Sunday:
Cicada Club (FREE Cover) – http://www.clubcicada.com/main.asp

Monday:
Memories Dinner & Dancing ($3 Cover) – http://www.memoriesdancing.com/

Tuesday:
Atomic Ballroom ($7 Cover) – http://www.atomicballroom.com/
Joes Bar & Grill (Free Cover/21+)- http://www.joesgreatbar.com/
Skinny’s Lounge (West Coast/Free Cover/21+) – http://www.skinnyslounge.com/

Wednesday:
Rusty’s Rhythm Club ($12-$15 Cover) – http://www.rustyfrank.com/rhythmclub.asp

Thursday:
Lindy Groove ($7 Cover) – http://www.lindygroove.com/

Friday:
Atomic Ballroom ($8 Cover) – http://www.atomicballroom.com/
Memories Dinner & Dancing ($8 Cover) – http://www.memoriesdancing.com/

Saturday:
Pasadena Ballroom Dance Association ($15 Cover / Live Band / Refreshments) – http://www.pasadenaballroomdance.com/

I can’t tell you how great of an impact this is on the swing world. My feeds are littered with personal and professional stories about Frankie, he has touched thousands and thousands of Lindy Hoppers around the world and will continue to do so for as long as Swing is alive.

I did not personally know him that well, though I did meet him and did take lessons from him. A great, great man. I really wish I had more time with him…

I’ve posted a few links that will help show a sliver of who he was.

Lindy Hop great Frankie Manning dies at 94

This is just a few, I really suggest reading up on him. He was the first man to ever do a swing aerial (which swing is now renowned for), went into retirement for 30 years, then came back to teach.  I truly hope some flags fly half mast for him.

This night was also very special because the advanced class was putting on a performance. I hadn’t been in a performance since I was 7 or 8,  and those were just amusing skits  that our class did. This was my first performance that was supposed to be good.

After practicing thoroughly throughout the class  (the performance was changed a little bit in the class, which made it more exciting), I was a bit jittery on the floor, just waiting for another hour to pass.

Finally, the time comes. We all meet up in a kitchen and the leads were given Santa hats.  We walked out onto the floor, and BAM! The music started, which, despite them telling us it was going to, I still incorrectly thought there was going to be some sort of a countdown.

We did the whole thing fine! I’m going to post a video later — right now it’s only on my friend’s Facebook profile. Friends came up and told my partner and me that we did great! Also, Patrick came up to me a bit later and told me I did a good job, which was definitely relieving.

Other than that, the night went as usual with lots of fun times.

This was another blues night following the one-follow blues night. Same time, same parking structure.

Let’s back up a minute. We had been bluesing for a few hours, and had finally come to rest in the back of my friend’s truck. The music had stopped an we were all sitting around, chatting and recording some very jazzy commercials. Someone noticed that it was raining outside. We were only one level below the roof, and immediately had the thought of dancing the rain.

Suddenly everyone was moving around grabbing their coats,  grabbing iPods and music players. We all jumped in the back of the truck and screeched our way to the roof. As the rain started falling on our heads and we noticed the dramatic temperature decrease, we rushed to get songs playing. We got el Tango de Roxanne. One of my favorites.

As we danced, the the rain came down faster and stronger, increasing intensity. In that sense, it could be thought to have followed the intensity of the song. It was one of the greatest dances my dance partner and I have ever had to the song.

I’ll post the video as soon as it’s up.

After a couple of minutes they had everyone pair up, and then they gave an announcement. They told us that we were going to be in a Christmas performance. In fact, the last few weeks, the semi-routine we had been learning was the beginning of it.

The actual performance was going to be in about a month — that meant about four more one-hour classes before we were going to perform! I have never performed Lindy infront of other professional Lindy Hoppers, as we were going to do. It was a little bit nerve racking, and they did give the option to bail, but this was a chance to really take a step forward.

So, they continued the routine quite a bit, and had us dance to a really fast song. It was SO much fun! Everyone picked up on it really fast, and the moves went so smoothly at a really fast speed (didn’t look nearly as good at a slow speed). It was a bit exciting.

After that, the rest of Lindy was pretty eventless. I had a girl ask me to dance who complimented quite a bit, saying I lead the best dance she had that night, which made me feel great.

While we were waiting I decided to try a dip I had seen in a dream state (not a dream, but half-asleep, semi merged with a previous dream), and it worked! It looks awesome and we got a picture. Some day I will post pictures with posts, but for right now it’s a bit too much work. If you want to see anything, ask me, and I can send you links. But seriously, it was a great dip.

I lately discovered it took a LOT of hamstring muscle and I acted like a cripple for a few days, but totally worth it.

Finally, friends arrived. We realized that we only had one follow – my dance partner. There were five guys and one girl. Thankfully, she never was too tired to dance, and three of the guys barely danced, so it was mainly me and a friend.

Every dance was a great dance and made to be one of the best blues sessions I had been to, with nothing but great music the entire night. Also, I probably danced more at that blues sessions than most. We took a great deal of pictures and ended up with a few moves, and she danced for about 3 hours straight, props to her!

We have plans for another blues night this week, and I can’t wait for another incredible night.

I came in a full on Ninja outfit, and though very hot, was great. Most people had to stare at me very closely and could figure it out by my eyes. I came with a Bokken (a wooden sword) and a rubber shurikan (ninja star). When I got into the advanced class, Debbie, our instructor, came up to me and peered at me in the eyes and was like “ahh! It’s you! Just needed to make sure you were in the class.” So much fun.

Also, before the advanced class, they taught Michael Jackson’s thriller routine (part of it), he only had 45 minutes to teach an entire class full or people. We performed it when we were done, and unfortunately did a very poor job of it. Mainly because we were facing a different direction and were expecting to only perform it later. When we performed later we were very much more prepared and did a great job and got the entirety of Lindy Groove cheering. So much fun.

Other than that, it was a pretty much normal night, COMPLETELY packed. Very hard to dance with the amount of room, but still fun.

Last thing to mention is some of the great costumes we had in the group. We had a Trinity, Dead Princess (very scary), a Monster energy drink, a Nurse, Roger and Jessica Rabbit, and many more. Some of the costumes there were incredible, very realistic looking Marx Brothers, Spiderman, Neo, Iron Man, Predator, Dracula, Bender, etc.

It was incredible.

As I was watching the time tick by to DSB, I was trying to think of a costume. My main costume had yet to arrive. I finally decided I would just bring PJs. So, I slowly prepared to leave, when I had an idea to be a vampire. The only problem is I sweat a good deal, so I wasn’t sure how well makeup would stay on me.

I called a friend of mine who has done a good deal, and she told me she had a powder and fake blood that would help it stay on longer. I quickly ran out of my house to get to a nearby Party City before it closed.

I arrived 7 minutes before it closed, bought some fake teeth and some white makeup.

I then went directly to DSB, and my friend met me and put on makeup. She was also a vampire, and we happened to have nearly identical cloaks, it was amazing. So, we walked in as “brother and sister” vampires, and she had done my makeup so well that my dance partner actually couldn’t look at me in the dim light of the dance floor. It was kind of unfortunate, but kind of cool. I didn’t plan on wearing the makeup the whole night.

I danced with a good many of people and I could feel my makeup start to smear with my sweat. Nothing could touch my face without leaving a white mark. I had two dances that made the whole makeup worth it.

A friend of mine, who had talked with my dance partner, disagreed, “I don’t think he’s [me] that scary looking”, danced with me. While dancing she said, “wow, you do look scary!” So, I dipped her and in a demonic voice said “LOOK INTO MY EYES!” She semi screamed and freaked out, which was really funny.

Another time I asked someone I hadn’t yet met to dance. Midst the dance she commented, “you know, it was really freaky when you asked me to dance.” So, It was definitely worth it.

I rubbed the makeup off my face, which meant I got to dance with my partner again. Yay!

One of my favorite Blues Dancers, who won last year’s Lindy Groove costume contest, came as Iron Man. Not in the full costume, but just with the glowing center in his chest, and it was really on/in his chest, and showed through his shirt. It was absolutely amazing.

My partner was a Succubus, and did an incredible job.

Other than that, the blues went well, nothing spectacular.

Oh, one more point to note. The birthday jam was TERRIBLE. No one cut in for the first 2 minutes or so (to MOST of the dancers), they just watched. When they did cut in, they stayed there, and no one else did. People are supposed to switch like every 15-30 seconds!

That was it!

We had a week without the advanced class, but now we were back. We went away from the basic form a little bit into styles, which was really fun. We learned the Slip Slop and the Eagle Slide, which formed a nice combination of moves. While dancing I tried a couple of the styles on the floor and got a positive response, so apparently they are decent.

I was only going to have a partial night at Lindy Groove as I had a couple friends from out of a town hosting a party at another place. So, I went around and danced with as many people as I could up until the birthday dance. Again, I danced with the same Birthday Boy as on Monday, and again he did two aerials. I flew about 5 feet in the air, and then I did a helicopter and flew over his head, which was so much fun.

It was another night at memories as it was another friend’s birthday.

I picked up a friend, drove to another house, and we were both picked up, picked up another friend then arrived at Memories a little past 9PM.

When people started dancing with the Birthday Boy, who turned 25, started depositing quarters in his pockets while dancing. It took him a little while to realize we were doing it in regards to his age, and he ended up with a LOT of quarters that night, over $10 I believe.

The most interesting part of the night was his birthday dance. I cut in the end of the dance, and he loves to do aerials with me (do to my massive 140lbs of weight and ability to jump quite high). So, instead of a final dip he launched and held me for a second or two about 4-5 feet in the air — still waiting for the pictures!

Other than that, the night went as normal. They played a little bit of blues and hip hop in the end, which was good and a nice change after bally fast Lindy Hop all night.