Swingtzerland 2015

our final class of the weekend with PJ & Tashina

Following three straight Lindy hop events (Galway Lindyfest, Oxford Lindy Exchange and Herräng) this trip kicked off a run of three west coast swing weekenders and it proved to be a nice way to get that streak going.

After starting and finishing work early on the Friday to accommodate my flights, I arrived in Zurich around 11pm and met up with the rest of the Swing Belfast crew as soon as I got to the venue that would host that night's social and all of the weekend's classes.

Sharon and Richard had arrived in Zurich the day before and I shortly bumped into them along with Niall and Mirielle who were our hosts for the weekend, but while they all headed straight to the floor I was off for a nosey as this was the first time I had ever been to a dance school proper and Tanzwerk101 demanded a proper gander.

In the limited time I have been dancing I have been fortunate to dance in some amazing venues. Some have been stunning in their historical significance (Oxford Union at OLX), others have been impressive in their scale (Budafest 2015) and as a Lindy hopper, it's hard not to be utterly in awe just to be at Herräng Dance Camp, but Swingtzerland gave me my first taste of a dedicated dance venue that hosts multiple classes daily and it left me hankering for something similar at home.

There may well be dance venues dotted around Northern Ireland but from what I am aware, they are nothing like this. Tanzwerk101 has 8 studios with sprung floors and sound systems, fully equipped changing rooms and showers, lockers, cloakrooms, an outside terrace (although that may not be of huge use in NI), and a large event venue that, along with the necessary sprung floor and sound system, has a bar. And as the bar is staffed by the school no one complains about the dancers not buying drinks and only asking for more (free) water. It is incredible! They just needed their air conditioning sorted...

Anyhow, when I finally got stuck into a bit of social dancing to warm myself up for the weekend ahead I found plenty of familiar faces beyond the Belfast ones to help me settle in. This social on Friday night also started a small trend that was to continue for the rest of the weekend - the Elusions of Virginie.

I do not think there is a dancer on Earth who intimidates me more than Virginie Grondin. She is arguably the best west coast swing dancer on the planet (yet seems to be inexplicably shy), and add in that she spends most of her time dancing with, you know, Maxence Martin, and that Virginie is also pretty darned attractive, the old self-confidence rarely gets out of neutral. Nonetheless, I was determined that this weekend, I would at least try to ask for a dance.

Towards the end of the night, I noticed Virginie exhibiting classic pro behaviour: hovering near the entrance of their natural habitat (the DJ booth) presenting a display of availability but ready to dart back into said habitat behind the safety of the wheels of steel should any untoward attention be forthcoming.

I was on exactly the opposite side of the dancefloor but after a brief internal dialogue (I always do my worst dancing on the first night and when dancing with a pro, naturally you want to pull out all the good stuff) I decided to go for it. And thus I started to stride confidently across the floor in Virginie's direction but I had barely gotten halfway there before Virginie turned and slipped away behind the booth.

Perhaps my eagerness to apply my PhD in animal behaviour to dancers had been misguided, maybe the song that had just come on was a bit guff and not worth dancing to (I can't remember), or perchance Virginie had caught a glimpse of the determined glint in my eye and felt unsettled, but I had to catch myself mid-stride and and mid-dancefloor and attempt to maintain an aloof visage while wheeling away in a pseudo-nonchalant fashion.

Thankfully I don't think too many saw what happened so I was able to slink away fairly discretely, and as our wee crew were just preparing to leave anyway I made an immediate exit from stage right.

"Tomorrow". I thought to myself...

Sharon, Richard and I were incredibly grateful for Niall and Mirielle putting us up but it has to be said that staying over an hour away from the venue and having only one bathroom between five does not make for arriving at classes early. Or on time. Or even for the second class on time! So it meant missing a few that I would have loved to have attended. Not only did we miss the sole class taken by Maxence & Virginie all weekend but we also missed a taster in zouk, which is a dance style I have been mad keen on giving a go for a while.

As well as Maxence & Vriginie we also missed the only class taken by Sebastien Cadet & Blandine Iche but successfully made it to one or more by Brennar Goree & Crystal Lambert-Auclair, Mario Robau & Melanie Stocker Bucher, Myles Munroe & Tessa Cunningham Munroe, PJ Turner & Tashina Beckmann, and Joshua Sturgeon.

Of these I most enjoyed Joshua's class on musicality and Myles & Tessa's class on a few new styling patterns for funking up and extending sugar pushes, whilst PJ & Tashina introduced us to dolly turns which can look class when done well but otherwise have the potential for grand failure and/or injury to the follow.

The Saturday night also brought with it the competitions which were actually a lot more fun than I had envisaged. After making it through the preliminary heats I was incredibly chuffed to make it to the final, where I was paired with Ella Hirsch and we finished 7th overall. So out of around the 17 couples who entered I was pretty happy with that!

Riding high on confidence I took on a somewhat goal-oriented approach to that night's social: I would dance with every darned pro in the building.

First up, Emeline Rochefeuille, who I think is the most elegant dancer ever created and was incredibly nice although as I have wanted to dance with her for ages, I was a little nervous and couldn't quite relax! Then it was Blandine Iche, who was also absolutely lovely, and Tashina Beckmann, whose dance I sadly ballsed right up, and then Crystal Lambert-Auclair who dances with the most amazing smile across her face the entire that I almost fooled myself into thinking I was doing otherworldly stuff.

I wasn't so unsubtle (or daft) as to attempt to dance with all the pros in row and I mixed things up with plenty of mere mortals but that was also how I came to dance with Tessa Cunningham Munroe.

I can't remember who I was dancing with at the time but halfway through, this girl approached and sort of stared me down before stealing my partner away while maintaining fervent eye-contact. Now, I have a lot to learn about steal dances (namely: how to do them) but generally when they happen it is when the follow I am dancing with, and the lead who wants to cut in, are both mates of mine and I can therefore read the situation.

But when a random (yeah, I hadn't a baldy clue who it was) approaches my dance partner, starts staring at me, and then ghosts said partner away, I worry I have done something horribly wrong and disgraced my partner's honour, and that this is a friend and white knight come to rescue her from further embarrassment.

When it was clear that this challenger was happy to relinquish control of my partner once more I, somewhat curmudgeonly, stole my partner back, returned the weird looks to this attempted usurper and continued with my dance, but afterwards I thought I would seek out my brief foe for a dance just in case the intense eye contact that I had offered had offended.

Well, it turned out to be one of my absolute favourite dances of the weekend. I felt such a fantastic connection and this girl could very clearly dance (in retrospect, that's a serious understatement) - in that way makes you look much better than you really are. So when it was over I bounced over to Sharon only to be asked if I actually knew that I had just danced with one of the world's best dancers from the past decade in Tessa? It appears Sharon knows me quite well. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

Not long after I thought I would once again try for the obvious omission on my pro checklist, and after seeing an opportunity I confidently walked the whole way around the dancefloor to where Virgine was sitting.

As I approached we made eye contact and this time Virginie made no attempt to get away so I walked right up to her, held out my hands... and then bailed at the last minute and asked the girl she was actually talking to. Seemingly, I had travelled at such a pace during my determined walk over that my balls couldn't keep up and I'd left my testicular fortitude at the other side of the dancefloor. If you're at all familiar with Northern Irish colloquialisms, the word we would use for this is 'scundered'.

Nonetheless, between making it to the finals of my competition and having a lot of great dances, I went to bed that night feeling pretty happy.

Sunday brought more of the same - enjoyable classes (including one by that girl from the steal dance, along with her partner, Myles), and an intimate social, this time in a bar venue in town rather than Tanzwerk101.

With it being the last night there weren't quite as many people but it seems quite a few took the same approach that we did - dance until morning then head straight to the airport and fly home. And in my case, fly home and go straight to work!

This final night also brought with it my final opportunity to try to dance with Virginie, so, upon seeing my chance, I once again set off in her direction.

I made it the whole way to her without stopping and I even followed through with my intentions to ask Virginie for a dance... but as I had left it so late it turns out that she was actually just about to leave so she apologised and thanked me for asking. Alas, it was not to be...

Nonetheless, I finished the night with a series of great dances, including another with Crystal, before Sharon, Richard and I made our way to the airport, picking up some incredible pastries along the way that were stuffed with something like Ferrero Rocher and Nutella to help kick start our early morning travels with a serious dose of sugar and a side of diabetes. All in all, a successful first trip to Switzerland and I can now cross that one off my list...