Event review

The Big Swing Night @ Leapin’ Lindy 12 – From The DJ Perspective

16.02.2012 by Chris

Instead of writing a ‘normal' event review like I did last year (check out The Big Swing Night @ Leapin' Lindy 11), I thought I'm writing about this night from the perspective of the Swing DJ.

The Biggest Swing Party in Switzerland

Last weekend (February 8-10, 2012), the popular Lindy Hop weekend Leapin' Lindy 12 was happening in Switzerland's capital Berne. Currently, the Big Swing Night on Saturday is the biggest Swing Dance Party in Switzerland.

Many key points were similar to last year's edition:

Location: Kultur-Casino Bern, Great Hall
Dancers: 700+
Band: Gordon Webster 7 feat. Naomi Uyama
DJ: Swing DJ Chrisbe (that's me; for those who read the first time on this blog)

Setup of the night

The event started at 21h with a DJ set. The first band set was scheduled for 22h, but we waited another 15 minutes to have a nicely crowded floor.

After the first band set of one hour, the presentation and social dance shows of the teachers took place. These were followed by a short DJ set and another band set.

During the second band break, my task was to suddenly interrupt the party with a song that was going out of tune (thanks to DJAY) so that the MC Tim Collins could come up with a story to initiate a soul train cake walk.

Some dancers brought a wooden cake into the room, the band was climbing out of that cake and the third band set could start. That's how it looked like:

Cake Walk at The Big Swing Night

If you know Gordon Webster, then you know that the band is always playing longer than they are supposed to.

Don't get me wrong, this is totally awesome, especially when you have such a great band in the city!

Well, the party finished around 4h in the morning instead of 3h and eventually, I have DJ'ed more than three hours that night!

The Responsibility of the DJ

A friend of mine said to me during the evening:

“As a DJ, you must have a lot of responsibilities!”

Yup, that's true.

He told me the story, that he was at a concert just a few days before, and after the last band set, while the audience was still applauding and asking for an encore, the DJ started a song. The audience was so upset, that they were booing the DJ.

The DJ didn't take care of the band, because the applause is the reward for any performing artist!

But he didn't also take care of the audience, because they didn't get a chance to ask for one or two more songs from the band.

As a DJ, there are some important points to think about:

Create an atmosphere that suits to the live band and that helps them: they don't want to perform in front of a bored audience

Choose songs which are in contrast to the band sets: different tempos, styles etc.

Do not play the same titles as the band. There are always exceptions, though, e.g. when you choose a total different version.

Give enough space to the band, that means don't start the DJ set too early, while the audience is still applauding. Wait for a sign of the band that they are really finished, or when the light technician is changing the spot to the DJ booth.

Another Tip: Bring Your Own Cables

A short rehearsal for the teacher shows was scheduled before the dance night, but it didn't happen. So the organizers and I didn't know what music the teachers will need for their shows. Either if I will have it on my laptop or if they will bring memory sticks, iPods etc.

So I decided to plug the cables I brought with me into the mixer and prepare the sound settings: one for my laptop and two for iPods. That was a good choice, then I needed all of them and it was very easy and comfortable to switch between devices during the show.

I Had A Great Night

It was a big pleasure to me to be once again the DJ at The Big Swing Night and also an honor beside such a wonderful and energetic band like Gordon Webster's, which is in my eyes – and I repeat myself – the best live band for swing dancers you can have!

Thank you!

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Frenchie Balboa Festival 2011: Some Personal Notes

08.12.2011 by Chris

For the fourth time in a row I attended the Frenchie Balboa Festival in Toulouse France and I had one more time a blast!

Frenchie Balboa Festival 2011 in Toulouse: Some Personal Notes | Shuffle Projects

Here are some notes and thoughts about the event, more random ones than a proper event review.

Family Time

FBF was also the very first international event Nadja and I attended with our 11-month-old son Sid. He is such a happy and charming little boy who makes it really easy having him around.

Everybody seemed to like him so I never had the feeling that he was disturbing when he was in a class room. Special thanks to Sophie Sun, a local Lindy Hop dancer, who was babysitting and giving us the opportunity to attend classes and parties.

Social Dancing

The Frenchie Balboa Festival is beside Balboa On The Promenade the most important Balboa event in Europe. Thus many great dancers from all over Europe are coming to Toulouse in December.

Such a weekend is so inspiring, the social dancing alone is worth the trip. It's hard to stop dancing before a party ends! And finally, it's always nice to meet old friends again and make new ones.

DJ'ing

Last year, I didn't DJ at all at FBF to have more time for social dancing. This time I agreed on one set, I was spinning the last one on Friday night from 1 to 2.30h.

It was the first time I was using the software djay on my MacBook Pro at an international event. I purchased it just recently and I don't have that much experience with it so far. But it's easy to handle and (almost) everything went well. I will write a separate software review and experience report in the near future.

Live Music

After my DJ set, several people told me, that the music was better than the live music…

No doubt, Doc Scanlon's Pan Atlantic Swingsters are all great musicians and the band had a good energy. BUT they played too many slow or lindyish/bluesy songs what hardcore Balboa dancers don't appreciate that much.

Jack & Jill competition: 3rd place

That is probably the most important award I have won until today!

The reason is because the finalists have judged themselves (see post about Jack & Jill competitions), so the placements were done by the followers. Thank you girls, I'm very proud of it!

Big success for the Swiss Balboa Crew

The Swiss Balboa Scene is thriving and it's a pleasure to see how the Swiss dancers regularly make it to the finals and get ranked. FBF was no exception!

1st place: Valérie Bissig & Stefan Deuber – Euro Bal Cup Amateur
2nd place: Ulla Wingenfelder – Jack & Jill
4th place: Ulla Wingenfelder & Tim Kask – Euro Bal Cup Open

Congratulations to all of you!

What I Would Change

There are always things to improve. I allow myself to write down two things I would change:

Change the location of the Friday and Saturday night parties. Although the place is very central, Opéra bouffe is not a very good place for dance parties. The room itself has a strange architecture, the floor is sticky and bumpy with many holes (my heels didn't like that) and the acoustics could be better. At least there is a bar, which is really great.
The band should be better instructed what kind of music is expected.

Thank You

Thank you Anne-Hélène, Bernard and Eric and your staff for organizing another wonderful weekend and for your help to find a babysitter! I'll be back next year.

Swing Summer in Europe: Studio Hop Summer Camp in Eauze France

01.09.2011 by Chris

Beside Herrang Dance Camp there is another event in Europe which is happening over several weeks during summer time: Studio Hop Summer Camp. The event is run by Anne-Helene & Bernard Cavasa and this year it was already the ninth edition. So we will have two anniversaries next year: 30 years Herrang and 10 years SHSC!

Studio Hop Summer Camp is quite different to Herrang, not only because of the location. There are three different weeks of classes and parties, always focused on one dance: a Balboa week, a Lindy Hop week and since last year also a Jazz Roots (Authentic Jazz) week.

That means for example during the Balboa week there is (almost exclusively) Balboa dancing all day and all night. Best conditions to essentially improve the dance!

I attended the Balboa week for the third time this year and here is my inside report of the camp live during this week.

In the French Countryside

Surrounded by sunflowers, Studio Hop Summer Camp is happening in the south-west of France, on a demesme outside of the village Eauze called Escoubet – Le Domaine Du Possible, which means loosely translated “the demesme of possibilities”.

It's a vacation and event center, with different buildings, tents and hourdies for dancing and housing. Also camping is allowed and broadly used by the participants.

Time Blocks

Another big difference to HDC is the schedule. There are fixed time blocks for classes and meals. The advantage is obvious: the campers are eating together at the same time. Of course, SHSC is smaller – with around 200-220 people – so it's easier to organise it that way.

SHSC schedule condensed

08.30h breakfast
10.00h begin of morning classes
12.15h lunch
14.15h begin of afternoon classes
19.00h dinner
21.00h taster classes or party

Classes

To be honest, I'm a little bit tired of taking classes. I attended so many workshops and camps in the last few years that I'm feeling stuffed. With that said, I attended classes when I was in the mood to, so I skipped quite a few. I mainly wanted to social dance. All night! 🙂

At SHSC there are five levels in the Balboa week, from intermediate to advanced +. The organisers take it very seriously with the level classification, the first morning session of classes is just for the level test – for all levels! Although this concept also has its weaknesses I like it.

Even better, if someone is not satisfied with the classification, they can go to the complaint office after lunch and argue and most notably dance with the instructors. That way you gonna think twice about complaining!

Free Time

Wednesday (in the Balboa week) is a free day without classes. That's perfect for social activities in the camp, sight-seeing in the villages Eauze and Condon or just to sleep in and hang out at the swimming pool nearby. Additionally, also on Friday no classes are taught in the morning.

Food

The food is like everywhere a very important factor. The expectations to the French cuisine are high and most of the time you won't be disappointed.

There is always a three course menu for lunch and dinner, (sour) house red wine included! A vegetarian option is available but don't dare to stand in the line for vegetarians without the proper wristband, the chef will kill you!

Great improvement to recent years: Even for meat eaters, there are vegetarian meals on the menu.

Evenings: Theme Parties, Jack ‘n' Jill, Cabaret

There are three! theme parties per week. In the Balboa week we had:

White & Blue party (colour combination of the clothes)
Pirates party on Wednesday
Super Classy party on Friday night (everybody is dressing up)

At least a Jack & Jill competition belongs to such a week. By tradition at SHSC, also the ten finalists (five leads and five follows) have to dance with each other. New this year was that the finalists also had to judge and place themselves. I will write a separate post about this.

And of course, a cabaret should not to be missed at such an event. It seemed that there were not many acts by campers, therefore many of the instructors were prominently and creatively involved!

Music

Three different bands in one week, wow! Unfortunately, not all of them could satisfy the expectations Balboa wise. You might know that I have quite strong opinions about music for dancers and I allow myself to level criticise at the music more often that I probably should ;).

This time, I do it the other way round: I liked the band “Magic Shook Heads” from Friday night. They had a good mix of tempos, really good rhythms for Balboa dancers and the songs weren't too long.

I was DJ'ing myself two times so I don't write a review about the DJs. I only name my two favourites: Annegret Beck and Mel Calanglang! Great job guys, I especially loved to dance to your music!

Bottom Line

I often get asked which camp or workshop I prefer. There is nothing to prefer. I like all of them when they are unique in their own way. I would define Studio Hop Summer Camp first of all as a holiday-dance camp.

Anne-Hélène & Bernard, I love the atmosphere of your camp. Thank you for putting up this event year after year! I will definitively come back to Escoubet!

Photo credits: 1 by Studio Hop, 2 by Escoubet, 4-6 by Stefan Deuber.

Competing at ABW and ESDC

03.07.2011 by Chris

Until two years ago I didn't compete at all, in fact I considered it silly and unnecessary. But this is a story I will tell you another time.

Within one week I was competing four times in Balboa, two times at All Balboa Weekend (ABW) in Cleveland OH, USA and two times at the European Swing Dance Championships (ESDC) in Barcelona, Spain. The latter were held for the first time this year.

All Balboa Weekend

It was my second time at ABW after 2009 and it's a killer. Only Balboa, all day and all night – this is Balboa heaven for sure!

The camp will be releasing an official DVD, therefore there is not much footage online so far.

Final All Skate of the Amateur Jack & Jill

This is the only clip available about the Amateur Jack & Jill competition.

I knew, this will be my last time in an Amateur Jack & Jill and my goal was to make it to the finals, secretly I hoped to reach a top 3 position. Well, after the finals, I was not very happy with my performance and I had no expectations at all anymore. Anyway Mimi Liu and I we've won this competition :-). As Olivier Harouard mentioned after the competition: “Holiday is over now, welcome to the adults world!”

Amateur Strictly with Nina Galicheva

Unfortunately, there are no clips online from this competition.
Nina and I are not regular dance partners, we've met at The Balboa Experiment where we decided to compete together at ABW. Our goal was to make it to the finals and to win a top position. We really had good dances throughout the competition and also the spotlight dance in the finals went very well. Result: 4th place.

European Swing Dance Championships

Last year, when I heard the first time about this event it was clear to me that I want to compete with my regular dance partner Marcia Bodenmann and luckily she agreed. In Barcelona, there were “only” two Balboa competitions: Jack & Jill and strictly.

Jack & Jill Prelims

Because there were not as many leaders as followers, I had to dance in both heats, but I was judged only in the first one. It was a little bit the same like in Cleveland, I didn't feel very confident and just hoped, it will be good enough.

Jack & Jill Finals

Marcia and I made it to the finals! I was very excited about it and of course quite nervous, dancing with so many awesome dancers together in the ESDC finals.

The finals happened one day after the prelims. I have to admit, these were my toughest three dances in a competition so far. With Lana Mykhaylyuk, I've got a highly talented dance partner, everybody was looking at us and I knew it will be on YouTube just a few hours later. I just wanted to do a good job. It didn't work as good as I wanted but on the clip it doesn't look as bad as I felt. Result: 5th place.

Strictly Prelims with Marcia Bodenmann

This was our third competition together and our goal was to have great dances and FUN. We didn't make it to the finals but we are very happy about our performance! And we know there is still much more potential.

Bottom Line

Competing is so much inspiring! It helps you to have a goal and be more disciplined and focused with practising, especially if you have a regular dance partner.

And there is another reason, it's much more fun to dance yourself instead of sitting there and watching and waiting until the event's social dancing is continuing!

Our next competition will be in December at the Frenchie Balboa Festival in Toulouse! See you there?

Balboa On The Promenade 2011 – Event Review

13.05.2011 by Chris

French dominance: BOTP and FBF

The Festival Balboa On The Promenade (BOTP) and the Frenchie Balboa Festival (FBF) are the most important and most popular Balboa workshop weekends in Europe.

Interestingly both festivals are happening in France: BOTP in Mandelieu/Cannes (in May) and FBF in Toulouse (in December).

Last weekend (5-8 May), the 2011 edition of the Festival Balboa On The Promenade was happening and it was my second participation after 2009. I had a blast and I would like to share my impressions of the weekend with you.

Workshop & Parties

Four parties and three days of workshops:

Thursday

Welcome, check in and opening party from 21-2h at Pierre & Vacances Residence. I enjoyed this evening because I met many dancing friends I haven't seen for a long time again.

Sometimes I need a certain time to get into the Balboa mood but this time it was pretty easy with so many great dancers!

Friday

The workshop didn't begin before afternoon, that was a comfortable start into the weekend. There were three lessons, a regular one for the appropriate level and two styling lessons.

The first styling lesson was only for the leads resp. for the follows where we learned step variations. In the second styling lesson, the leads and follows came together to implement the variations into the dancing. The leads didn't know what the follows are doing and vice versa.

Apparently, the teaching concept to separate leads and follows was already used last year and I really liked it. It was great fun and I've got five new variations for my Balboa vocabulary. Awesome!

The party started at 20.30h at the Congress Exhibition Center CEC. On the program were the contest prelims in four different categories: Jack & Jill Amateur and Open as well as Classic (= Strictly) Amateur and Open.

I was competing in the Jack & Jill Open category. Of course I was remembering all the moves I could dance after the prelims, I'm sure you know this phenomenon.

Right after the contests, a gypsy swing band was playing followed by different DJs till 3h.

Saturday

Two classes in the morning, starting at 10h and two in the afternoon starting at 13.30h. Of course, I would rather start later in the morning, I love to social dance and I'm usually staying until the very end of each party, how long it ever lasts… but I know, there are many things to think of as an event organizer.

Parallel to the normal classes for the different levels, there was an offer of classes for teachers. I attended two of them in the afternoon: “how to teach creativity” and “old time vs. new time balboa”. I enjoyed them and I've got some inspiration for my own teaching activities. I hope the organizers will keep these extra classes in the program.

The next party with the contest finals in all categories, a dance show, which was really entertaining. However, it took a lot of time until the big band and therewith the social dancing could start eventually. It was somewhen before midnight, but the party lasted again until 3h.

Sunday

Like on Saturday, two classes in the morning, starting at 10h and one last class in the afternoon at 14h after a photo session, followed by the traditional open air dancing until 17h.

The final party was happening again at Pierre & Vacances Residence. I love the final parties, everybody is tired and relaxed, no classes anymore to attend or to teach, no competitions, just social dancing. It was a great evening and I was dancing almost all night until the end at 2h. It was so hot in this room and the floor was much stickier than on Thursday, but I didn't care, it was an amazing night.