Our routine for the Short & Sweet Competition at Lindybout III. Performed to a cut and spliced version of “8, 9 & 10″ by Slim and Slam.  As mentioned in the previous post, we won this competition and were given “Champion” buttons!

I competed in the Short & Sweet Competition with Robert, and we were so amazing that we won!  Grand prize being amazingly tacky sparkly red belts, and yellow “Champion” buttons of honour!  It was great because the spotlight was only 60 seconds long – enough to get nervous but so short that we both walked off stage wondering if we did it right or not.

Vancouver was  beautiful, as spring was in full bloom with the smell in the air and green as far as the eye could see.  Definitely looking forward to Calgary’s spring, which is always a couple months behind.  Sigh.

• I have learned cool new lindy hop moves from a variety of amazing (and sometimes not amazing) instructors
• I have met fun people from all over the world
• I have stayed in an amazingly placed accommodation, right in the middle of everything, and have a convenient couch on my porch perfect for people watching and socializing
• I have spent most of the time either with a cold, with a cold coming on, or almost recovering from a cold, but never just healthy
• I have learned the amazing benefits of sleeping pills, eye masks, and ear plugs
• I have rearranged my sleeping schedule completely, and this past week have been dancing from 2am – 5am because that’s when the best dancing is
• I bought myself a new pair of super sexy sueded dancing shoes
• I have practiced my Czech, and apparently speak extremely formally
• I have gotten a bit sick of swing music *gasp* and loved the funk night on Thursday
• I have participated in Cabaret with Robert, Meghan and Phil and performed a slap leather line dance to ‘Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy’ – It was hilarious
• I have grown increasingly addicted to chocolate, especially the chocolate balls from the Blue Moon cafe
• I have danced, a lot

One more night of late night dancing and my bus departs Herräng at 6:40am tomorrow morning.  Perhaps I should pack…

Thanks Polyjesters!

On the Sunday Sharon taught an hour long Burlesque class for us ladies. She runs one of the most professional Burlesque troops, Sugar Blue, in Australia, and it was neat to hear her talk passionately about this dance revival. She considers Burlesque to be an important part of the feminist movement, as the act of dressing up, dancing, and teasing, is done for yourself or for other women. Often men do not attend her performances unless they were dragged along by significant others. She began by teaching us to walk in a way most flattering and seductively, and then taught us the three fundamental movements of Burlesque; the bump, grind and shimmy. She also explained that there are three rules to getting attention to the spot you want it. Move only the body part you want to draw attention to, use your hands to accentuate that area, and look at it. Sounds simple enough, but in her demonstration it was obvious how much of a difference those three points made. She also mentioned our need for Burlesque stage names, giving examples such as hers, “Bonnie Fox”. I’ve been playing with a few ideas for my own potential stage name, but haven’t decided on one yet. She concluded by teaching us a few floor movements. During our lunch break a few of us jokingly tried out our Burlesque floor poses on the grass outside. This was my attempt.