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...

Video: Ben & Virginie @ Swingsation 2015

I've got into the habit of posting wee things on my Facebook page but not actually on this blog so this is the start of me addressing that!

And as it is Wednesday (henceforth referred to as WESTnesday... see what I did there?!) I'm sharing a video from an annual west coast swing event in Australia called Swingsation.

The default video I go to when showing people what WCS can look like at its finest is from last year's Swingsation event and features my favourite couple: Maxence Martin & Virginie Grondin. This year, it has has produced another incredible bit of lead and follow action, again featuring Virginie Grondin but this time being led by Ben Morris.

Enjoy.

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.

lindy hop, east coast swing, west coast swing: what's the difference?

USA: the ancestral home of lindy hop, east coast swing and west coast swing

As I've said, the main dance styles I love are lindy hop, east coast swing and west coast swing, but how do they compare to each other?

Of those three, lindy hop is the old grandfather from New York whilst east coast swing and west coast swing are the cousins from opposite sides of the USA that maybe get together at larger family gatherings but otherwise keep to themselves for the rest of the year. I will get into the swing family genealogy in more detail in a later post but for now I just want to explain what sets them apart in practice.

In an overly simplistic sense, the basic steps of east coast swing and west coast swing have a 6-beat count whilst lindy hop has an 8-beat count - although the more you get into it, those rules sort of fall apart but we shall proclaim them as gospel for now! Lindy hop is generally danced to big band jazz and music from the swing era, east coast swing emerged a bit later and so it is popularly danced to similar music to Lindy hop but with doo-wop and rock & roll added for good measure, whilst west coast swing is the incredibly versatile relative newcomer that can be danced to just about anything but mainly comes out to play to contemporary R&B, blues and pop music.

East coast swing is the simplest of the three and the best place to start for a complete beginner as the steps are a lot less complex and the dance is more flexible, in that it can be danced to a wider range of tempos without requiring a huge change in skill. As you can see in this video, east coast swing is primarily a ballroom dance.

Lindy hop is usually danced to the same style of music as east coast swing and the moves of these two styles are completely interchangeable (along with Charleston and others) but lindy hop is a definite step up in difficulty as the footwork is a tad more complex and involves the 'swing out' which is the fundamental 8-beat basic that the style is based on. It is a lot trickier to faster music and also incorporates the aerial moves or 'air steps' that have made it so iconic and here's a video of two of my favourite lindy hoppers: Skye Humphries & Frida Segerdahl.

Although west coast swing has its origins in lindy hop it is often categorised separately as it is the newest of the three and one of the more technical styles as many of the moves are led in a more subtle fashion. It is generally danced to music that favours slower, flowing movement and 'stretch' rather than the up-tempo bounce or 'pulse' that characterises lindy hop or east coast swing but west coast swing can be adapted to just about any music genre or tempo; as demonstrated here by one of my favourite west coast duos of Maxence Martin & Virginie Grondin.

In terms of asking me to pick a favourite it would be like asking someone to rank their favourite offspring - I could probably confess that there are certain favourable characteristics that one has that another doesn't - but I really do love them equally and would encourage people to try them all!