Lindy Focus Trip report (aka/LFPT.)

Holy shit, y'all. Lindy Focus. Now that I've had a couple whole nights of sleep, I almost feel ready to try and write again.

Lindy Focus was awesome, in the "inspiring awe" sense of the word. (This was my first Lindy Focus.) The scope of the event is just incredible, with something like 700 people coming for the week (more on NYE), 3 areas to major in ["main tracks"] (Lindy, 8 levels; Balboa, 2 levels; Advanced Jazz; Comp and Show), and 12 more things to minor in ["side tracks"], from fundamental movement training to burlesque to tap to 2 levels of Charleston emphasis to aerials and even blues. Oh, and also dancing every night from 9 till LATE (multiple late night options: lindy, bal, or blues), with 4 of the 5 nights boasting live music from incredible bands. It is almost too much to take in.

No, it really was actually too much to take in. One can only be in one place at a time. There are only so many hours in the day, and one has to devote a few of those hours to sleeping. Presumably.

And while it sounds very structured, the camp was not, in fact, over-scheduled. There was enough time pretty much every single day to just wander off and dick around and see what people were up to. There was actually a whole day in the middle of the camp with no main track classes, full of side tracks and electives and talks and open practice. I took a nap, even. It was glorious.


Look, I made sections:


FAVORITE MOMENTS (including but not limited to):

- Seeing so many dance friends from *everywhere* and making new ones
- MIDWEST REPRESENT nye pizza party and group photo
- realizing I do have girl skills, doing one roomate's makeup and another friend's hair. It was a wicked faux-hawk, but still... it was hair, and I did it.
- balboa in flip flops 'cause I stumbled into a practice session and wanted to dance.
- swingout battle in the bal room at 630am and 230bpm. The DJ turns around and is like... "wait what? I LOVE YOU GUYS!"
- having someone tell me just past midnight, midweek, that they WERE going to go to bed, but after dancing with me they felt like dancing all night.
- mind-reading dances with a buddy from baltiMORE  late at night, when we're both too tired to care if failure happens.
- baltiqurque. and, hey, I *can* still lindy hop after that much liquor. or at least everyone was kind enough not to disabuse me of the notion.
- learning the phrase "c'est que what the fuck," which needs no translation.
- being the follow who happened to be dancing with a badass dancer when a couple of other badass dancers came up to him to be like, "show us that thing!" and being along for the ride.
- Chance juggling my shoes to end the dance after I lost one and kicked off the other.
- sunrise on new year's day.
- (that's what the dead hooker said.)
- a bunch of specific dances, but I told those people in person that they were awesome (or at least smiled dopily and gave a big hug), so they don't need named here. jus' smiling to myself.
- a couple of girls told me that I was fun to watch. compliments from other follows are the bestest.
- none of this is in chronological order.
- I'm still wearing my bracelet.
- FINDING LOVE IN A HOPELESS PLACE.
- live music!


Talkin' about least favorite moment, spending money and classes, all below the jump, long as usual...

Dispatches post-Lindy Focus (5 of ?)

Woke up in my own bed this morning for the first time since before Christmas.  Wow.  Swung.over.

There is a reason there are no posts after Friday afternoon of Lindy Focus, btw, lol.  The reason goes something like.... Baltiquerque, dancing till 6 am, classes, NYE, dancing past sunrise and then staying up till like noon-thirty, karaoke focus time, staying up till 4 or 5, driving home, snow, going to bed at a reasonable hour and sleeping in.

But there will be a more extensive trip report soon, promises.  I will probably do several posts, because there is just SO MUCH and a few divergent things have sparked my brain.

Dispatches from Lindy Focus (4 of ?)

After Kevin's Movement Training class this morning, which was pretty much all spin drills, (quarter, half, full, double, right foot going right, left foot going left, right foot going left, left foot going right, why are my backwards doubles more stable than the forwards ones?).... my foot feels much better.  I guess it partially just needed stretched out.

Onward to more dancing!

Dispatches from Lindy Focus (3 of ?)

So night before last, I did some dancing in my socks for a while at the late night, because my shoes weren't very fast and my knee and leg were beginning to protest.

And my feet have been hurting pretty bad since.  Ok, that's not true.  Mostly only just my right foot, because apparently I strike the ground with my foot with unnecessary force when I spin? Or, more nuanced... I am not flexible enough in my ankles and knees and hips when I'm stepping through spins, and so the force that I am using is absorbed almost entirely in the ball of my foot when I spin, and thus it hurts.  Also, I really like to do single-foot spins, and should probably be more amenable to stepping through my turns.....

Anyway, lesson for Christina from Lindy Focus, gratis, via sore feet.  A reinforcement of things I have already been told, but now I know.

Dispatches from Lindy Focus (2 of ?)

Dear Men of Lindy Hop:

I now understand why you wear sweater vests.

Sincerely,
Tonight I peeled off my sweater vest, and the shirt underneath was soaked, but the outside of the wool vest was dry!

Lindy Focus! (1 of ?)

I'm so excited for Lindy Focus that I tremble like a little Chihuahua puppy when I think about it. That is all for now.

Declining a dance (a thing that you, Yes, You! are allowed to do.)

So a friend of mine was recently co-teaching a drop-in beginner lesson before a night of dancing; I was watching the door and listening. To conclude the lesson, he said that there were only two rules for swing dancing. Following the obligatory Fight Club joke, he stated that the first rule, was the leads had to ask some follows to dance at some point tonight (and that it would be sad to leave all the lovely ladies waiting). Second, he stated that if someone asked you to dance, you had to say yes.

And then I threw up in my mouth a little.

Can I deconstruct that response for y'all a bit? Why that made me sick even though my personal philosophy still leads to basically same result-- I will virtually never say "no" to getting asked to dance.* I swear to god that I am aware that there will be people who think I'm more than a little "Stop the penis party" with this, but hey, this is my blog and my opinion and you don't have to read any of it that you don't want to.