Here’s a balboa clip from the Rhythmic Arts Festival I attended over New Years.

What’s funny is that I’ve seen a lot of balboa competitions, but the only ones I’ve had fun watching were at the Rhythmic Arts Festival this year and last.

So because you asked I’ll tell you. This is liable to change at anytime should I hear a better band, but my favorite as of this writing is a band called The Loose Marbles. I present you with a video. Because I like videos. They are fun.

I got a dancer from Denver, Teni, for the finals. We’re the 4th couple. This was the first time (and only time so far) I’d ever made finals in any national competition. I didn’t feel nervous, but my mind was completely blank and I’m not terribly proud of how I danced, but who really cares? It was fun and that’s what matters. Live and learn.

And just because it’s so cool, here’s the partner charleston finals from the same weekend:

This is from Camp Hollywood 2006, where we took 2nd place:

This is from the 2007 Utah Lindy Exchange:

For of you who are thinking “wow, I want them to perform at my next company party!” or something similar to that, check out our cool website, theswingteam.com. The site, by the way, was designed by the incredible designer I work with. He also does photography.

Watch yourself, and learn. This, of course, not only applies to dancing, but to pretty much everything. Take a step back and look at your work. One of my favorite things about being a programmer and having other programmer friends is that we get to show off to each other what we’ve done (well, we could show it off to other people, but non-programmers just don’t get excited over things like “check out this sweet code, I reduced 20 lines of code to just 3 and it runs way faster now!”). Don’t allow yourself to get discouraged at what you are not. Look at your accomplishments and then pick one thing to work on and then when you’ve done that, go tell somebody about it!

P.S. Don’t bother looking for the other 41 dance tips on here. I don’t think I’ve posted any others. I just figured #42 sounded better than #1. Also, 42 is the answer to everything.

Yeah, I know. A swing dance performance was the opening act for an Israeli folk dance concert? I don’t think anyone would match the two up normally, but one of our team members happened to be involved with the people putting this thing on. I thought it was pretty cool: two cultures, two types of dancing. We only danced once, as the opening dance to start it off. It was really fun.

My favorite part! So this routine we performed starts out with the girls on stage with us guys off stage waiting. The girls do a short routine and then we come on and the girls go off, and then the girls come back for the last part of it. While the girls were doing their part I was on the opposite side of the stage, across from the Israeli dancers. It was really fun to see them all start groovin and bustin moves back stage to the music our girls were dancing to. I’m not sure why it was my favorite part, other than perhaps that I just enjoy watching people enjoy music, and I could tell that they were enjoying it. It’s even more exciting for me to see a bunch of dancers enjoy music, especially when they’re as good as they are.

During intermission I overheard someone telling someone else that while they were good dancers, the BYU folk dancers or something like that were a lot better at the Israeli folk dances. He did say that this troupe had more real soul and energy, but the BYU dancers have better technique, are more together, etc. etc.

Whatever. My opinion is that the dancer with the most soul, energy, and true love for the dance is the better dancer. I don’t have anything against any of the BYU dancers and I’m not saying that they don’t love the dances they do and have a ton of energy, but it’s different. The BYU dancers are good, but I have a hard time believing that they’re better than this particular group of dancers just because they’re more together. I’d probably think they were too stiff, too together, overly choreographed, overly trained, and lacking what makes a dance real… at least in comparison. As an example, there are people who would say that they’re really good at swing dancing, but ask anyone who’s any good at lindy hop and they’ll tell you that they’re not.

Only the skilled can judge the skillfulness, but that is not the same as judging the value of the result.
- C.S. Lewis Preface to Paradise Lost

So I’m not skilled in Israeli folk dances. I’m not sure the person who was saying that stuff is either, but he certainly knows more about it than I do. I do though like to think that I am skilled at lindy hop, so I think I can judge the skillfulness, at least on the surface.

What I do know for sure is that I thought they were great. Full of energy, passion, excitement, skill, and endurance. They must have been exhausted by the time it was over.

So what is perfection? To me, when it comes to dancing, perfection is skill combined with visible passion and the Havazalot Netanya dancers had both. Are there dancers “better” than them? Probably, but who cares? That’s not what matters. Too many people get so caught up in “perfection” that they forget to enjoy what they’re experiencing. I participate in a weekly public speaking club, Toastmasters, and I see the same thing there. People who are so concerned with “what a public speaker is” that they miss a lot of really good speeches.

Always strive for perfection, but don’t let it keep you from enjoying life’s simple pleasures.

We’ve had this argument several times, and she still refuses to see my side of the story. I think she’s blinded by my obviously superior arguments.

For those who don’t know what lindy hop is, from wikipedia:

Lindy Hop is an African American dance that evolved in New York City in the late 1920s and early 1930s. It was an organic fusion of many dances that preceded it or were popular during its development, but was predominantly based on jazz, tap, breakaway and charleston. Lindy hop co-evolved with jazz music and is a member of the swing dance family. It is frequently described as a jazz or street dance.

I’m an avid “lindy hopper,” and like to go to events and competitions all over the USA (perhaps someday I’ll go out of the USA for dancing). Most recently, I went to Seattle, Washington for a camp called Camp Jitterbug. The photo is from that weekend. Anyway…

As I mentioned, I’ve argued several times with this friend that lindy hop is plenty athletic. I still think it is, but after going and playing Ultimate Frisbee last week, I’ve decided that lindy hop isn’t all that athletic after all. I thought I was gonna die running around on that green stuff called grass. Okay, I still think dancing is athletic, but it’s different. Very different. After nearly dying on the field I’ve determined that I’m in what experts everywhere would call “so out of shape you should be dead.” No, actually it’d probably be more along the lines of “moderately out of shape.”

Dancing has been, for the last few years, practically all of the physically demanding activity that I’ve done. I’ve hardly done anything else. I’ve played basketball a few times, gone on a few hikes, but mostly I’ve sat in front of a computer and gone dancing. Had it not been for dancing I doubt I’d have been able to make it across the field even once. Of course, had I not been dancing all the time maybe I’d have gone out and done other things.

Dancing is great, and regardless of what anyone else says lindy hop is (or at least can be if you dance fast enough) quite athletic. Maybe it’s more like aerobics. heh. I don’t know. Whatever it is, it’s really fun. But I also need to get out more and run around under the big blue sky. It’s really bright out there, but I hear you get used to it…

I can’t wait to practice and solidify all the crazy ideas I got over the weekend.

My photos on flickr.