Well, it has been a long few weeks! Here is a recap on things and notice about things coming up.
A bunch of Albertans made the trip down to New Orleans this past weekend for the Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown, known as ULHS. This event is one of the premier events in the world to go to for Lindy Hoppers and I have been meaning to go for years now. I am very happy that I got everything coordinated and made the trip, it was worth the time and energy. We left Thursday morning catching a 7am flight from Calgary and managed to make it through a massive line at customs to catch our flight to Houston and then to New Orleans. Got to our hotel in the French Quarter that was close to a majority of the venues for the weekend. After unpacking, Charles and I headed down to Bourbon St and had a beer while we waited for the Riverboat Cruise to start. The cruise was enjoyable, with music from the Loose Marbles and another band. I ended up spending most of my time catching up with old friends that I hadn’t seen in a long while. Next there was the late night at the Spotted Cat, a small jazz bar on Frenchmen St. which is the heart of the local jazz scene. Lots of dancing ensued and we retired to our beds nicely exhausted.
The next morning, or should I say afternoon, involved dancing outside, wandering around the French Quarter, and having Beignets at Cafe Du Monde! If you are ever in New Orleans, you have to try these things, they are covered in enough icing sugar to have sugar fights with, which did happen! The evening dance was located at the Wax Museum and we were allowed to wander around looking at all the exhibits. The hall was a bit small for the large number of people there, but the music was amazing, as was the calibre of dancing. I have been to many places to dance and this event by far has the best dancing I have ever experienced. The choreography showcases and pre-lims for the Jack and Jill happened throughout the night, there is a video playlist at the end of this section, check it out! Afterhours dancing happened at Fritzel’s, a jazz bar with two levels and live music all night. Another night of blissful exhausted sleep followed.
Waking up on Saturday morning was oddly easy as I knew there was going to be more dancing! We headed down to the French Market to dance outside on a portable wooden floor, it ended up raining and some of the competitions had to be pushed back to the evening. We did get to dance though and it was fantastic. So much happened that it will be hard to write about it and keep this relatively short, so I will try and just stick to the highlights. My favourite venue by far was the WWII museum that was the location of the Saturday night dance. Imagine a hanger with old fighter planes hanging from the ceiling and a massive dance floor, if I wasn’t drinking water or toweling off, I was on the dance floor. Met some more amazing people and had some of my best dances ever! The evening was broadcasted online live by the local News stations. Another late night at Fritzel’s and got a chance to work on my balboa a lot as we were packed in there like sardines. More sleeping…
Sunday there were classes and a club crawl that meandered around to a bunch of different jazz clubs on Frenchmen St., there are literally 6-8 of them within two blocks. Dinner and then off to the House of Blues to dance, watch some performances, listen to some great music, and the last of the competitions. Winners were announced and prizes were handed out, check out the ULHS website for the results. Earlier that evening I had the opportunity to meet Joseph Wiggan, one of the world’s best tap dancers, while we were walking back to our hotel. He and his friend Jason are amazing guys and really enjoyed the chance to chat and talk tap for a bit. I was also privileged to be invited to jam with them during the dance before they performed with the band onstage! This was by far the best moment of the weekend and has inspired me to take up my taps again and get back into practicing. This dance went late into the night and goodbyes had started, it was sad to have to say farewell to so many people that I had just met, but I know I will see them again at another event sometime. Mmmm blissful sleep…
Monday was filled with lots of rest and eating. Birkley and I managed to head out to the Garden District and catch the musicians vs. dancers baseball game. I ended up getting to play a bit and was dubbed ‘Matt from Canada’ as I was the only Canadian on the field. Managed to do decent with my rusty baseball skills and the dancers took the musicians to town and stopped their bad mouthing. Back to the hotel to shower, nap and change before wandering down to Frenchmen St again and catching the remnants of the lindy hoppers that were left in town and still able to dance. Got about 2 hours of sleep before having to wake up and head to the airport to catch our flights home. Quite the change in weather as we had been having 25-35 degree and humid weather in New Orleans and it was -7 and snowing in Calgary.
All in all, I highly recommend this event to anybody interested in experiencing some of the best lindy hop out there! The city was a great time to hang out in and there was live music everywhere! Words can’t begin to explain how much fun I had, so I will leave you with a playlist of videos from the weekend!
Just a reminder that the Todd and Ramona workshop weekend is happening up in Edmonton this weekend. If you haven’t signed up, I highly suggest that you go to this event. Ramona won a few of the competitions at ULHS and her dancing is amazing. Check out the Sugar Swing Website for more info. See you there!
Last thing to note, I have just booked more hall space and will be running another series of classes starting in November! Swing 1 will be running again, so if you are new to swing dancing, this is the class for you. Swing 2 will also be running, take this class if you have taken Swing 1 and want to keep moving forward or if you have previous dance experience in other social dances. If you have any questions about the classes please Contact Us. Classes will be posted in the next day or two, sign up early to reserve your spot!
Longest post yet! Thanks for reading and look forward to see you out on the dance floor!
Cheers,
Matthew Isenor