Budafest 2015

my new benchmark for swing weekenders

Having finally made it to Budapest after my Canadian Capers and 60 hours of travelling through six airports and a choice selection of planes, trains and automobiles I was over the moon to see the Budafest sign being waved at me by a representative from NurShuttles*, knowing that I could now relax without thinking about logistics for at least another 4 days. (*as well as coordinating the transport of several hundred people, Nur also has an ace swing meme tumblr worth checking out: Get Off My Slot)

And after spending the previous few nights either in transit or couchsurfing, I can tell you that arriving at a 5* hotel, slap bang on the Danube River and with the iconic Buda Castle and Széchenyi Chain Bridge visible from our bedroom window, was a truly wonderful feeling. And from there it only got better.

Anna met me in the foyer and as she and Richard had arrived and checked in a day earlier I was taken straight up to the room I was sharing with them and Sharon (who was to arrive later that night).

I didn't really have time to unpack or rest as the first workshop of the weekend was to begin in an hour and we all still needed to eat. In fact, that was to become a perpetual dilemma throughout the weekend: having to choose whether to dance, eat or sleep with only time enough for one. Thankfully I'd spent a few days in Budapest a few years previously because I saw nothing of the incredibly beautiful city on this occasion, aside from three restaurants and a supermarket.

I imagine most folk reading this are of a lindy hop persuasion so allow me to quickly explain how lindy hop weekends differ from west coast swing weekends.

To begin with, and based only on my experiences so far, lindy hop weekenders tend to spread you across a city whilst the WCS equivalents are usually in one place. Workshops here, socials there, competitions somewhere else, and accommodation in another location altogether is the norm for lindy hop. That's not a fault, and there is definitely a charm in getting the opportunity to see a bit of the city.

But by contrast, the workshops, competitions, social dancing and accommodation for west coast swing weekenders are all in one big hotel, which is not only incredibly convenient and time efficient (walking from your room to class/socials in dance shoes and without a jacket is a simple pleasure) but also a lot more sociable as having everyone concentrated in one building makes it much easier to meet and get chatting to other folk there.

Another difference is the time spent dancing. No one can argue that lindy hop is not a heck of a lot more energetic than west coast swing - more recovery time is definitely needed and so more recovery time is usually scheduled - but the upshot of this is that at west coast swing weekends the party don't stop! Workshops start between 10am and noon, and aside from a few brief breaks there is no let-up in the dancing until breakfast at 7 or 8am the following morning. So it is not unusual to be on your feet for the best part of twenty hours straight.

Why these events don't have sponsorship deals with Red Bull or ProPlus is beyond me.

One of the first engagements of WCS weekends are the auditions for workshops to make sure you're in a level of class that matches your ability - not only for your own benefit but also to ensure that the class as a whole are roughly on the same page - and, for me, the audition provided one of the highlights of my weekend.

For Budafest there were four workshop levels and '5' was top (there were no level 1/beginners). Having already seen some of the dancing on display I was a little intimidated so, coupled with a few pre-existing doubts, I figured I was somewhere between levels 2 and 3. I decided to push myself and audition for level 3 anyway hoping that the embarrassing story we'd all just heard prior to auditions (of a girl being dropped 2 levels) would not have a sequel starring yours truly as the new flop.

Having adorned ourselves with coloured stickers corresponding to the level we were auditioning for we had to partner up with a lead/follow nearest us for two songs whilst the weekend's organisers and pros looked on. Come the end of the second song and thinking I had survived the cull I spotted my west coast swing hero, Maxence Martin (think Skye Humphries with a French accent and a black belt in judo), walking past everyone else and towards me with purpose.

"You should try out for this level." And then he handed me a different coloured sticker and sauntered off.

In that instant I hadn't a clue what this new colour meant but, coupled with my doubts and the crushing feeling I'd just been demoted by Maxence of all people (we all have dancers we want to emulate but I'm just not cool enough to pretend I don't!), I accepted the sticker with aloof nonchalance in a bid to hide my disappointment, then calmly walked off the floor before I was hit with the realisation that I'd actually been promoted to level 4! And with that my 'coolness' made a swift exit.

I still had to audition for my new level and thankfully got through it without anyone deciding that Maxence had just had a rush of blood to the head and I should go back to where I belonged. Whether my promotion just had something to do with needing to balance leads/follows I don't know but I'm taking it as positive nonetheless!

The workshops themselves were just phenomenal and as well as great individual classes by Lee Easton & Fabienne Henshall, Michael Kielbasa & Catriona Wiles, Chuck Brown, Ben Morris & Jennifer DeLuca, and Maxime Zzaoui & Virginie Massart my group also had the bonus of two classes from Maxence Martin & Virgine Grondin, hands down my favourite dance pairing, and Jordan Frisbee & Tatiana Mollmann, arguably the greatest partnership ever to have danced west coast swing.

One of the 'quirks' of the first few days of the weekend was the dancefloor (several tonnes of brand new wood-floor panels from Ikea). It was a great dancefloor - smooth, good speed (the slide/stability balance was just riiiight) but the static off it was something else! As it was broken in over the weekend the problem disappeared entirely but for the first day or two any time you held out your hands to a new partner the connection was quite literally electric and this was a particular problem for me and one other unfortunate guy on the Friday night at one of the big workshops where the class took up the entire ballroom.

clockwise from top: the view from our room, not bad, eh?; minor fanboy moment with my two favourite dancers, Maxence & Virginie; Anna and I ready for our first ever WCS competition

The rotation of partners in a dance class is nothing new and, as I said in one of my earliest posts, is a very important part of the learning process but for whatever reason, the entire class was split into two separate and very long parallel lines (about 60m) rather than one big circle, so once a girl got to the end of either line she had to run the full length of the line to partner up with me or the guy at the head of the other one. That run then gave these girls an entire hall's breadth to build up considerable static which they then dutifully released with a shock, a spark and an audible crack (and occasionally a yelp from me) each time one took my hand.

In this workshop at least I developed a growing reluctance to take the hand of a new partner as the class wore on but for the rest of the weekend the opposite was the case and I just could not get enough dances.

With somewhere north of 950 people in attendance (making it, according to the veteran west coast swing pro Chuck Brown, the biggest WCS event ever staged) I was as ever hopeful I'd have a few dance crushes but it went further than that and I experienced the best dances of my life as the connection I had with some of my partners blew my mind.

For anyone that hasn't read my article and doesn't know what a dance crush is, I'm not talking aesthetics or desires just (near) perfect connection for one or more dances with a complete stranger; but for one dance in particular in Budafest I can't describe it in any other word than 'beautiful'.

I don't know what that dance looked like to the casual observer and knowing my own ability level I am pretty sure most of the other couples dancing around us were much easier on the eye but I don't care - to me, it just felt phenomenal in the same way that only a few, very rare songs can make you feel. It's hard to explain without sounding overly saccharine... and to restore the balance I'm off to shave with an axe and wrestle a bear... but it's my blog and I'll share what I want to.

And that is to take nothing away from the other dances - seriously, other than a few on the first night before I had warmed up and two of the three dances during my competition heat (I'm not sure I'll ever do that again: fun thing + nerves = no fun) I didn't have a bad dance all weekend - but this one dance knocked my socks off.

I also discovered a few regional/national differences in dance partners, not only in their style but also just in general banter, which is why I am already booked and heading to the Holy Land Open in Israel at the end of this month! I'd prefer not to paint with broad, nation-sized strokes but if the rest of the Israeli dance scene are anything like the crowd I met at Budafest - some of the most fun people I met all weekend and absolutely some of my favourite dancers - then HLO is going to be on another level!

One down-side to such large events with so many people is that names (and nationalities) are a lot harder to remember and it often gets to the stage where introductions aren't even offered so it's very possible that I could make similarly complimentary collective observations about other countries but in this instance I am very grateful for a chance meeting at the airport on my way home.

I spotted an Israel-based friend of mine, Dana, also waiting for her flight so I went over to say cheerio but then recognised she was one of a whole crowd of my favourite follows who were all together and bound for the same homeland. So it required little more encouragement from Dana for me to register for HLO and book my flights to Tel Aviv.

Back to Budafest, though, and as I've mentioned, and as one of the photos above shows, I tried my hand/feet at competing in WCS for the first time but I think that that may also be my last.

I am a competitive person, so the idea of going up against the kind of talent that was on display at Budafest and getting some sort of commendation is very appealing, as is the challenge of trying to improve enough for that to somehow be achievable, but I just can't relax. I'm not blaming nerves for how I fared - I didn't have any expectations and I just wasn't good enough (although a quick shout-out to Anna who was placed in our heat by several judges but just not enough to get through to the final) but if several hours of my weekend are going to be dominated by nerves I don't think I want to have that ruining my vibe, man!

One of the amazing things about the competitions was the age of some of the dancers and there were a handful of incredibly talented girls from France who couldn't have been any older than 15 years old! At age 15 I had yet to grow into my size 12 feet and as a short and skinny kid with big shoes I bore a passing resemblance to a golf club so it's possible I just wouldn't have had the coordinated finesse anyway, but I really don't want to downplay how impressive these girls were and it takes little imagination to think they will be the megastars of the future.

In fact, (and seamlessly mixing two themes from the last paragraph), a good few years ago I played a round of golf with a kid from the next town over from me that probably could have fitted into the golf bag he was carrying at the time - and he is now the world's #1 golfer, Rory McIlroy. So maybe one day I'll be able to say the same about a dance partner.

Finally, it needs to be said just how smoothly the whole weekend was run so hats off to the organisers, Ádám Balásy and Rita Jóri, for putting on a stunner of an event and raising the bar for what to expect for a dance weekender. I imagine the concept of coordinating and scheduling almost 1,000 dancers into workshops, competitions and socials would leave many rocking back and forth and muttering but this was a slick and punctual event throughout and I'm already very excited to head back again next year.