23 posts tagged “lindy hop”

Well.. i have lost my last dance contest.  truly, i could lose a lot more if i really put my mind/money to it, but i'm done shoving money at impossible dreams, and i'm ready to start shoving money at merely improbable dreams.

i don't like to whine.  sometimes i like to wail about things i don't understand, but i generally don't like to bitch about things i do understand completely, but can't change. it's annoying.  i hate it in other people and i hate it more in myself. 

yes, you read that right.   Alumni hall on the vandy campus is where we had our special 'event' dance tonight.  one of the coolest (warmest) things about the place:  it's got these vented benches with heat just POURING out, so if you're not dancing, lets say because your mouth is full of ZOMG GIANT CUPCAKE ZOMGGG!!111 you can sit there and warm your ass.  it's really, really, incredible.  and the conversation part.. i was talking to a guy about what it's like to be one of the 'older' members of the dance community. Ha! i don't feel old.  but relatively speaking, i'm pretty fucking old. enlightening.

part of being one of the larger dance-fish in a smaller dance-pond means occasionally i have to do things like teach the itty-bitty beginner fish.  back in cali, my excuse was always .. <$amazingProfessionalDancer>'s a better teacher than i am.. and she's still alive!  why would i wanna teach?  To a large extent, I still believe that while I am a good teacher, I'm not really a good enough dancer to guide the baby fish.  It's not a confidence thing, per se... it's an experience thing.  I haven't.. perfected my skills yet.  How can I possibly teach them?

Unfortunately, philosphical arguments like the above are totally moot when you've got one [1] professional dancer in town, a serious lead-shortage and a large majority of your advanced dancers are in school. Factor in the innate flakey behaviors of your average lindy hopper (can't be on time, can't commit, doesn't have a car, etc) and it's slim pickin's for even a moderately qualified teacher.  But a scene needs new blood, and new blood needs lessons and I'm not sure there's any legal way to bring the best, highest quality instruction out to nashville every tuesday night... so you make do with what you've got.

Once you've assembled your rag-tag instructor fleet, find a group of bean-counters to oversee the whole fiasco with a bunch of rules they don't feel like enforcing and the attitude that NON-PROFIT justifies NON-EFFORT.  Combine well and pour into a clown-car.. ladies and gentlemen!  the Nashville Swing Dance Foundation!

i am probably making it sound worse than it is.  NSDF is, after all, a group of people who give up their nights and weekends to contribute to the swing dance community.  It's a pretty thankless job, and they do it with a smile.  more or less.  But, as a contracted employee of the organization, I'm just not feeling the real commitment to quality, and that worries me.

For instance, I taught last month with a guy here, a super great guy, a super nice guy, and a really fun dancer.  who doesn't plan.... at all. ever.  I did put a lot of work, initially, into getting him to commit to a lesson plan for our four week series, but he just wouldn't have it.  I settled eventually for finding out what his pet peeves were, so i could at least strive for accord in the class, if i couldn't plan the content.  We did, you know, alright. But we didn't get thru what we (I) wanted to, we didn't encourage the quality of movement we should have, and i do feel like the students were a bit cheated by our partnership, something that was echoed by our class ratings.  

I say "partnership" because that's what it is, for better or worse.  we were to succeed or fail as a team, and we failed.  His was a failure to plan, a failure to compromise.  Mine was a failure to speak up, be aggressive; a failure to anticipate my partner's shortcomings and compensate for them. (my inner perfectionist is alive and well)

In any case, I let him bring me down, and that's extremely frustrating.... because i don't screw up! i just don't.

the class ratings are.. they are what they are.  I can't change that now.  But in an effort to make myself better or to understand our results better, I emailed and asked the beancounters how we ranked, compared to the other 3 classes which have been surveyed thus far.  seems like a reasonable question, although I'm not sure anyone else would have asked if I didn't.  

In response I received... seriously this is a quote:

how can you compare butterflies to hummingbirds.. while they both fly in the air, they are such different unique and wonderful creatures, to be treasured, loved and valued for their individualistic abilities...

wow.  is there anything more useless and annoying? seriously? is this how you run your organization?

the other replies were all about how the servey was skewed, and how a bad survey gives bad results, etc, etc, ad nauseam.  what. a crock. of shit.  First of all, i've been rated on things before.  I know how surveys work and this is why i asked how the other classes had done relative to ours.  secondly, i like to think my performance usually is.. or should be.. so good that surveys don't touch it.  My students should be so in love with me by course's end that their little hands just drift over to select the best possible choice.  and then they should leave me comments on how wonderful i am, and how i've opened their mind and changed their lives and how they can tell how enthusiastic and committed I am with every breath i take.  Like I said, i've been the object of a survey before.  many times.  and it is on this experience that i base my expectations.  (that means up to now I've been basically awesome).

So anyway... i'm pissed at everyone*.  they are all lazy and/or enabling motherfuckers.  

*everyone doesn't include the other, statistically more awesome NSDF teachers.  you guys rock.  obviously.

(can you tell i got bored with this post already? I can.)

So I put together an impromptu dance at the farmer's market this saturday.. free, public, and everyone is invited.  we'll have dj'd music and as many swing dancers as I can FIND to commit to being somewhere at 11am.

I am really hoping this goes well! i'd love to have access to a public space like this on a regular basis.. good swinging jazz is just too amazing not to be heard and danced to, out in the open where everyone can love it.

Geeky dance details i've posted on facebook:

What: Swing dancing at the farmer's market!!

Why: Most larger swing scenes have a free, public venue somewhere for the community to see some swing dancing and join in if the spirit moves them.

COST: Free 

Please come, and bring your dance and non-dance friends! Farmer's market is LOTS of fun this time of year!

More info:
Nashville Farmers Market
900 Rosa L. Parks Blvd.
Nashville, TN 37208

at the intersection of Rosa Parks and jefferson.

We are in the 'marketplace' building (food court area) in the middle, with market sheds on either side. We're dancing inside, along the blue construction tarps in the back... the area is under some renovation, so venture under the blue tarps!

The floor is slick concrete. my rubber soled running shoes stuck fast, but my taped up keds were fine. suede/leather would probably be fine, too.. and shouldn't get scuffed up too badly.

Bring your recycled or canvas bags and do some shopping! maybe bring an item or two for the 2nd harvest food bank! If you have a lot of stuff to carry around, you may want to leave it in your cars so we don't lose room to dance-- we definitely want to fit in our designated area as a courtesy to the vendors.

I'm SO excited! see you saturday!

 

So you guys should come.  I will be there, probably wearing a nametag that says 'Kat'.  Please say hi :)

EEE!

blowjob?

No? let's do lunch.

(best pickup line ever)

Status today is i'm angsty and frustrated because there is no one to dance with tonight.  I just want to pick up the phone, call someone --just one decent lead--  and have him show up at the honky tonks.  people here do not share my enthusiasm.  I know they think i'm needy, but hell.. i'm done waiting around for people to ask me..

Back in cali, I would dance 4 nights a week if i could, and a lot of times I'd dance more. Sick, tired, busy, whatever, I made time.  It frustrates me that there's.. servicable.. live music playing somewhere and i can't find anyone to dance to it.

shit shit shit.

Tonight, I have kickbox, then a hip hop class.. I should be pretty exhausted after all that, but all I can think about is dancing.  Because it's starting to seem like, no matter how much else I pick up, i can't fill the place where dancing is supposed to go.

godfuckingdamn it.

Well i'll be gone all weekend dancing my little ass off in Atlanta.  Assuming i make it anyway; the weather is shit and I'm driving...

I had to make a pirate costume.. which i did pull off successfully by mutilating one $8 tank top from Target.  I'll get pictures.  Aaargh.

muchos besos!

Apparently, our cable is out.  So is like, half our neighbors, from the looks of my discovered networks.  Many thanks to 'linksys' who is probably DSL and in any case naked, vulnerable and giving it away for free.  I feel a little dirty here, but hey I was stealing wifi for years in Oakland, and my whole long-distance relationship owes a debt of thanks to 'netgear'.  Big ups, 'netgear'.

So. yesterday I served as 'demo follow' for a guy giving a lindy hop workshop here in nashville.  It was a lot of fun. I have no idea if I was any good; i let him do the talking-- believe me, no one is paying to hear what I have to say.  Our Charleston entrances and exits class was a LOT OF FUN, but I liked working with the beginners best.  it's so FUN to dance with a student and it has all this newbie weirdness going on, then to dance again after some lessons and feel something going very very right.  Yay.

Anyway, dancing on marley floors is shit.  It's ok for a couple hours, but by the end of a.. what? 10 hour day? My knees, back, ankles, hips.. everything.. just fucking.. hurt.  My ankle is doing something weird. I'm hoping to get out for a run in the sunshine, but we'll see....

Happy birthday to everyone who had a birthday in the last couple days, by the way.  I hope you get everything you want this year.

PS my birthday is friday.  Everyone is welcome to send me any of the following:

Southwest gift cards
a new Freitag handbag
a new digital camera
hugs and kisses
world peace
obama for prez

alright off to soak my aching bones. 

(kiss my ass comcast assmaggots)

(thank you linksys)

I just found ONE MORE lindy-hopper on Vox.  wow. that's FOUR! (including me)

Yesterday I spent most of the day with my google-chat status set to "Please God, let me dance this week", and miraculously, the G-Gods of Google answered my prayers with:

- 1 dance-related email that went out to a bunch of people but not me, but which was forwarded at the last minute
- 1 scheduled dance-related event tonight, where i will not actually be doing much dancing, but anything can happen
- a dozen or so people out at the honky-tonks dancing to western swing...
- ...of which a reasonable portion were LEADS!... (this is huge)
- many many fantastic dances for perhaps four hours. 
- assorted compliments from bar patrons
- two smacks on the ass from a happy-drunk girl

my feet are pleasantly sore and probably blistered, I can breathe like a champ and I feel in all ways, terrific.

guess who's going to be in knoxville swing dancing all weekend?

ME! my first southeast exchange!  this means I sleep on someone's floor all day and dance all night.  And I'm a grown- up!

yah!