-Cardenas, Andrew Munoz, JJ Weiss, and Davis Thurber.

I asked Danielle Hatley how she came up with the idea:

About 2 months ago, Joe and I were just talking about how we can contribute to the Fund, but we don’t really have any money to donate, so we figured we could donate what we do have: time, energy, knowledge, love of the dance and we just went from there. We’re planning on giving all of the money from “the Colorado dancers” at Southwest Lindyfest (Houston, TX) and hopefully this can be something that a lot of scenes will do.

Since I have never been to Denver, I took the opportunity to ask Nelle a few more questions about her and the scene:
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Filed Under: Dance Community, Event Reviews | Wednesday, March 25th, 2009

For non-Canadians, Quebec can refer to the province of Quebec, Canada’s only pre-dominantly French-speaking population, or the city of Quebec, which is the capital of the province of Quebec. It was established in 1608 by Samuel de Champlain as the colonial outpost for the colony of New France. It’s also the land of poutine (gravy, French fries and cheese curds).

The Québec Swing Rendez-Vous has been a fixture in the Quebec scene for the past four years. Attracting the majority of dancers in the region, as well as out-of-towners, the event grew in size every year since 2006. This year was announced as the last one, as the organizers decided to focus their energy on demanding non-dance careers.

Here’s my look back at four years of swing at the Québec Swing Rendez-Vous.

QSRV 2006

My first time dancing in La Grande Capitale happened at the inaugural Quebec Swing Rendez-Vous. The main venue was the talk of the event - we danced inside La Citadelle de Quebec, a fortified battlement also known as the Gibraltar of America. In addition to being an official Residence for the Governor General of Canada since 1872, it houses an active military garrison. Shaped as a fortified maze with armed guards at the entrance, I had the impression that we were entering a top-secret military complex where scientist experimented with new biochemical weapons on swing dancers!

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Filed Under: Dancer Interviews, Event Reviews | Thursday, February 19th, 2009

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. (more…)

Filed Under: Event Reviews | Thursday, February 12th, 2009

Two weekends ago I attended the fourth and final edition of the Quebec Swing Rendez-Vous. The demanding careers of the organizers precipitated the end of this popular northeastern event promoting Lindy Hop, Balboa, Charleston, Shag and other authentic jazz dances. I’m saddened because it was my one excuse every year to travel to Quebec City, the provincial capital.

This is a two part series covering this year’s event highlight, an hour-and-a-half long musical comedy directed by Geneviève Kérouac, and the QSRV itself over the years.

Swing Station

Directed by Genevieve Kerouac, Swing Station is described as a clownesque-musical-comedy. Here’s the introduction:

“Swing station, 1925 – Dans une gare vit un musicien. Dans son placard, lui faisant office de chambre, il se lève tous les matins. La station “ SWING ” lui servant de scène, il y joue tous les jours son refrain pour son public de voyageurs. Pourtant chaque soir, il rêve à sa belle, partie dans la grande ville y gagner son pain.”

Non-literal translation: In a station lives a musician. He wakes up daily in a closet doubling as his sleeping room. Using the station as a backdrop for his music, every day he plays his choruses for travelers and passerbys. And each night, he dreams of his love, lost to the riches of the big city.

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Filed Under: Dancer Interviews, Event Reviews | Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

In last week’s review of Lindy Focus VII, I went over the classes and amazing music; this week I cover the performances and atmosphere. Stay tuned for one more on the exceptional contests from the week.

Photo by Amy Sudol

The Atmosphere

What made Lindy Focus stand out was the atmosphere of the entire camp. From the first night of DJ’ed dancing as arrivals filtered in to the formal champagne toasting revel with the Firecracker Jazz Band on New Year’s Eve – Lindy Focus exuded its own savoir faire. An open and inviting scene of camaraderie with long time friends and new acquaintances resounded throughout the five days.

Pick-up jams of musicians played on-and-off in the front lobby, in the halls, or wherever musicians could prop themselves up between dancing and sleep. People watched, listened, even danced on countertops for these jam bands and many a late night was closed out with as many people in a hallway as on the dance floor.
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Filed Under: Event Reviews | Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

The Lindy Focus review will be broken up into two or three separate pieces because there is so much to say about a week long event of such excellence.

Photo courtesy of Terrace Ellis

When it comes to ringing in a New Year for Lindy Hoppers there was no better way this year stateside than going to Lindy Focus in Asheville, NC.

In its seventh year Lindy Focus, once a regional event, has truly cracked the national scene as one of the best camps there is.  With an intensity and camaraderie likened to Herrang without the camping or eternal sunshine Lindy Focus has earned itself an earmark as the camp to kick off a year.

It has earned so much after-event glory from attendees that it has spawned a series of Lindy Focus Favorite Moments/Top Ten notes on Facebook.

To start the organizers of Lindy Focus are Michael Gamble, Jaya Dorf and Sosh Howell and my sincere congratulations and appreciation go out to them.  They ran an exceptionally tight ship, kept it well organized, brought in international talent on both the dance and music front and gave us all a party to remember.

For a taste of Lindy Focus here’s a video from one of our camp meetings.

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Filed Under: Event Reviews | Thursday, January 15th, 2009

I apologize for the extreme tardiness of this post.  It is relatively without excuse.  - your editor - Carl

The Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown.

Revolution finals, photo by Reuben Brown

This year wrapped up the last ULHS hosted in it’s original town.  Six years of history, from a small event among friends to one of the highest profile no-holds-barred lindy hop events in the world, ULHS will be moving from its home of Minnesota to Louisiana.

While this was only my third year attending ULHS, I think it is will be one of the better moves for the event.  The venue for the past two years, a ballroom more appropriate to a wedding reception, has drained some of the intimacy and atmosphere that I recognized the last year it was held in the Varsity theatre.  Hopefully New Orleans will revitalize the event as one of the best in the world.

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Filed Under: Event Reviews, Lindybloggers | Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008

The Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown finished up it’s final year in Minneapolis, MN this past weekend with a great set of bands and contests which set the bar for events to come.

As a quick teaser before the review of this year’s event check out some of the great footage that is already hitting YouTube. These two clips are courtesy of Andrew Thigpen.

If you have footage of ULHS 2008 toss up a comment with a link for everyone to see.

Filed Under: Event Reviews | Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

Southern Belle Swing Bash is hosted in Atlanta, GA and is organized by Gina Helfrich and Jaya Dorf.  Similar to the Girl Jam’s hosted throughout the U.S., Southern Belle is a follower-focused event, and is actually the longest running follower-focused event in the U.S. (their tagline – perhaps the world).

This year brought together three exceptional teachers; Ramona Staffeld (NYC), Evita Arce (NYC), and Gina Helfrich (Atlanta).  Tracks were broken into three levels; intermediate, advanced and masters with numbers ranging from fifteen couples in the masters track to forty or fifty in the intermediate and advanced tracks.  The teachers rotated throughout the various tracks teaching both solo and partnered classes.

Guest leads Nathan Bugh (NYC), Patrick Manigault (Atlanta) and myself, Carl Nelson (NYC), accompanied the instructors.  Teni Lopez-Cardenas (Denver) was the special guest follower for the weekend. (more…)

Filed Under: Event Reviews | Friday, September 26th, 2008