Jason Lancaster

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.

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!

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.