Camp Hollywood: Day One

Headed over to the LAX Marriot for Day One of the Camp Hollywood competitions. See the Camp Hollywood 2006 opener here. On the menu today: Pro and Am Lindy and Balboa prelims, and the Shag prelims

I remember enjoying the lindy competitions. In the Am division, Young Gun was definitely my favorite. Giobfast was good, but his partner was a sub, since Little Flower had disclocated her shoulder the previous week. And those are the only ones that stand out, now that I've finally gotten around to writing this. In the pro divison, Ben & Carla were the obvious standouts, and I remember Dave & Kim, Ben & Sheri, and Marty & His new partner as being particularly good.

Balboa is really a great dance, and I wish more leads would learn to do it … well. Most of what I see these days is really fast bal-swing, but it’s also a fantastic dance to do to easy, moderate tempos. Bal started in Orange County around 1940. Here’s a brief history of bal-swing in Southern California. A gem in the lindy archives is The Beach clip with Hal Takier (in the white Cuban shirt and the dark trousers

More currently, here’s a great clip of aBal-swing teacher’s demo in France. I like Andy & Christelle, and Randy & Kara. My absolute favorite Bal-swing couple was Steve and Denise. They were brilliant when they danced together. They stopped dancing together a few years before youtube started, so I can’t find any clips of them dancing together. However, in this clip of the Bal finals from CH 2005, you can see them dancing separately. Denise is the first girl to dance, and Steve is the 8th guy to dance. Also of note are Ben Riccard (4th), Mikey Pedroza (7th), and Allison Plys (9th).

Really, the shag is my least favorite swing dance, but I’m all admiration for those who do it well, like Sailor Mike and Laura. The best part of the shag competition may have been Ben Yau, who is about 5’7”, dancing with a tall thin woman who was at least a head and neck taller than him. Absolutely fantastic!

But the best part was seeing people I haven’t seen in months to years, catching up, and getting in some dances between the competitions (despite wearing my clogs, and not any type of dancing shoes). Bill and Teresa from Ventura. Little Julie (not JB, but the other one). And MarkB. Oh MarkB … one of my favorite leads to dance with. Not flashy, but really solid, enthusiastic and creative. I never have to worry when I dance with him, it’s all pure enjoyment. Made up for last night’s disappointing dances. Also saw a lot of local dancers. Eli. JoNg and E, who are taking the intermediate track. Manhattan Beach. Claire, Giobfast and Little Flower.

Didn’t stay for the evening dance. I enjoy Mora’s Modern Rhythmists, but there just aren’t enough good and available bal-swing dancers to make the price of the ticket worth it.