Shuffle Projects

Swinging Projects for Lindy Hop & Balboa Dancers

Event review

The Big Swing Night @ Leapin› Lindy ’11 Bern – What a great Night!

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Epic Dance Night

The Big Swing Night @ Leapin' Lindy '11 - photo by Stefan DeuberI can't write about the entire Leapin› Lindy weekend because I only attended worked at the party on Saturday night. And this night was epic!

I'm still delighted by the atmosphere and the energy in the beautiful ballroom of the Kultur-Casino in the middle of the city of Bern.

The hosts of the evening were Eva and Nadja. They did a great job, brought in a lot of fun into their speeches and made the crowd ready for the band!

The Importance of Great (Live) Music

Gordon Webster 7 - photo by Stefan DeuberThanks to its courage of the organising team to book Gordon Webster 7, we had one of the best contemporary swing bands in town and every minute was worth it! The band pushed the dancers and the dancers pushed the band – just the way it should be. Naomi Uyama, who was also in the teacher line-up, sang with the band and she was wonderful as well.

One highlight was for sure the very last song, she sang a slow number only accompanied on piano by Gordon. The band was supposed to play three sets of 30 minutes but they were at least 45 minutes each.

I was DJ'ing when the band not was playing so I can't tell you how good the DJ music was, you have to ask somebody else :-). A local teacher and good friend of mine was asking me, if it was difficult to DJ beside such a great band. Indeed, this is a very good question but honestly, I never was thinking about that. Like always at such events I try to feel the crowd and build my DJ set on the go. And of course, I tried not to play the same tunes than the band.

There was one moment, during the last song by Naomi and Gordon I was mentioning before, when I asked myself what song shall I play NOW. I decided to play a complete different song and I guess it worked out.

It's Show Time

Of course, there was a teacher showcase. And the audience loved it. Watch the following videos:

Show 1: Michael, Christina, Alex & Rania (Greece)

Show 2: Skye & Frida (USA, Sweden)

Show 3: David & Åsa (Sweden)

Show 4: Peter & Naomi (USA)

Show 5: Kevin & Jo (USA)

Bottom Line

That was one of the best Swing dance nights in Switzerland I've ever been to! Period.

How Does The Perfect Balboa Weekend Look Like? – An Event Review

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Two weeks ago (17-19 September 2010), the Sweden Balboa Weekend was happening in Uppsala.

We all had a really great time there. I especially liked the atmosphere of the weekend, so the idea occured to me to write a review about the event.

Some key figures (I consider this a small workshop weekend):

  • approximately 150 participants
  • 4 levels = 4 groups
  • 4 teacher couples

Time table of the weekend:

Friday
19.30-21.30 Registration
20.00-00.00 Welcome dance with live band

Saturday and Sunday workshop
09.00-10.00 Registration (only on Saturday)

10.30-11.40 Lesson 1
11.50-13.00 Lesson 2
13.00-14.20 Lunch
14.20-15.30 Lesson 3
15.40-16.50 Lesson 4

20.00-01.00 Evening dance with live band on Saturday
17.15-20.30 DJ dance & sandwich buffet on Sunday

What I liked:

  • The class rooms and the evening party location were close together in walking distance
  • The first lesson started at 10.30h – very good!
  • The student groups stayed in the same room: just comfortable
  • Every teacher couple were teaching two lessons in a row. I like this concept, it gives the teachers more possibilities to structure their lessons. Even the breaks could be done differently than on the time table.
  • «Fika» = (sweet) snack and fruit juice between lesson 1&2 and 3&4 – that was really awesome.
  • Live bands – what is better than dancing to live music!
  • Sandwich bar on Sunday. Another great idea. Usually there is not that much time during these weekends to socialise. This simple idea brought everybody together for a chat and some dances at the end of the weekend.

What I would do differently:

  • I would plan a longer lunch break: the classes rarely end on time, then you need time to walk to a restaurant and you need time to order and wait for the food
  • Schedule the Saturday evening party until 2h (and start it half an hour or an hour later), most of us were a little bit disappointed that it already ended at 1h – okay, eventually it was 1.30h 🙂

There was no:

  • … audition for higher levels, which was a courageous decision in a way but it suprisingly worked out pretty good. Well, there is still the possibility for a teacher couple to politely move a dancer in a different group if necessary.
  • … Jack 'n› Jill competition. I don't want to judge that. It's always a difficult decision whether you would like to give the opportunity to compete and therewith inspire the other dancers. On the other hand it divides the flow of an evening. I can live with both situations.

These are just my personal thoughts.

Thanks again to the organizers for this wonderful weekend!