Sorry I haven’t written in awhile, but I’ve been crazily busy. Mostly with dancing. Believe it or not, I really am filling up a majority of my free time with it. So let me tell you about all the dancing I’m doing this month.

First the weekly events:

• Wownet - Every Tuesday night. Wownet is still my mainstay dance event. And now that I’ve taken up going to Friendly’s afterward, it’s also the main focus of my social life.
• North Room - Fine, so I’ve only gone once, because of Cornell’s midterm break. And last weekend and this weekend I was/will be out of town. But going to Saturday night “practice sessions” at Cornell is a good way to work on things that I don’t otherwise get to.
• Lessons with Cindy - Now I’m in my second set of dance lessons with Cindy Overstreet and Ben Furnas. The first was an intermediate/advanced class, and this one is an advanced class with a focus on Charleston and faster tempos.
• Lessons with Bill - I’m also currently taking a pretty sweet lesson set with Bill Borgida on Wednesday nights. It’s technique-focused, and it’s really improving some of the bad habits I’ve picked up over time.

Then there’s the big events:

• Frankie Manning Lindy Hop weekend - This is where I was all last weekend. To say the least, it was awesome. I danced more in two and a half days than I probably normally dance in several months. By the end, I was so tired and sore I could barely move, but man was I ever happy.
• American Lindy Hop Championships - This weekend’s crazy event, in Stamford, Connecticut. This one is much bigger than the Frankie weekend, and it’s going to have the top dancers from all over the country. I don’t have a place to stay yet, whatever. I leave Friday morning, and I can’t wait.
• Rochester weekend with Steven and Virginie - I just decided to add this one to the calendar this week. This event apparently has a good reputation, and I’m hoping to get to hang out with many of the same people I met at the Frankie weekend.

And of course there’s more traveling. This stuff is all tentative, but hopefully I’ll find a way to make it work:

• Washington, D.C. - I have a place to stay. Now all I have to do is find the time to get down to the capital to take advantage of the best dancing on the East Coast.
• New York, NY - I’m hoping to make it to Frim Fram one of these Thursday nights. This one’s very much up in the air as of now though.
• Syracuse, NY - OK, fine, so Syracuse doesn’t have a crazy swing scene. But it’s close, and I’ve met plenty of people there that are fun to dance with, so why not, right? If I can find the time, I want to make it up there on Thursday nights at least once or twice before I head back to Minnesota.
• Other locations - Boston? Philly? Toronto? I’m not sure, but right now I’m really hoping to get to at least the first two before the fall is out.

And of course, on top of this, there are miscellaneous ISDN live band dances to go to, the likelihood that I’ll be taking a private lesson with Cindy sometime soon, and anything else that comes my way. In other words, I’m basically planning to dance an insane amount between now and the end of December.

So sorry if for the next couple weeks my blogging is erratic. Just rest assured that I’m busy whipping myself into shape and getting my dance skills on.

Posted on October 20th, 2004 by Lee
Filed under: Uncategorized