Hugo Jonker

I’ve picked up Lindy Hop dancing again. It’s fun (even though class is a lot further from home than before :), and so I figured to attend one of the training weekends.
I had one last year (Swinging in the rain 2010, if memory serves), and it was awesome! Learned a truckload there! So, when I was sort of invited to join for the CapDanse RockSwing Festival, I said “why not?”.

Then they told me it was that weekend (classes on Thursday evening, folks), and I hesitated. For a second or two. And then I figured “oh, whatever, we’ll make do somehow.”

Great decision! I had such an amazing time :)
Saturday morning, I woke up insanely early and was way too early at the station. We took the train to Nancy, then the bus (we being Cassandra, Ingrida and myself), and were on time to register and attend the first classes (from 10:00(!) on). Since I skipped lindy hop for a while, I figured to start with “Lindy 1″. Probably below my level, then again, last time I attended such an event (swinging in the rain), it was *not*.

Turns out that CapDanse attracts people from all sorts of dancing backgrounds, and plenty take the first level of a class just to see what it’s like — absolute beginners. Thankfully, we had Sharon and Juan teaching us, and these two are good. So they were working on everyone’s basics, which is what always needs work anyway :)
Fun class, not a complete waste of time :)

Then I went to Rock 1, which was fun. First half hour was simple stuff I’d already seen, and then suddenly there came a move I hardly came to grips with. Le oops! I reckon I forgot most of that move by now :s.

Then, Lindy 2, again with Phil and Aude (two french teachers who also taught Rock 1). Hmms, the lindy level here was better, but still… sort of “had a few classes in Lindy”, not “have danced lindy for months now” like me.

After lunch, the fun continued with (again) Lindy 2, again by Sharon and Juan. They focused on our basics (the bounce, the rhythm), and they were damn right about it. Next up: Tap dancing! This is seriously super :) Just to be tapping something with your feet which fits in with the music was really cool. Hard too — we learned a march and another routine, and I completely failed to explain to my legs how to do the march.
Last of the day was the Big Apple Routine, which is a solo jazz dance routine (like the shimsham), which was explained at *blighteningly* fast speed, and, moreover, was a continuation of an earlier class from before lunch.

Yeah, I dropped out, went to the hotel, caught the end of a movie (whose grand finale was a tap dance routine :), and layed low till dinner and the party.

At the party there was a separate room for “west coast”. It seemed to be couple dancing to popular music — didn’t quite get it. Then the shows came, and the West Coast teachers showed what, to me, basically was a variation of Zouk. That is, the moves/figures are very Zouk-style. For someone who knows as little about it as me :)

Anyway, though it looks fun, it’s the kind of music I prefer to free-form dance to. So I decided to skip it.

Sunday, first class of the day was Jazz Roots 1 with Max and Ksenia. What can I say, we got off on the wrong foot. The lesson was pretty okay, though I didn’t appreciate that the entire lesson consisted of learning one routine. Next session was Lindy 1 — yeah, not quite my level, but the other courses in parallel were over my head (or so I thought). We did a lot of basic stuff, again with Max and Ksenia. I enjoyed myself there, and tried to make the followers follow — not always easy. Then came Lindy 2, again with Max and Ksenia. I don’t know if they were tired of me, but I sure was getting tired of them ;-) Unfortunately, they basically repeated their Lindy 1 class. I had to check out so I didn’t stick till the end, but, all in all, somewhat disappointing.

After lunch (which was a different story), Lindy 3 with Sharon and Juan. What. A. Relief. We learned some fun moves, we danced a lot, I basically had a fantastic time and came away from one hour of dancing feeling energised. Which I then expended on Charleston Couple, taught by… … guess. Yep, Max and Ksenia. Again, one routine to do for the entire class, not my thing. Took me a while to sort of get it, and I was nowhere near comfortable with it.

So I clearly saw the advantage of teaching 2 figures — if a student fails to get the first, they can always have fun with the second. While if you’re teaching one routine, a small error early in the routine can prevent the fun later on.

Final class of the event was the Rock 1 class, this time by another french couple. They were fun, taught very relaxedly, and I had a good time. Rock is a lot like jive or Lindy Hop, only more strict, more “ballroom”, if you will. I realised that part of the attraction of Lindy Hop to me is the ultimate freedom you get — as Simon once said, “there are no wrong moves, there are only new moves” :)

The Rock 1 class itself was really fun, and we learned a few simple moves which were quite fun :) They weren’t lindy, as the way to lead them really violates the Lindy was of leading/following: Lindy is all about tension, natural movements, etc., while this move contained a “signal” — “If I flap my hand like this, you go like that”.
Cool effect, but didn’t feel like lindy.

Anyway, it has been *way* too long since, no chance to practice all the cool figures Sharon and Juan taught us, so I just hope I remember them.

Cool thing I learned: in Lindy, they use the term “flourish” exactly like in juggling. You’re bored, there’s an arm available, why don’t you use it to spin something around? It doesn’t interfere with the pattern anyway :)

PS: I’ll try to find some videos and photos from my fellow hoppers to sprinkle throughout this long post later :)