Ok so here’s the dealio…

I went to Lindyfest 2011 in good ‘ol Houston, Texas with the One2Swing Jitterbugs to do a special performance during the Saturday Night Show. It was a huge honor to be asked and believe me, EVERYONE WAS STOKED!!! We didn’t know what to expect really. We knew once we got to Houston:

1.) we had to perform in front of our favorite peers (aka “The Rockstars” as we fittingly named them )

2.) we were excited to take the workshops and learn from instructors we normally don’t see or hear about in SoCal

3.) we were going to eat some darn good ‘ol BBQ and Steak (nom! )

4.) we were going to have some pretty crazy ass fun together before our “hiatus.” (notice the quotes )

Lindyfest was a HUGE inspiration. I never realized how BAD my dancing was or how complex it can be! Well, not bad… I just never thought about it so much and I knew I needed improvement. I think everyone felt that way. We definitely hit a “Lindyfest high” while being there and when we came back, we all hit a low. We were spoiled in a good way. WE NEEDED TO DANCE! LOL! Plus, I wanted to improve and try to find my personality and the enjoyment in Lindy Hop. This is where I started to think, “OK, I can go out social dancing and dance with some good leads to get an understand, but will I make sense of it? Will I know what I am doing wrong? Should I try new techniques? How will I know?” etc., etc., etc. I have been dancing for a while and I wanted a challenge. I NEED a challenge, just like how the workshops at Lindyfest challenged me.

This is where the blog comes in. It use to be a ranting blog when I was 18 years old, so I decided to convert it ( no one needed to know about my boy dramas and puberty problems). I needed a place to reflect and write down my thoughts and “discoveries.” Little epiphanies here and there. All on this blog. What am I reflecting on? Any challenge that is presented to me. Any dare that someone tells me to do for X# of months/weeks/days/ or until I get it right. I need to be challenged in my dancing. Anything, in dance or in my regular day to day life. I already have one that my boyfriend dared me to do: jog the entire Rose Bowl (~3 miles). It’s not a lot and I have jogged/walked the whole thing before. It’s getting my body to a jog-able state that’s hard because my skin goes crazy from allergies and rapid expansion in the capillaries.

So, here it goes so many… what to start on? I was thinking about cutting out all the styling aspect of dancing and focus on the basics… triple steps instead of swivels… or what I learned from Kevin and Jo: do only rocksteps, triple steps, and steps to feel the connection between your partner and feel different syncopation?… maybe learn how to lead???? IONO… I’ll have to think about it and decide. To be continued…..