OK, Friday morning around 9, second day Swing Niagara, very little sleep (adrenalin you know) and pumped for what is to come. I meet Julie for a quick breakfast before she is off to meetings and I am off to be introduced to a floor (more on that later). Have you ever seen Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over the Coockoo’s Nest where he tries to order a Chicken Salad Sandwich (I believe that was what it is) – well meet Julie Nicholson wanting a Bacon and Tomato Sandwich. The restaurant in the hotel does not have B&T’s so Julie N and the waitress concoct a scheme where Julie goes to the buffet gets her bacon and toast, the waitress goes back to the kitchen and slices up a tomato and voila – Julie concocts here B&T right there at the table – just like magic (Wij – you would have been proud *LOL*) . Now that is the way to start a morning *L* - Ok, Julie is off to meetings and I am going to lay a floor. It seems that the floors used for dancing are brought in from Boston by Bill Cameron (another elite WCS dancer) and they must be laid and screwed down. There were not enough people to help do this so I volunteered. I know this sounds stupid, but I really want to know all I can about this West Coast swing phenomenon I have dove into and why not start from the ground up or in this case the floor up. Well with an almost complete Canadian crew (yep Canadians to the rescue again!!!) we took about 4 hours to lay and screw down the floor. About 3 hours in I discovered (in the words of Danny Glover – Lethal Weapon) I am getting to old for this shit and was starting to wonder what kind of shape I would be in for the rest of the weekend. Well I persevered and with back aching, shirt soaked and running out of time I bid adieu to my colleagues and up for a shower I go, just in time for 6 hours of workshops!!!!
The workshops:
This is my second event and you would have thought I would have learned from the first event that doing 6 workshops in a row was not one of the smartest thing in the world to do, well whoever said I was smart does not know me very well *LOL* (definitely not my feet or my back – I think they were pretty pissed with me). This might not mean a lot to you but how often do you get to take instruction from some of the best in the world?? I had a chance to learn from Kyle Redd and Sarah Vann Drake, Arjay Centano and Melissa Rutz, Mario Robau Jr, Parker Dearborn and Jessica Cox and many more. Granted, I do not remember everything we were taught but there were a lot of great tips and technique that came out of all the workshops and just as important, I got to meet some really neat new people who were taking the workshops with me. (One especially, her name was Erin who I only got to dance with once the rest of the weekend; she did some competitions with her boyfriend (her significant) other and did fantastic – I hope I get a chance to meet her and dance with her again). The workshops ended up being fantastic and I will put myself through the same regiment at all the events I go to.
The Competition
Workshops are over just in time for the dancing and competition. After my first event, I kind of got hooked on competing. Like everyone I would like to win, but that is not the main reason I do it. I just want to try and get better and dance with as many different people as possible and you get this by competing. This event, I had decided to compete in 4 different categories, Novice Jack n Jill, Novice Strictly Swing, Pro Am Leader and the Team Division. Well tonight was the Pro-Am Leader Division and I am really looking forward to it cuz I get to dance with Julie and that my friends is the best. Now, you get called up to the floor with your partner and there is only 8 couples dancing and there is like a thousand people watching (Ok I exaggerate a little, maybe 500 but it felt like 10,000 *L*). I was pretty nervous and don’t remember too much about it other than I had a great time, don’t think we made too many mistakes and I would do it all over again. We ended up placing 7th, but that is alright being I am just starting out and I did get up and try – So thank you Julie – it was so worth it!!!!!
The Dance
Now that all the floor laying, workshops and competitions are out of the way for the evening, it is time for the social dancing, the real fun part of the night when you get to dance with all those fantastic people that have come for the weekend. One of the really neat things about West Coast Swing people is that they all love to dance and are willing to dance with you whether you are an advanced dancer or a beginner. So it is pretty easy to go up and ask anyone to dance (even the pro’s – I got to dance with Sophy Kdep – it was great) and it is not unusual for the ladies to come and ask you to dance. If you want you could dance all night without sitting down *L*. So tonight I danced with as many ladies as I possibly could right up until I ran out of gas which was about 3:30 am. All in all the day could not have gotten any better, on top of all the great dancing; I met 2 really special people tonight. When the evening first started, there was this very pretty young lady by the name of Jamie (a professor from Texas I found out later) who asked me to dance. Now Jamie is no beginner and to dance with her was fantastic. She had this great smile and was extremely friendly and came down to my level of dance which made even more enjoyable. Man I could have danced with her all night (don’t think her significant other would have approved *L*). Anyways, I did ask her again and it was another great dance, unfortunately I stepped on her foot – oops (Jamie, I know you will probably never read this, but I am still sorry I did that). I was hoping I had not blown my opportunity to dance with her again (luckily I hadn’t – I did dance with her on Saturday and Sunday). Now the other person I met was this absolutely gorgeous young lady with beautiful red hair and big beautiful eyes. Her name was Livaline and I didn’t know but she is also living in Toronto. What a beautiful dancer she is and a wonderful person, I found out from talking with her. I probably should not admit this but I tried to catch her every time she wasn’t dancing and get her up. I had the pleasure of dancing with her a lot and I hope I get to again tomorrow and Sunday.
Well all in all, you could not have asked for a better day, I got to dance with my favourite people and met some wonderful new ones as well.
Have a great day
Larry
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