Bad floor... Great dances.

Stuttters Ball….

Stutters Ball came into existence not that long ago. When it first happen it was the “hot new venue” with the “amazing floor”. It was not that unusual for Shesha to fill the VERY big dance floor on some Wednesday night. However… things change.

The thing about Stutters was that it only played true blue vintage music. This can be great for some of purest out there that only like dancing to the old masters… but here are many people that enjoy having a wider variety of music to dance with.

Over the next few months Strutters became smaller and smaller. I stopped going because I had some personal things come up on Wednesdays. This caused about a 6 month no Wednesday night dancing stint for me. So last Wednesday my wife and I decided we are going to go and give it a shot again considering we had heard Joffyln was DJ’ing for the first hour or so(although turned out he wasn’t there). It was a strange experience!

We showed up before 9 so we could get the 2 for 1 discount at the door and were not that surprised that so few people were there to start. It had always been a late starting venue.

The first thing we noticed was the floor! The floor which was once the envy of the Orange County dancing scene… now looked like the last 6 months every dancer had been given sandpaper to put on the bottom of their shoes for the rest of the night. It was a mess. I really think I have danced on concrete in better condition.

The next thing that surprised me was the fact that it never really “filled up” I mean yes more people did show up but so many people left after just an hour or so the numbers didn’t really change that much. And something I had never seen before happened… soon the ratio of good dancers too beginners became WAY out of wack. I would say 85% -90% really good dancers to 15% - 10% beginner-intermediate dancers. It was actually very intimidating. But it forced me to step out of my normal dancing zone. I had some really great dances with people I had never had the nerve to ask before. One of which was Jenny Knox! Wow, what a great dance, at least for me, but she didn’t seem to be in pain or looking for another dance so I don’t think she was too bored, over all I consider it a win.

A night I thought was going to be awful, turned into a really nice evening! I had some of the best dances I had had at a dance venue in a long time. I was really pleased. My wife also had a nice night! She danced with some people she normally doesn’t ask either including Nick Williams who happened to be there.

Final thoughts…

I think Strutter’s is Shesha’s pet project. With the small amount of people that come he can’t be making much money on it and it doesn’t have a lot of buzz about it any more. Not to mention the fact that he danced the WHOLE night! I don’t remember the last time I saw him dancing so much! I think this mean Shesha likes it the way it is, and after this last week I really can see why. It can be a really fun time. I don’t think Strutter’s is ever going to change and I think…that’s maybe a good thing… (except the floor!)

-X

Camp Hollywood 2009....

Another Camp Hollywood has come and gone in a sleep deprived blur.

As always CH is something of a vacation for my wife and I. We go and split a room with another couple of people (even though we only live about 30mins away) and enjoy 4 nights of dancing until we fall asleep on the floor. CH has so many great things about it. A million dancers, fantastic classes, awesome bands, etc... So many things make it worth the cost to me.

The highlights of this year were many, but I think the things I enjoyed the most were oddly enough NOT dancing. Laying on the ground listening to Jonathan Stout and others just jamming in the hallway was fantastic. Mr Stout truly is amazing and hearing him at 2am just messing around with friends was really awesome. Here are some of the photos...



Other highlights were hanging out with friends I haven't seen in far to long. Its one of the things I love most about CH is seeing old friends.

This is my 3rd CH and I must say it was a different experience this year for me. My first CH was all about classes. Second year was still all about classes with the idea of learning more moves. But this year I found that I didn't really have a deep desire to wake up early every day(especially after being up until 4am) to rush down too classes. I was much more interested in the dances. I enjoyed the classes, don't get me wrong, but I found that I was really looking forward to the dances more. And the dances were great. CH is interesting in that it really is a crap shoot as to who you are going to dance with. You dance with random follows and sometimes they rock and sometimes they are total beginners. Its great. No expectations, no worrying about if they are better then you. Just having fun dancing.

The competitions also stood out for me this year. The Am Lindy was great, far better then the other years I have gone and the showcase was amazing as always. The Underground Jitterbug Championship (UJC) also rocked this year! Tiffany Wine & Kenny Nelson put on a show I will remember for years to come! Here is video...


All in all CH was again a great time. I think next year though I might just do the dances... we will see. Next year I may change my mind again.