Archive for the 'Dancing' Category

• 07.01.10 Our first dance posted in Dancing

  Besides saying our vows, this was my favorite moment of our wedding. To top it off, it’s a pretty awesome song!

• 04.23.10 My wife does tricks… posted in Dancing

  We take a “private intensive group class” with the great Nina Gilkenson and Michael Seguin every Thursday night. This move was inspired from a series of moves that we were told to build on.

  Sometimes great and inspired things happen when you’re with such an awesome group. And sometimes you throw your partner up in the air and she lands flat on her ass (which is what happened with a different move about 20 minutes later).

  That’s just the beauty of the dance.

• 06.18.09 Kick-ass swing: Fats Waller – A Good Man Is Hard To Find posted in Dancing

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  This man is one of the staples of many DJ sets. He’s classic down to the last drop. Raw rhythms, a lot of them original, chunky piano, rag, stride… you name it he did it. Fats was the man. So much the man, in fact, that…

  Waller was kidnapped in Chicago leaving a performance in 1926. Four men bundled him into a car and took him to the Hawthorne Inn, owned by gangster Al Capone. Fats was ordered inside the building, and found a party in full swing. Gun to his back, he was pushed towards a piano, and told to play. A terrified Waller realized he was the “surprise guest” at Al Capone’s birthday party, and took comfort that the gangsters didn’t intend to kill him. According to rumor, Waller played for three days. When he left the Hawthorne Inn, he was very drunk, extremely tired, and had earned thousands of dollars in cash from Capone and other party-goers as tips.
  Waller, Maurice and Anthony Calabrese. Fats Waller. Schirmer Books. 1977.

  Tell me that isn’t badass!

  Update: As per my father’s suggestion below, a great primer to Fats Waller is to start with his boxed set If You Got to Ask, You Ain’t Got It! ( CD | MP3).

• 06.09.09 LINDY 500 posted in Dancing

  Charm City Swing will be hosting an amazing event, the LINDY 500, June 19-21. This is actually our second year hosting the event — it was held under the name “Leap Year Lindy Weekend” last year.

  Just like last year, we have an amazing lineup of guests dancing with us and teaching workshops:
  Kevin St. Laurent, Jo Hoffberg, Nina Gilkenson, and Michael Seguin.

  We’re now less than 2 weeks away. Registrations are starting to pour in from everywhere — DC, Philly, New York, Boston, Cali, Atlanta, and more! We’re going to have a ton of great dancers again this year.

  Last but not least, the band lineup:

  • Friday: Cangelosi Cards
  • Saturday: Boilermaker Jazz Band
  • Sunday: Sac Au Lait

  Whether you’re a beginner or very experienced, there will be something for everyone. Hope to see you there!

• 05.01.09 The King of Swing Dance – American Public Media posted in Dancing

  Keeping with the Lindy theme, I thought I’d post a really great interview with Frankie Manning a couple years ago. Most interesting to me is his description of what it was like to walk into the Savoy Ballroom every week. I can only imagine stepping into a ballroom full of 2,000 people with a band as amazing as Chick Webb or Duke Ellington playing. Man, what a time to have lived!

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  Link to original article

• 04.27.09 What is Lindy Hop? posted in Dancing

  Today is a perfect day to followup my last post where I had a few people ask me, “What is Lindy Hop?”

  Lindy Hop formally began in 1927 using elements from jazz, tap, breakaway, and Charleston; and evolved with jazz music to become what we see in early videos like the infamous Hellzapoppin:
  

  Read the rest of this entry »

• 04.14.09 Dancing with the Stars has no clue posted in Dancing

  My first and primary hobby is swing dancing — or more specifically, Lindy Hop. There are plenty forms of dance that end up encapsulating “swing dancing”; from West Coast to East Coast; to Jive or Jitterbug; or even things like Charleston, Peabody, Fox Trot, and Turkey Trot; finally, there’s even a style of Ballroom Swing.

  I think it’s great that a term can be used so widely and encompass such a large group with love for dancing. But sometimes it really screws things up, like when corporate moguls get the idea to cover a specific form of dancing and get it completely wrong.

  Dancing with the Stars just recently aired an episode where the dancers performed the “Lindy Hop.” Except that nothing anyone did even remotely resembled the Lindy Hop. The best metaphor I can give is that this episode was like eating yogurt and calling it ice cream. Yea it’s food but it ain’t even frozen!

  The worst part about how wrong Dancing with the Stars portrayed the Lindy Hop is that everyone I meet who learns or knows I’m a dancer always asks me, “Oh! Do you watch Dancing with the Stars?”

  Think about it. What do they think now? What do you think now?

  Emily’s and my witty little line has always been, “No, we actually dance.” But from now on, I don’t think I’ll be able to restrain myself from going on a tirade about how much this show absolutely sucks. I imagine they’ve bastardized other forms of dance but until now it has never affected me. It’s downright embarrassing.

  Go ahead, watch if you dare… and if you’re a “swing dancer” please know I warned you!
  
  
  
  

• 10.20.08 Charm City Swing reprise posted in Dancing

  I just received a call from a friend a few minutes ago asking if Austin Grill was still on tonight. Since the last thing I wrote said there were no more CCS dances at AG, I figured my blog needed to be updated.

  The dances never actually stopped. Lots of people sent emails and as of right now there will be no changes with Austin Grill. Meaning, if you want to dance and want to show your support, come out with us sometime this or next week. Up to date information can be found weekly on Charm City Swing’s mailing list, located here.

• 09.30.08 Austin Grill discontinues Monday night swing dancing posted in Dancing

  Last night was the last swing dance at Austin Grill. They’ve decided to discontinue swing dancing in lieu of Monday Night Football. Needless to say, I’m very disappointed.

  If you’ve ever been there dancing or ever wanted to, or have been dragged along by me and enjoyed your time there, now is the time to act. Send an email to Bill Duffy. Tell him how much you loved Austin Grill. Tell him how great it was. Tell him how you see the ads for dancing at Austin Grill in the papers ALL the time. Here’s what I said:

  Hi Bill,
  I just wanted to tell you how disappointed I was to hear Austin Grill decided to stop hosting swing dancing on Monday nights. I’ve been at Austin Grill nearly every Monday since March 14, 2005 when it first started and honestly can’t imagine what my life would be like without it. Honestly! I met my girlfriend there the week it started. I’ve made countless friends, including much of the bar staff. It is literally THE BEST reason to live in Baltimore. It was a wonderful and unique venue, the staff there has been incredibly supportive and friendly, and your food is awesome. I speak for many of my family and friends — Austin Grill will not be the same without it and we will all terribly miss this event.

  Unfortunately, the decision has been made. Unless someones mind is changed, there is no more dancing at Austin Grill. We’re looking for other venues. We want one with a big floor, a parking lot, and a safe neighborhood.

  And most unfortunately, this isn’t a good time for Dorry, Sommer, Emily, or me, or anyone who might actually be able to help rescue it.

• 08.08.08 Wordabble is live! posted in Dancing, Technology

  Wordabble is live! I’ve submitted requests for reviews in few places. I’ve talked about it a lot in the past few posts, so I’ll keep this short and sweet to simply say: If you have an iPhone, buy Wordabble!

• 04.01.08 Boston Tea Party 2008 posted in Dancing

  This past weekend, I travelled to Danvers, MA for Boston Tea Party 2008. When I first started dancing, BTP was the event everyone at Charm City Swing suggested I go to. I’ve been for the past three years now and have enjoyed each.

  This year, in addition to taking classes and competing in a Jack & Jill contest, I chose to compete in a Strictly Lindy contest with Emily. We had a lot of fun doing that and I threw in our jumprope aerial because we knew we wouldn’t make it to the finals. Adam caught a quick 30 second video of us right as we did it.

  On Saturday, Emily and I both competed in the Intermediate Lindy Hop Jack & Jill competition. I ended up making it to finals and competed again on Sunday with a final placing of 6th with a very nice partner named Zia Mareck-Loftus (who in googling I think might rock climb!) I’m completely thrilled with placing 6th! From what I’ve been told, the competitors in my division were very good. I went from thinking I’d simply be happy if I made it to finals to then thinking my goal was placing in the top 10.

  My friend Elaina Hirsch won the Novice Lindy Hop Jack & Jill with her partner, Adam Dau. To say the least, I was thrilled. That means a Charm City Swing dancer has won the competition two years in a row. AWESOME!

  In a change up from previous years, we flew into Boston and stayed directly in the hotel where the event was taking place. It was wonderful being able to dance very late into the night and then go directly to bed. I did miss having a fridge and being able to go to the grocery store and stock up on cheap foods. Staying in the hotel didn’t leave much room for cheap and quick food. Because of that, this year ended up being quite a bit more expensive than previous ones. If you’re going, drive yourself, and tight on money, then staying in a hotel that gives you a kitchen is always a nice thing.

  In total, Charm City Swing had 30 people come to Boston Tea Party this year. We had three tables! Many of us competed, many for the first time. Shannon Young made it into Novice Jack & Jill finals and Colleen made it into the West Coast Newcomer Jack & Jill finals (but didn’t stay to compete… we all know she would have won).

  A list of highlights:

  1. Elaina winning the Novice Jack & Jill competition.
  2. Placing 6th in Intermediate Lindy Hop Jack & Jill.
  3. Emily and I performing in a strictly together.
  4. Emily and I joining in on a jam Friday night and ending a song with our jumprope aerial.
  5. Having a front row center seat to all competitions, courtesy of the three tables Charm City Swing purchased at BTP.
  And the bummers of the weekend:
  1. Classes didn’t seem nearly as challenging as they did in previous years (which could have been as much me as instructors).
  2. Classes being a bit too packed for the rooms we were in. I ended up sitting out and listening to a lot of them instead.
  3. The music EQ was off in the Lindy Living Room on Saturday night. Way off. To the point where the music was impossibly hard to hear.
  4. Videotaping not being allowed: Carl had a good suggestion when he mentioned allowing digital downloads. Honestly though, I don’t mind there being a no videotaping rule for competitions. What does bother me is that BTP videotaped the Westie classes this year but not the Lindy classes. Yet, most lindy instructors were not allowing videotaping. The strangest thing is that I even talked with Doug, the guy doing the videotaping and he said that there shouldn’t be any rules against taping the lindy classes and that he was fine with it. Instructors that had in past years let us videotape thought we couldn’t though… and that was just plain frustrating. I really hope they make a point to clarify this next year so that those who want to learn and review their material can find a way to do so, either by buying the DVD or by videotaping themselves.

  Don’t let my bummers fool you though. I ended up appreciating the social dancing and the competitions much more than previous years. I won’t be missing this event next year!
• 03.07.08 Leap Year Lindy Weekend recap posted in Dancing

  This past weekend Charm City Swing invited Kevin St. Laurent and Emily Hoffberg, Davis Thurber and Elizabeth Miller, Naomi Uyama, Marc-Andre Vachon and Cassie Wicken to teach a weekend chock full of swing dancing and workshops.

  It was amazing!

  I’ve been going to the Boston Tea Party for the past couple years because spending the weekend with superstars is always inspiring. Unfortunately, few events out there actually have the appeal that Tea Party has, but I’ll tell you this for sure: Baltimore’s scene is not to be overlooked.

  Everyone was inspired. The instructors brought it. We had awesome bands: The Boilermakers and Sac au Lait. It all just meshed together into this perfect event. Even the hiccups (which any event will have) were small!

  I have a few “favorite moments” that happened over the weekend:

  1. Kevin leading everyone during the solo blues jam circle Saturday night with Sac au Lait. He called it, we did it. I think he could have said, “stand on your head” and the crowd still would have gone ape-shit.

  2. Crab wars. I intend to practice. Next year Dorry and I will take Kevin down.
  

  3. Learning a new arial: The Fly. Emily’s and my first try resulted in Emily doing a perfect back flip and sticking the landing. Maybe not what we were supposed to do, but freaking sweet.

  I’m so glad Dorry and Sommer were able to convince Kevin and Emily to come to Baltimore. First and foremost, they’re great dancers, but they also have an amazingly fun sense of humor and so much to share. I’d love for a repeat next year. I also loved that they blogged about the weekend at their blog.

  To sum things up, here’s a video I posted of Kevin and Emily social dancing:
  

• 01.24.08 Practicing social dancing posted in Dancing

  Emily and I sometimes (but not frequently enough) record ourselves socially dancing to go back and review how we look. It’s weird going back and watching yourself because it’s very easy to pick everything apart once you actually have time to analyze what you did and not rely simply on instinct.

  The video was taken at Sommer and Dorry’s a week or so ago. Song is I Diddle. While everyone I know says Ella Fitzgerald sings this song, I really think it might actually be Dinah Washington singing.

  The song has a ton of breaks and while that makes it quite fun, it also complicates things. You don’t want to be caught dancing through the break!

• 01.23.08 Dancing, dancing, dancing! posted in Dancing

  I’ve been making the most of my hand injury by doing a lot of dancing. Dorry and Sommer’s recent burst of inspiration has involved Emily and I with quite a few events recently:

  First, Em and I took a teaching/demo’ing gig at a corporate holiday party. While the demo was really fun, the teaching part was a real bust. For those that know my personal life a bit, just imagine a bunch of my non-dancer friends at a corporate party and then try to imagine me trying to convince them to take a dance lesson. Yeah. Not happening. Neither was the party. Sometimes you get lemons though.

  Second, I participated in a group of six asked to perform at the Lyric Opera House for the Chinese New Year on Sunday the 20th. We only had a couple sessions over a two week period to learn parts of The Big Apple, The California routine, and some solo jams. This was four of the six couples first ever choreographed performance, including Emily and I. Quite exciting and a little unnerving at first but I think everyone involved got really inspired and excited! We did a great job performing not only at the Lyric but at Charm City Swing on Monday night:

  
  

  Third, we’ve been gearing up for two events in February. The first is a Jewish memorial thing where we’ll get to dress in vintage costume for a performance alongside of S&D. The second is the Leap Year Lindy Weekend happening from 2/29-3/2. We’re not really involved with coordinating LeapYearLindy but we’ll be participating in all of the classes and enjoying having people come to our swing scene for some cool shit. Kevin and Emily are amazing dancers and you’d be silly not to see them in action in Baltimore. I can think of a couple people who read my blog who might be interested in some more specifics or rides. I’ll be glad to help out if you want to come!

• 03.27.07 Boston Tea Party the second time around posted in Dancing, Vacations

  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!

• 03.22.07 DJ’ing swing dances posted in Dancing

  Something I’ve failed to write about recently is my love for music and more specifically, the fact that I began DJ’ing dances at Austin Grill for Charm City Swing back in June of last year.

  I’ll be testing out my style on dancers at a new venue, Avalon Dance Studio, this evening. Who knows how it will go since I’m so inexperienced, but one can only hope for the best.

  I have to give a lot of credit to Alan Chung for getting me started with the initial library and list of files that work and don’t and what-not, but I think I’ve strongly developed my own style in the past three months. Up until then I was simply going with what was tried and true. But style is an important thing for a DJ, otherwise you don’t have much of an identity. I don’t have a handle on the swing scene enough to know what style to classify myself as, but I know it isn’t all that typical to what you’ll hear at a dance.

  Part of it has to do with spontaneity. I throw shit in my set all the time that I know is danceable but might or might not work, and it almost always works because people aren’t expecting it! “Dude, he’s fucking playing INXS!” Hell yes I am! And you know what? It may not be classic swing but you can dance your ass off to it and have fun. This isn’t an original idea of mine, I’m simply acting on what I saw Alan, Sommer, and others do, but outside of Charm City Swing I don’t see it happen very often. Or if it does, it’s hidden. A lot of DJ’s hide the new and funky stuff at the end of a set. The classics are simply the classics and you have to put something other than classic swing in order to please a larger audience. There is nothing wrong with it and I wish more people did it.

  I don’t get around a lot in the swing scene (I just don’t have the time), and I’ll freely admit that fact, but I’ve been to Jam Cellar twice and both times, nothing moved me. And you know what, there are other people there that think the same thing yet they never say anything to anyone, most specifically the DJ. The same thing goes for a lot of what is played in the Lindy Living Room at Boston Tea Party, where I’ll be this weekend. I can only handle so much classics. At a certain point you’re worn out and need a bit of variety.

  Reverting to communication with the DJ, it doesn’t happen often with me, but when it does I’m always grateful that someone out there has the guts to say, “Hey you know, this just doesn’t work for me.” Even if you are a “professional” DJ, I think you could learn a thing or two if there was a better method of communication with the dancers. You can’t always rely on whether or not people are dancing. You can dance to anything, but does it really move you?

• 03.12.07 Charm City Swing’s two year anniversary posted in Dancing

  Charm City Swing held its two year anniversary at Austin Grill on Monday, March 5th. The place was packed full because CCS bought everyone dinner before the dance. All in all, I’d guess we had around 100, maybe even 120 people there total that Monday. I took some pictures with Scott’s camera and we even got a couple very dark and grainy videos of the jams. Here are some pictures of the event.

  Emily and I are teaching classes over at AG tonight, so if you’ve been afraid of dancing for a long time and want a friendly face to show you how to do it, we’ll gladly accept some of you lurkers (or hell, even my family who still has yet to even try this!).

• 03.01.07 Dancing at the BSO posted in Dancing

  Tonight I went to see Savion Glover, a tap dancer, perform with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He was wild and really cool. It was interesting finding out that the entire show was improvised, too. The concert on Saturday is sold out, so if you want to see him, you can’t.

  His performance gave me quite a bit of respect for tap dancing. I didn’t — still don’t — know much about it, but for sure it has a lot more to do with keeping basic time than tapping 1 2 3 4 over and over again.

  The symphony also played this song called The Charleston, which was fittingly a Charleston song. They had dancers who well, if you could call them that, danced something that looked nothing like a Charleston dance. When I tell people I swing dance and how cool it is, I now know what half the people are thinking. I mean, I don’t think they could have picked anyone else in the world to make that dance look even half as gay. Even Jason Seldin! (Sorry Jay).

  So, all that to say, I have much respect for the Baltimore School for the Arts with regards to classical dancing (ballet, jazz, and even tap too?), but wow, as a swing dancer I think the performance with the BSO tonight was downright embarassing. Please don’t knock swing dancing till you’ve tried it. And if you haven’t tried it, check us out at Charm City Swing.

• 07.14.06 Recent activities posted in Dancing

  I forgot a recent milestone that Adam and I reached last Saturday. I’ve never paid much attention to the number of miles I bike, but on Saturday we kept track and found that we biked 29 miles. 29 miles on a mountain bike, not a road bike. It took about 2.5 hours. A good ride — at least I think. We almost made it to the PA state line.

  After that, I went out to a nice Thai meal at Thai One On, then went dancing at Avalon. Then I spent all day Sunday working on my dancing at Dorry and Sommer’s at a workshop. Then we had a dance on Sunday night from 8ish to 9:30.

  Needless to say, at Monday night swing I was feeling pretty beat up.

  To top all that off, Tracie and I took up indoor rock climbing last night. We learned the basic knots, ties, commands, etc. and did a bit of climbing. Now we’re free to go back and take a belay test, which will allow us to go with any of our friends and make sure they’re safe. So if you’ve ever wanted to try out indoor rock climbing, feel free to ask and I’ll take you.

• 06.29.06 Teaching classes at Charm City Swing posted in Dancing

  I’ve made the jump to DJ’ing Charm City Swing’s dances and teaching beginner lessons. Since Alan left and Collen was on her own, they needed some new sets of teachers. Rob & Elaina were recruited as well as Emily and I.

  With Colleen’s absense for the next month or so, I’m also DJ’ing. I really enjoyed being responsible for the music last night because it gave me a chance to throw in some songs that aren’t so normal. Highlights included:

  • I Wear My Sunglasses At Night – Corey Hart
  • Just My Imagination – Babyface & Gwyneth Paltrow
  • Big Time – Peter Gabriel
  • Heart Of Rock ‘n’ Roll – Huey Lewis And The News

  I played some more too, but those specifically were ones that made everyone curl a little smile. I have a bunch of others up my sleeve, I just didn’t want to give it all away on the first night. Hopefully once Colleen is back we can switch things up more frequently to give everyone a chance to hear a somewhat different style.

• 04.04.06 Litter Baltimore 1 posted in Dancing

  Charm City Swing had it’s first anniversary just recently. In keeping with promoting swing dancing in Baltimore, last Friday we organized a group of volunteers who took to the streets of Baltimore, distributing flyers throughout the Inner Harbor, Fells Point. We intended on reaching Canton as well, especially because that is where Austin Grill is, but we didn’t have time.

  Dinner was served at my place before we took to distribution. We all had a great time, as you can see by our pictures:

  

• 04.04.06 Boston Tea Party posted in Dancing, Vacations

  Emily and I drove to Boston two weekends ago for the Boston Tea Party, a huge dance convention. It was a long drive, but we had a really cool room and a few friends, including Colleen and Sommer were there. We competed in the Jack and Jill novice competition, but didn’t make it to the finals. We took a total of 12 workshops (I think) and each was informative and beneficial for our dancing. This weekend is DCLX, which means even more dancing. My hand has been hurting but you can be sure I’ll make an appearance.

  

• 03.07.06 Swing dancing videos, round 1 posted in Dancing

  Here are some swing dancing videos, courtesy of google video. I’m hoping more people see this and think, wow, cool! If you like it, come out to Charm City Swing on a Monday or Wednesday night.

  

• 02.24.06 Swinging at Gardel’s posted in Dancing

  Dancing at Gardel’s has been absolutely insane these past two weeks. Charm City Swing started teaching an advanced lesson at 8pm, which I’m sure helped kick it up a little but I think the venue is just getting a bit more word. I took some pictures after the dance floor was a little less packed — respecting the fact that I didn’t know half the people and had no idea how they’d feel about having pictures taken. I took some movies but they’re too big to post here. I uploaded them to google video and hope that they’ll be verified soon so I can link them as well.

  Heather’s birthday was last Tuesday, so on Monday we did a little birthday dance and then on Wednesday we all went out to Max’s on broadway for drinks because Gardel’s kicks us out around 11:30ish. Alan and I asked some homeless dude who had pizza how we could get some pizza and followed him to this shit-hole of a place that made us this awesome pizza to take back to Max’s. Maybe it was just awesome because it was midnight and we were drunk, but it was awesome. I guess this constitutes a birthday post for Heather, even though it’s a bit late. That’s OK because ALL my friends have birthdays in February. (Amy, Erin-Leigh, Meghan, Dom, Heather, Jaimie)

  

• 03.16.05 Swing Dancing in Baltimore posted in Dancing

  Monday at the Austin Grill was really great. I have to say, I had no idea dancing could be so much fun. I thought I’d feel awkward or at least fall all over myself or some poor woman, or just be stuck dancing with Heather all night. Fortunately for me, I didn’t. In fact, I think I did quite well in comparison to a couple of other guys. I’m going to keep this up. I don’t think I’ll be going to the beginners class anymore because I get off school at 7:20ish and I’ll need to eat before I dance. Plus, once you got the real basic footwork I don’t think you’ll need to relearn it all over again (unless you are a bad dancer and need practice).

  I know Heather had fun too, she made mention in my last entry. I’m sure she and the other women who were there would enjoy having more partners so if any of you who think you are my friend think you’d like to try it out you should call me. Otherwise, I’ve said all I’m going to say to try and convince you people. You’re all just hopeless anyway.

  Swing dancing information: Monday nights, 7:30-8:00 really basic east coast swing lesson, 8:00-9:00 ongoing basic lesson, 9:00-11:00 open dance. Hosted by Austin Grill. Taught by Charm City Swing.

• 03.12.05 I can swing dance posted in Dancing

  So rather than spend my afternoon doing homework and reading for class (like I should have), I found some swing dance lessons online and learned how to swing dance with Heather. I must say, it is really fun and only took us an hour or so to have the footwork and basic spins down well enough for me to lead her to a song by Save Ferris.

  That is one of the great things about the internet. Not only did it provide me an outlet for my procrastination, but now I can awe the women even more with my awesome ability to swing dance.

  • Link to Charm City Swing so you can learn too!