new year's recap
Jan. 2nd, 2005 07:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
swingchickieso, this new year's weekend was a blast... except for getting my purse stolen. i found out a bit more about the whole theft thing... i guess there was a wedding there at the same time, and the participants got completely drunk and rowdy and raised hell in the hotel, even smashing a car in the parking lot. what i don't understand is why the people haven't been caught then, and why i don't have my camera back. *sigh*
competition-wise i did pretty well... i made it to the finals today, and got paired with J, a guy i dance with all the time here in boston (for the non-dancers, in a "jack and jill" competition, you don't enter with a partner... you enter by yourself, and then get randomly paired with someone)... we didn't win, but making it to the finals means i receive one point... so the next time i compete, i can enter in the novice division (instead of newcomer). that in itself is worth it to me.
i only took one workshop this weekend, but god was it amazing. robert royston (a 5-million-time dance champion who was also in the broadway run of "swing!") did a special 2-day workshop on musicality, and also taught the class a 1 1/2 minute routine that we performed for the crowd before the awards ceremony. i was so fired up after the performance... one of my new year's resolutions is to seek out more performance opportunities, and god i would love it if i could do some team stuff.
the best part of the weekend had to be last night. L2 and i were going to lay low in our room, have a drink or two, and then head down to watch the competitions and dance... we told J and a few other people to stop by if they wanted... and lo and behold, it turned into a full-blown, 5-hour-long karaoke party that went until one in the morning. it was a scream. at one point, manu (who was emceeing the lindy competitions, and had stopped by our room right before) announced on the mic to an entire ballroom full of people, that there was a karaoke party in room 450. all of a sudden, dancers who i knew by sight only were coming in the door to have a glass of champagne and belt out some tunes. even erik novoa (non-dancers: erik is another dance champion... he is to west coast swing what elvis stojko is to ice skating) jumped in the door at one point as we were all screaming out "baby got back", shook his ass to illustrate the song, then walked right back out. it was surreal. but probably the coolest part of karaoke was a new rule we instituted, the new "10-measure rule". if someone's doing a song, and there is a musical break of 10 measures or more, they have to tell a joke to fill in the time. people were coming up with jokes on the fly, that had the entire room on the floor for the rest of the song. that will definitely be a permanent fixture from now on. :) so, once again, the karaoke machine was a success... we made a bunch of new friends, went through a case of champagne, and lost our voices to boot.
so, all in all, a great weekend. i got compliments on my dancing from people i didn't even know... got compliments on the party, again from people i didn't know (one woman i barely know told me later that the 5 minutes she spent at our karaoke thing was the highlight of her weekend)... and came home happy and exhausted.
J, his girlfriend K, me, and M in our new year's finest
competition-wise i did pretty well... i made it to the finals today, and got paired with J, a guy i dance with all the time here in boston (for the non-dancers, in a "jack and jill" competition, you don't enter with a partner... you enter by yourself, and then get randomly paired with someone)... we didn't win, but making it to the finals means i receive one point... so the next time i compete, i can enter in the novice division (instead of newcomer). that in itself is worth it to me.
i only took one workshop this weekend, but god was it amazing. robert royston (a 5-million-time dance champion who was also in the broadway run of "swing!") did a special 2-day workshop on musicality, and also taught the class a 1 1/2 minute routine that we performed for the crowd before the awards ceremony. i was so fired up after the performance... one of my new year's resolutions is to seek out more performance opportunities, and god i would love it if i could do some team stuff.
the best part of the weekend had to be last night. L2 and i were going to lay low in our room, have a drink or two, and then head down to watch the competitions and dance... we told J and a few other people to stop by if they wanted... and lo and behold, it turned into a full-blown, 5-hour-long karaoke party that went until one in the morning. it was a scream. at one point, manu (who was emceeing the lindy competitions, and had stopped by our room right before) announced on the mic to an entire ballroom full of people, that there was a karaoke party in room 450. all of a sudden, dancers who i knew by sight only were coming in the door to have a glass of champagne and belt out some tunes. even erik novoa (non-dancers: erik is another dance champion... he is to west coast swing what elvis stojko is to ice skating) jumped in the door at one point as we were all screaming out "baby got back", shook his ass to illustrate the song, then walked right back out. it was surreal. but probably the coolest part of karaoke was a new rule we instituted, the new "10-measure rule". if someone's doing a song, and there is a musical break of 10 measures or more, they have to tell a joke to fill in the time. people were coming up with jokes on the fly, that had the entire room on the floor for the rest of the song. that will definitely be a permanent fixture from now on. :) so, once again, the karaoke machine was a success... we made a bunch of new friends, went through a case of champagne, and lost our voices to boot.
so, all in all, a great weekend. i got compliments on my dancing from people i didn't even know... got compliments on the party, again from people i didn't know (one woman i barely know told me later that the 5 minutes she spent at our karaoke thing was the highlight of her weekend)... and came home happy and exhausted.
J, his girlfriend K, me, and M in our new year's finest
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no subject
Date: 2005-01-02 05:09 pm (UTC)...and love dancing with J too, you lucky girl.
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Date: 2005-01-02 10:45 pm (UTC)Yup. Cute. Definitely ;)
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Date: 2005-01-02 11:22 pm (UTC)Karaoke,NYE,with Jenn....good times.
*cry*
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Date: 2005-01-03 04:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-03 04:40 am (UTC)happy new year! *hug*