Week Two at Herrang Dance Camp

After a full week of classes, I’ve managed to fill my brains with so many new concepts that it just bounces around in my little skull. After an hour and twenty minutes of auditions on Sunday morning at 10 am. We were all slotted into our levels. This week, the advanced level was divided into two groups.

We had the Hot Shots teach all of our classes plus Peter Strom & Ramona, Johanna and Henderic and Sky and Freida. We had one class with new Lithuanian instructors who couldn’t speak English very well, so we got a routine down and out of the way. I think it was their first time teaching in Herrang.

The theme this week was rhythm, scatting and of course super fast dancing. All the Hot Shots have this idea that dancing to fast music is heaps of fun (can you tell I’ve been hanging with the Aussies). I do have to agree with them because we danced so hard that I had to use two towels in one class due to all the sweating!

Our swing outs are now forever changed by the Hot Shots and I will never be the same anymore. I don’t know if I will be able to dance slow anymore…

Between classes, I had the oppourtunity to be part of the SwingTeens program and work with the kids this year. We worked on core strength and low powerful footwork. With my martial arts background, Richard translated my class to Swedish and Norwegian while I talked about being athletic was important in physical sports.

Social dancing was on the down low this week, I spent my evenings work with the theatre crew for the evening meetings with Lennart.

Now that week is over, with new classmates and great memories. We started working on a choreography that entails a lot of the moves we’ve learn in this stream. Steven, Aisha, Nina and I spent an hour working on it. Look our troupe members at home and Seattle, we are gonna knock you dead with this routine!

I leave Herrang on Wednesday morning after blues night to return to Canada. Another year in here has taught me so much about myself, people and of course a little bit dancing.

Week One in Herrang, Sweden

Week one is coming to a close, my English is getting worst as it sways towards Swedish inflection and vocabulary.

There’s almost 50% beginners this week at the camp. The social dance floor is quite dangerous as floorcraft hasn’t been taught. The girl to guy ratio this week in classes and the social floor has been three to one. I looked at some of the classes and they had to run group exercises instead of partner because of this ratio.

I spent the majority of week one ensuring the lighting for the meetings and dance floors where in full operations. Between the daily meeting, the old timers talk and the cabaret, I’ve been kept busy all evening. By the time I’m ready to dance, I’m too tired to fully enjoy the social aspect of night life at Herrang Dance Camp. However, I do get to spend an hour or a bit dance after the floors are going but I typically head back to my apartment to rest for the next day.

Next week, I will be taking classes during the day and my responsibilities will be only run the daily meetings. I was planning to take authentic jazz, however it isn’t being offered until week three. Therefore I plan to take Balboa or the Lindy hop track again.

Herrang Dance Camp 2008

This past May, Daniel H. from Herrang Dance Camp asked me to rejoin the team to bring another year of swing dancing to international swing dancers!

What an honour to come back and help spread this joy to the world.

I’ve been here now in Sweden for one week. The days are long for setup week, sixteen hours of lighting and sound setup across four dance floors, ten classrooms and a crew of thirty. We would sleep on the dance floor, wake up, have breakfast and go hard all day.

We’ve been in business for two days now and everyone this working great. The teachers are inspiring students, administration is working hard and the spirit of the dance school is starting to seep into me. I’ve been uploading short clips to my facebook profile and getting great responses. Another three and a half weeks to go!

Some wood, a hammer and nails

Let’s build a deck so I can enjoy sitting outside in my backyard more often. Tomorrow, Dave S. a local contractor and I will be digging holes to fill with cement. You can’t build a huge deck without proper concrete footings I understand. Especially if I plan to have dance parties on it!

This October, I will have been in my house for four years and the patio will be the latest addition. I’m looking forward to spending summers out there enjoying the weather. I’ve even considered rolling out my big screen t.v. to watch movies at night on my couch.

I’m looking forward to having good times on this patio in the backyard with my friends and family.

Wedding Packages

Running a DJ business was hard work the first several years when I started. Working every weekend and throughout the evenings was a normal thing in life after my day job. About the third year, things started to settle down in terms of promotion, marketing, sales and day to day office work. Using my computer skills, I managed to streamline a lot of the office work such that it became automated and all I would do is update databases and cover letters, quotes and booking contracts would just print off.

My energy turned towards the art of entertainment, where I spent a lot of time working on flow of an evening, microphone work and defining a lot of the music I play at events.  Learning, growing and developing experience skill was a goal for me.

Taking dance lessons and developing my mad dance skills back then was important. I wanted to offer a wedding package where I could help the bride and groom dance through their first song confidently. Furthermore, provide entertainment through fun activities for their guests.

This August, I, along with a team of 10 performers will be delivering a full wedding package which include private lessons for the bride and groom, dance instructions for the guests, and a full performance where they will have a swing band. We plan to engage the guests and have ask them to dance throughout the evening to create a warm and positive atmosphere.

I hope to continue to provide this unique service to Waterloo Region. The official website for the dj business can be found at www.cuttingedgedj.ca

Primary School & Dance

Alisha and I were invited to teach social dancing at Brantford’s St. Theresa’s Catholic school on Wednesday April 30th. We had seven classes and a total of 150 kids to get an important concept across. Social etiquette on how to ask someone to dance with and to thank them after this activity. The ages ranged from Junior Kindergarten to grade sevens.

We successfully were able to have fun with vintage jazz moves, some east coast swing partner dancing and of course a few rounds of snowballs. We would finish the class off with a jam circle, as each student showed off the moves.

Alisha and I hope we left the kids with the impression that dance is fun and should be approached with proper etiquette. With classic lines like from a grade two follow, “You are going to have to dance when you get married.”, when we asked the boys to offer their left hand to the follow when they ask them to dance.

We both left the school feeling really good because we had a chance to share with the kids that dance is a fun activity for both boys and girls in today’s society.

Waterloo Dance’s Direction

We had a team meeting with the new Waterloo Dance team. It looks like Sean’s objective has changed based on recent events in his life.

After the Mary Ann Nunez’s weekend, Sean became very ill to the point where he couldn’t even get up to go into work. After four weeks, he is now just starting to feel better which left him with a conclusion that affects all of us on the team. He realized that running a dance school was not his calling, the efforts that goes behind administration, promotion and organizing was beyond his capabilities. All this work caused him to shut down and become overwhelmed with how much really was going on just within the school itself.

Therefore, the assembled team of Julie-Anne, Melanie, Alisha and I will be unemployed as dance instructors for the Waterloo scene because of this change. The school will continue through and finish the current six week session. At that time, Sean will decide if he will continue to keep the school running where it currently is or collapse it.

The idea of having another dance school for the Waterloo scene was quite exciting for many members including myself. Calling out for the support of not only local community members but other swing dance school was huge.

Regardless of having an entity to teach under or not, I come to realize that artist in general of supportive and understanding of what happens to each other in life. With this change of events, we still continue to support Sean and his decision and the dance scene will continue to grow and change.

In the mean time, Alisha and I will work on wrapping up this six week series and then decide what to do next for our community and our own development.

Our new weekly class times are

Wednesdays 8:30 pm - 9:30 pm

Victoria Hill Community Center

10 Chopin Dr.

Kitchener, Ontario

Little Eva’s Adventure

Visiting Melissa, Dragan, Eva and Sterling this weekend left me with a sense of amazement on how much we love our children.

One cold February evening, Eva who’s almost four slept walked herself out of the house in full winter gear to the neighbours house. Dragan and Melissa woke up to find the lights all on in the house and the front door wide open. Dispatch was all over this when Melissa called in a frantic, as Eva danced around in the living room of  the neighbours house after a  glass of milk and cookie. These briefly acquainted neighbours were perplexed with the story Eva was telling  them how mommy and daddy weren’t home and she was asking for help at 2 a.m. in the morning.

After being reunited to what felt like an eternity to Melissa, a parents possible worst nightmare came to end when Eva walked into the house and said, “hi mom!”.

These events in our lives makes me realize how important our children are, it really messes up parents emotionally to even consider the fact their child is missing or distressed. Although Eva has no understanding what has happened in this part of her life, it is a story that will surely be told many times over until her wedding day.

Cruisin’ In Warm Weather

What amazes me most this spring season is when I turn down my street and don’t see snow banks 9 feet high. It is nice to see around corners and the streets feel so much wider!

Twenty five degrees celsius, the sun is shining and people are out walking around and feeling good. I took my motorcycle out for the first time this year, I have to admit that it does feel good to cruise down the street with the wind blowing through my hair. Wait… I don’t have hair!

Welcome spring and good bye 9 foot snow banks!

What to wear with white shoes?

I do have to admit that I am not a fashion buff. I’ve lived on the staples, jeans, t-shirt and cowboy boots. Simple!

Why on earth did I buy white shoes again? Nothing matches!! It doesn’t flow, so the advice I got today from Donna P. at work was, white pin strips in a button down collar shirt. So off to the mall I went with the credit card. I think I did alright, I guess I will find out because wearing a white belt and white shoes is something I’ve never done before. Brave new world