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Where I'm going...
So I've got a lot of events on tap that I'm really excited about.
I'll be dancing and spinning at STLBX in just a couple of weeks. I'm gonna miss the Thursday night dance and most of Friday @ City Museum (bummer!) but I'll still get in most of the festivities, including seeing LIVE and IN PERSON, the Diva Miss Kim Massie. She is not to be missed. The DJ line up for this event is especially awesome.
I'm also spinning and dancing at Red White and Blues in Dallas on November 4th to 6th. This is Jerry and Kathy Warwick's second year doing this event... I missed last year because I was in Waterloo, Canada, spinning at blues workshop weekend with Damon Stone. (Waterloo rocks!) Anyway, everyone who went to RWB last year raved about it, and lots of folks are threatening to go this year... so I can't wait to go.
Yours truly is the Committee Chair for this year's Austin Lindy Exchange which falls on November 18th to 20th. I've spent so much time organizing for this event that it will probably be difficult to enjoy this as a dancer... I'm worried about making sure others have a good time. I'll probably get a set or two in a blues room, but again, that's the last thing on my mind right now. Anyway, before I bore you on the operational stuff that is running an exchange, let me just say if you've never been to Austin as a Lindy Hop dancer, you must come to the exchange. Or come anytime actually... the natives are friendly. Every year one or two people come to the exchange and decide to move to Austin. The 2003 exchange is the principal reason I decided to move to Austin. So come on over... we throw a great party.
Finally, the rumors you've heard are true... I'm planning to start a monthly Blues dance in Austin, hopefully around the first of October. The music will be Blues and West Coast friendly, and I want to have an hour-long class beforehand, that will hopefully stretch the boundaries and horizons of what dancers in Austin are used to. I enjoy so many dances, and have met all kinds of people because of that, so I'm hoping to create a dance that will fuse all these elements and dancers together. As I like to say, it's a "work in progress." Check out my other website for more details on that as it comes along.
I'm hoping to line up some events for early 2006 (as a DJ), so if you want to know where I am, just keep your eyes peeled to this site.
Where I've been...
Partner dancing has been a big part of my life going on 6 years now. I first started dancing in Jacksonville, Florida, when I took a few ballroom lessons. I saw a couple doing hustle (although I didn't know the name of the dance then) and walked up to them immediately and told them that I wanted to learn what they were doing. At the time I was working a graveyard shift, so it was hard to keep up with lessons, but when I moved to a normal 2pm to Midnight shift (which is normal for local news) I started getting more involved. One day I saw a guy doing these crazy steps over and over in front of a mirror with a Walkman over his head. After a few times catching this guy, I finally asked him what he was doing. "Swing dancing," he replied. He offered to take me to a local club and after a few crazy nights of underarm turns, zoot suits and watching folks do a few aerials, I was hooked. Yeah, it was 1999 and Gap ads and Brian Setzer reigned supreme.
I spent another two years living and dancing in Jacksonville, where the ballroom dancers knew me as one of the "swing kids" and the swing kids probably considered me a ballroom dancer (but a nice one). My friend and dance partner at the time, Matt Winship, got a gander of Lindy and basically taught me everything I knew on the social dance floor. Because Jacksonville was such a small scene, I didn't learn with videos or classes, it was just me and Matt BS-ing around. Unfortunately, the Jacksonville scene didn't really grow when Lindy took off, but there are still dancers there, who are damn fine dancers and great people.
Anyway, I think the first thing that really turned me around to Lindy Hop was a trip we took to Orlando to the Atlantic Ballroom at Disney. At that time, Orlando had the biggest scene and the better dancers, and Atlantic was the place to be. I remember the majority of the dancers doing Lindy, and not the aerial-inspired ECS swing I was used to, and I wanted to learn and do more. So when my career opportunities in Jacksonville lessened and I wanted to make a change, I moved to South Florida, in part because I had friends there, but in part because there were more dancers there who did Lindy.
If my dance life was born in Jacksonville, I was definitely "raised up" in South Florida. Being in South Florida allowed me to dance with folks who did more Lindy Hop and get involved with a scene to help nurture dancers in South Florida. If it weren't for the folks of the Swing Affair Gang I wouldn't be where I am now. They introduced me to the worldwide Lindy Hop community by exposing me to events across the country (and the world) and by bringing a bit of the Lindy world to me. They host one of the premier exchanges in the country in January (SoFlex, baby!) and for the past 2 years they've put on a kick-ass post-Frankie Cruise Birthday party. I got my start as a DJ there, I learned how to be a better organizer, and I got access to some of the best swing instructors around. And it wasn't all about Lindy Hop when I lived in So Fla... I met some awesome dancers in the West Coast Swing community and even tried my hand at Argentine Tango, which is still a lingering passion. But with all the things I tried doing in So Fla, I longed for bigger pastures.
Which leads me to... now. I moved to Austin in December 2004, after a three-month, dance-inspired, mini-vacation. I luckily had the opportunity to DJ and dance at some cool events in some great cities: Austin, Dallas, St. Louis, Orlando, NYC, and Toronto. When that was done (and I ran out of money) I finally made my way to Austin, and have set up shop since. So if you get the chance, come and visit.
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