Litui.Net

Oh, hello again blog.  It’s been awhile, hasn’t it?  I know I’ve been neglecting you and I can’t promise to be any better about it, but I’ll feed you some scraps and hopefully that will tide you over for awhile.

While writing this I’ve been obsessively pressing F12 to check on my UPS shipment of a Samsung NC10 netbook [update: just now arrived!  yummy!].  I’ll likely be installing an alternative OS of some sort on it.  Probably Ubuntu Linux, but if I decide to change out the wireless adapter I may take a stab at turning it into a Hackintosh.  I recently spent some time (and factually, am still spending time) converting my desktop system, Butlertron, over to OS X.  Miraculously, it mostly works with only a few issues (occasional kernel panics on SATA controller).  It reminds me of all the effort I had to put into getting Linux working on my hardware back in the late ’90s.

Work at Cansel continues to go swimmingly.  I’m getting closer to the end of my third year of employment here (July) and looking back I can’t believe how much I’ve learned and accomplished here so far.  It’s not all fun and games, but it’s often stimulating and I feel the work I do is appreciated.  Work is still sending me traveling quite frequently.  In December, my boss and I traveled together to both Vancouver and Toronto to bring Global CADD Systems into the company fold.  Next week I’ll be going to St. John’s, Newfoundland to visit our new branch at MF Kelly.  Later in the week, I’ll be visiting our Halifax (Dartmouth) branch.  I also have several major projects due within a month.  Busy times.

I’ve been doing a lot of programming lately and I’m actually starting to feel like a programmer.  Those who know me will likely be rolling their eyes at this point, but it’s true that I rarely consider myself a programmer by nature.  I still feel insecure about the quality of my programming, but it’s finally getting to the point where I can pretty well sit down and write up whatever I need for the purpose in any of a handful of languages.  That’s a pretty nice feeling.

I continue to swing dance and will be in attendance at Frankie Manning’s 95th Birthday Party in New York in May.  This will be my first trip to New York as well so expect some crappy pics of Lady Liberty and the Empire State Building to surface a couple months from now.  In the more immediate future I’ll be attending 9PLEX A.K.A.: PLEX and the City here in Calgary.  This coming Friday and Saturday nights there will be dances with the Bow Djangos and the Polyjesters, respectively.  Both are very fast bands and I’ve been working hard at improving my Balboa accordingly.

This year I also introduced my girlfriend to Lindy Hop and she seems to be enjoying herself though she lacks the time in her busy school schedule to take dance classes at present.  Oh yes, I have a girlfriend named Jodie who makes me very happy. ♥

10:30AM. I really should have been up earlier but was pretty beat from the night of dancing and late bedtime. A quick shower, a quick change, and out the door. Again, I was aiming for the Métro, this time for Guy-Concordia Station on the Green Line. A short wait and ride later delivered me to Lasalle Station, which definitely had the coolest design of any of the stations I’d seen yet. From here, I needed to catch bus #58 which would take me down to the South of Verdun

I asked the driver to let me off at the Douglas Hospital (which the instructions told me was across the street from the event) though, as it turned out, there were enough swing dancers on board that I wouldn’t have had to worry about missing my target. At least a couple of faces were recognizable from the Friday night. So, when we reached our target most of the bus piled out and (as I would do so often that day) I joined the herd.

Swing l’été was still being set up as I arrived so I wandered a bit and snapped photos. The whole event would take place at a large, covered, outdoor dance floor looking out over the St. Lawrence River. A still moat separated the structure from the surrounding park and a bicycle/walking path with bridges provided the only means of getting to or from this isle of dance (ilovedance?). The shore around was covered in trees and other greenery. On the whole, it was a breathtaking site.

Shortly after I arrived, a childrens’ dance class started. The girl leading the class [Edit: named Laura Brunelle, thanks to Alain Fragman for the info] had them stepping out basic rhythms, running around, flapping their arms, and interpreting the music (quite a variety of genres) for quite some time. It was all very cute.

While I was seated on the sidelines, some girls came around handing out plastic leis. After some language confusion, it was explained that the white lei was for beginners and the yellow lei was for intermediate dancers. I went for the yellow and hoped for the best given the classes would be taught in French. Eventually, as more people showed up the event got underway.

The first of the intermediate classes was taught by Max Pitruzzella and Annie Trudeau, champion dancers. They taught the first part of a charleston routine. Surprisingly, it wasn’t too hard to follow even as taught in a different language, but I became confused (as usual) once I had to remember too many things in short order. I asked if I could film the routine and they said it would be performed in full later on and I was welcome to film.

The second class was in Balboa, and unfortunately I forget the teachers’ names [Edit: Patricia Brodeur and Frédéric Barbe, also champion dancers, thanks to Didier Jean-Francois for the info]. We learned a Bal-swing turn that’s quickly fading from my memory, unfortunately. It was a nice move at any rate.

[Edit: Didier Jean-Francois also mentions: "Both couples (Max & Annie + Patricia & Fred) teach for Studio 88-SWING at it's 4 Montreal locations"]

After the lessons and presentations, the social dancing began. At this point many more dancers were starting to arrive, of all different skill levels and specialties. For the most part what I saw was six-count dance. There were occasional 8-count dances, but mostly (as at Cat’s Corner the previous night), it seemed to be 6-count dance with 8-count variations thrown in. In chatting with one girl from Ottawa, she said the same thing–Montréal is a 6-count town. She was used to 8-count back in Ottawa and said it took some adapting.

I managed to get some 6-count practice in, but couldn’t remember anything fancy. Ah well. The 8-count I danced when I wasn’t completely tired (by the end of the dance I was exhausted) was, I think, pretty decent and well received. The follows were all wonderful and didn’t fail to look good and make me look good while dancing.

By the next batch of presentations, I had danced countless times and was having to drink water at an astounding rate due to the heat (27ºC at one point). I’m sure most of us were glad for the break.

I found a good seat, cleared some space on my camera, and began filming the presentations. First up, was Swing Connexion “Lite” with a fraction of the group’s total members. They did a charming Lindy hop routine to “Won’t You Come Home Bill Bailey”. They were followed by the larger part of Swing Connexion whose performance I, regrettably, didn’t have the space to record. I spent much of their routine clearing old data off my memory card so I’d have room to record the next act, which was Alain Fragman and Sylwia Bielec performing a very classy Lindy routine.

I’m starting to forget the exact order of events here, but at some point in the afternoon it was announced that everyone who had a birthday in the month of July should make their way to the centre of the dance floor. It took me awhile to clue in as the announcements were all in French, but eventually I asked what was going on and raced to the middle. There, a red lei was bestowed upon me to mark me and it was announced that we would be having a traditional birthday jam. A birthday jam circle in Montréal! I was ecstatic.

To fill in the non-dancers among my handful of readers, in a jam circle involves one or more individuals starting out in the centre of a ring of other dancers. Particular partners or random partners will join them in dancing at the start of the song and at random, other dancers will steal the original person from the previous partner. These can be a lot of fun.

After the (excellent) birthday jam, I was all set to go back to some ordinary Lindy hopping when it was announced that, oh no, the jam was not yet over. We would be participating in a birthday snowball!

A snowball, again for the non-dancers and perhaps the dancers who are unaware, starts exactly the same as a normal jam circle. The snowballing can occur in either of (probably at least) two ways:

1. A ‘caller’ shouts “SNOWBALL!” at which point all the couples break up and the individuals each seek out a new partner from the crowd, or
2. Pairs of dancers (lead/follow pairs) run into the circle at their leisure and perform a steal on each other couple.

At Swing l’été, the #1 method was used which confused me greatly until I figured out the caller was saying “snowball” in French. It was still great fun.

Also at a point in time I can’t make more specific, the whole group got together for a Shim Sham. I love how this seems to stay exactly the same no matter where you go. I actually managed to perform most of it, much to my delight.

Eventually, the dance came to a close and we all went our own ways. This event will definitely stand out in my memory for years to come, however. Thank you to everyone in Montréal for making me feel welcome.

The rest of my photos can be viewed here.

Taking classes from Sylvia Sykes was great fun.  She is a very outgoing lady with a wealth of stories to tell about teaching and dancing.  Sylvia teaches and dances in many different styles, but for this workshop the focus was Lindy Hop and Balboa/Bal-swing.

The Lindy Hop classes focussed primarily on fine-tuning.  First making better use of connection to move then smoothing out and cutting down the movements required to execute more difficult moves.  Sunday’s Lindy Hop class was aimed at teaching us cool-looking moves.  There’s a lot I can’t remember from that weekend (I’m going to have to review), but what I do remember was very helpful.

Learning Balboa was a challenge.  I had never yet taken a Balboa class and believe me when I say it’s much harder than it looks to lead (and it does look somewhat difficult).  Leading is all in the pulsing and weight shifting while the hands sit there doing virtually nothing.  There is also a very different (much closer) connection through which all this leading occurs.  The steps are tiny and more shuffles than actual steps making it easy to forget where you are in the footwork.

For the second Balboa class, we did Bal-swing moves which involved a little more hand movement and travel, but all still very close and quick.  I got completely confused about half-way through this class, but I did enjoy myself and learn a lot overall.

At the end of the last class, we were treated to a Bal demo by Sylvia led by Dan Amores.  I’ll leave you with a similar demo of Marty Klempner and Sylvia Sykes:

Last Friday (April 25), Heather and I flew to Toronto to attend a Lindy and Balboa workshop taught by Frankie Manning and Sylvia Sykes.  This is the first dance workshop I’ve ever attended and believe me, I was overwhelmed.  For those who are unaware (and too lazy to click on the links), here are both bios in short:

Frankie Manning

Swing dancer extraordinaire Frankie Manning was a leading dancer at Harlem’s legendary Savoy Ballroom where, in the mid-1930s, he revolutionized the course of the lindy hop with his innovations, including the lindy air step and synchronized ensemble lindy routine. frankiemanning.com

Sylvia Sykes

Sylvia, an internationally recognized authority on most types of Swing Dance, has been teaching and judging for 20 years throughout the US, Europe, and Australia. sylviasykes.com

Needless to say, some excellent teachers.  Yes, that does say that Frankie Manning was a Lindy Hop dancer in the 1930s.  He was born in 1914 making him almost 94 years old.  He continues to teach and dance, his schedule already booked for 2008.  In this workshop he taught some of his favourite sequences of moves in Lindy Hop.  The man has a wealth of experience and knowledge and I couldn’t help but be inspired while attending his workshop.

Sylvia was also exceptional.  She had a shining sense of humour while still managing to give us the facts plain and simple on how to execute certain moves.  She emphasized social dance, proper leading and following, and simplification so that moves could be executed with the least amount of needless work.  She taught not only 8 and 6 count Lindy dance but Balboa/Bal-Swing as well.

Stay tuned for longer descriptions of individual parts of this weekend’s event.