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Tuesday, February 27, 2007

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#-SEA Jam!

SEA Jam was one heck of a weekend! Imagine 12 hours of dancing Swing a day for the whole weekend at least, and learning from some of the best instructors and dancers in the world! Makes me want to go to Herrang one day.

Friday was just social at night, and a few performances by local and foreign dancers. It was not bad, and we got to meet dancers from Beijing, Shanghai, Russia, Vietnam, and of course others from our very own Singapore. Accomodation was crap that night, considering it was a lousy old chalet complete with cobwebs and lizard droppings on the bed sheets. To add to that, Cafe Del Mar played really loud music with thumping bass which of course could be heard through the walls of our hut and so annoyed me to hell when I was sleeping. Not to mention the toilets which are shared...

Saturday was jam packed with lessons. I attended all of them, and got to learn how bloody crazy Swedish Jazz Steps are. I mean talk about aching thighs and buttocks for days to come. But then agian, Hanna and Mattias were fantastic teachers and were really funny. There was a fast lindy lesson from them as well, which was sick no less. I can't really remember the whole fast lindy routine though. The connection lesson by Ben and Carla was really good too. In this one, they made us pulse on the 7,8,1,2 of a swing-out instead of stepping, making the follow very sensitive to our leads. They made alot of emphasis on expansion and contraction, and even taught us some cool sweeps and freezes before a proper swing-out again. And then there was West-Coast Swing, AT LAST!! It was fun, but abit slow paced learning for my liking.

At night there was a decent dinner, unlike the breakfast and lunch. There was also a Combo band playing, with Louis Suliano and Christy Smith among them, and some really good saxophonist whose name I forgot. So we danced to that, although the grass was terrible to dance on.

I GOT A BIRTHDAY DANCE!! haha. And what's more, Carla danced with me too! Cool. Marcus has the same Birthday as me, as I found out there. haha.

There were performances by JazzKids as well, followed by Hanna and Mattias and Ben and Carla. Hanna and Mattias did some super crazy aerials, which I will not even consider attempting in my lifetime. Ben and Carla did a more subdued dance, but smooth nonetheless. The JazzKids can do the ShimSham better than some adults!! And FrankieManning then led the ShimSham of course.

On Sunday, everyone was really shagged, but lessons carried on, with Hanna and Mattias being as crazy as usual, teaching 20s Charleston. It was more of a review of Sinclair's previous lesson. Ben and Carla taught some really cool moves, which can be easily led, and are explosive and showy. I like.

Joanna Dong put my name down for Jack n Jill Competition. During lunch she said,

"So I saw your name on the list for Jack n Jill."

I thought it was Sinclair or the Russian Lady who kept asking me to join the Jack n Jill. So, turns out I actually got into the finals, but of course didn't win due to fast lindy and a big follow. But it was nice, and quite satisfying that I actually got into finals. Anyway the Russian Lady Leru won with her partner Joe, who are both very experienced. Now I'll have to work even harder to get my fast lindy down and show them my skill.

Came back very contented with myself.

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