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Lindy Championship
I love the winning, I can take the losing, but most of all I love to play.
-- Boris Becker
Friday, May 19, 2000
One year ago: Phantom Menace
Three years ago: Measure Not the Work
A year ago Jack and I were seeing the Phantom Menace, in the middle of the night! I guess there's no way Lucas could live up to the hopes and dreams accumulated over so many years, but I think he could have done better than he did.
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Chip is back from the Las Vegas Money Show trip. (The other two folks stayed on for a few days.) The whole thing was definitely worth doing -- we made good contacts, got good feedback from regular people, and all that.
To make up for Pete and me holding down the fort, Chip took us out to a fancy lunch. I picked the Yarrow Bay Grill in Kirkland. They've got a beautiful view! (I had the lemon sole -- yum!) We were a quieter group than we usually are on these expeditions. Chip was still hoarse from doing endless demos in Vegas, and Pete is normally on the quiet side.
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I'd been wanting to sign up for the 2nd PNW Lindy Hop Championships, but because of Jack's health problems, I hadn't been sure that I would be able to attend. Since Jack is better, I could! (I'll be seeing him tomorrow.) This contest was held at the HUB, the big student union building at the University of Washington. I've been to some dances there before, but I didn't go to the contest last year because they didn't have a category I could enter (and because the film festival was going on). This year, they added a Jack and Jill contest, so I decided to skip the movies for tonight. I can enter a Jack and Jill contest even though I don't have a regular partner, because the whole point of a Jack and Jill is that you don't know who you'll be dancing with.
There was a reasonable crowd, but the room wasn't jam-packed with people. I did some social dancing. It was fun seeing folks that I haven't seen around recently! The first round of the J&J was held around eight o'clock, about an hour after it was scheduled. The running late thing continued for the rest of the night. I think I danced with four different partners, to several different songs. I was happy with most of it, though it wasn't the smoothest or most elegant dancing I've ever done.
There followed a long evening of waiting. I did enough dancing between events to keep warmed up, but I didn't want to exhaust myself so I sat out more dances than I otherwise would have. I enjoyed watching the other events! They had "just lindy" (dancing with your normal partner, but the song is a surprise), choreographed numbers for couples, and team competition (also choreographed).
Finally they announced the finalists. Darn! I didn't make it, but three of the guys I had danced with did. Did that mean I made them look good? Or did they get points for adapting well to some weirdness that I was doing?
Notable among the final awards: Adam Noble, Tonya Surface, and the Rain City Rugcutters. Emerald City Swing took the top prize for group, but RCR was very good too. Adam was in every event of the evening, I think! I told him he was the "Iron Man" of Seattle lindy hop.
Obviously one can't take these competitions too seriously. I'd have loved to make it to the finals, but I didn't. I'll try again next year! But so much depends on luck, on the judges' tastes and what they see. And the whole idea of judging a jazz-based, improvisatory dance like lindy does have some problems associated with it.
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