This year was my second annual trip to The Boston Tea Party (BTP), a weekend of swing dancing workshops and competitions in Danvers, MA. It was awesome. I didn’t know a single teacher last year, however I was incredibly impressed with some, especially Dave & Kim and Skye & Sarah. This year I was a bit better versed on who these people were and I was really excited to be learning from people I absolutely admire and wish I could dance like.

Beyond the workshops where we learned kick-ass moves (and other stuff like technique) is the whole competition bit. Last year I competed in the novice Jack and Jill Lindy Hop competition but didn’t make it into the finals. Not the case this year. I not only got into the finals but I got first place with my partner, Joanna! (I love google, only because I didn’t know her last name until I looked it up on BTP’s website this morning and then googled her and found her blog.)

For those of you who don’t know how a Jack and Jill works, it’s called that because you go out and are paired with a random partner. Jack and Jill’s have a lot to do with teamwork, which really ends up being a luck of the draw kind of thing. There are people you dance with sometimes that fight the whole way and there are others that seem to just know what you want. I was lucky enough to have one of those that seemed to know what I want, which in turn only made me enjoy the dance more, which served to make both of us “turn down the suck,” as Dorry later told me.

Getting the award was funny, only because I thought I was too late to the award ceremony to see who won. Actually, that part wasn’t funny, I was kind of pissed because I wanted to have a moment to have that “maybe I’ll place” excitement in my head. Anyway, once they named our competition (about 20 seconds after I walked in the door from lunch with the Baltimore crew) I heard them call third, then second place… in my heart I didn’t expect first, I simply hoped maybe I’d place, but then I heard my name which was so incredibly cool!

I’m not sure what got me more siked about the whole weekend. There were the moves we learned, the late night dancing, the competition, and the award. It all just lumps together to be this awesome experience as a whole, and one I hope to gain again next year.

I only wish I had more time for exchanges like the BTP! I’ll probably end up being at Jam Cellar’s “Big Big Event” and Swing Fling since they are both close to Baltimore, but I don’t see myself going to anything other than that until BTP next year. I have to make some room to go climbing, backpacking, and biking!