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Balboa

Society Dress at CalBal 2023
*, Balboa, California Balboa Classic, Sewing Pattern

Society Dress at CalBal 2023

A couple weekends ago featured the return of the California Balboa Classic! Held in January, this was the last big swing dance event I attended in 2020, so it was extra nice to see it come back. I hadn’t figured out what to wear, though, when Gertie released her new Society Dress on Patreon on January 1.

I’ve *never* sewn up a couple of dresses as fast as I did this time! The style is similar to some of my favorite dresses in my closet, with one notable exception – it’s a knit! On January 1st I literally printed and taped up the pattern and went to Joann for fabric. I made the velvet one first, and was so impressed with how fast it came together that I made the poppy dress too. Being a knit means that the fit is forgiving so I skipped the mockup, and I’m getting more comfortable with my rotary cutter too, which is a big time savings. Both dresses are a straight size 10F/G, with the hems shortened 2″. Both fabrics are from Joann, a stretch velvet and double-brushed poly. I will be making more of these! (Plus working on a new pose, lol!)

Oh! I also competed this weekend! Chris and I competed for the first time since…2017? 2016? It’s been a long time. We placed 3rd in the Pure Balboa comp. It was the only contest we signed up for, and it was SUPER INTERESTING only focusing on Pure Bal instead of getting distracted by all the flash of Bal-swing. I have a new respect for the nuances of the dance now!

Teaching Follows to Swing Dance
Balboa, Lindy Hop, Swing Dance

Teaching Follows to Swing Dance

Chris and I have had a couple opportunities to teach Balboa and Lindy Hop recently, and we’ve gotten very gratifying feedback on how well we teach together as a team – especially how much we work with the follows in class. Chris gets as much credit for this as me, because he’s very conscientious about making sure the follows have material to work on. I’m just a loudmouth and make sure I get heard in class. 🙂

Photo courtesy of Dave Welch at Photos With Class

Because of the nice response from our students, I’ve been thinking lately about our teaching partnership. Of course, we aren’t perfect and are always trying to improve on this ourselves, but these are the major points I see as critical in giving the follows an equal education.

1) Stop seeing the follow as the less important member of the team. To teach follows effectively, both the leads and the follows must respect how important their role is in partner dancing. If both teachers model this behavior and outlook, the students will hopefully feel the same way.
Something as simple as the leader-instructor introducing the follows’ styling, and showing genuine enthusiasm for spending time on the topic in class, will help balance the roles.

2) Spend enough time preparing – together. The follow-instructor must be clear on the class material in order to participate in actually teaching, not just dancing. I suspect that when the follow-instructor isn’t contributing to teaching, it’s usually because she doesn’t know what the leader-instructor is going to demonstrate next. She’s trying to figure it out along with the class.

3) While planning, pay attention to whether the moves are lead-centric or follow-centric. Try to balance the material with different moves or additional styling.
4) Teach the Skills needed when following. This might include where to hold your arms, position your weight, or different footwork that makes a move easier. This is especially important to remember when teaching Advanced classes – teaching the nuances of Following Skills changes an Advanced class from “a bunch of choreography I can never use after I leave class” to “now I’m a better follow!”.
5) Sometimes a class will be at a completely different level than the material planned. So go with it! Even though you’re teaching off the top of your head, still try to address the reasons why you make certain choices as a follow, not just the mechanics of how to execute the move.

What other techniques do you find helpful for effective teaching of both roles in partner dances? As a student, what do you find helpful, or dislike?

Swing Jam at the Rendezvous – 1938
Balboa, Hal Takier, Look Magazine, Roy Damron

Swing Jam at the Rendezvous – 1938

I recently looked through some of my photo files, and found a cool photo I hadn’t shown you!
This photo comes from the 1938 LOOK Magazine spread about the Rendezvous Ballroom (posted here), and it shows a dance jam. Roy Damron is the guy in the middle doing the splits, and a couple of his friends are in the crowd. And do you recognize the couple dancing in the upper right (white jacket, white dress)? That’s none other than Hal & Betty Takier! Oh, what I’d give for a little video footage of this jam. 🙂
Photo from LOOK Magazine – August 30, 1938
Rocky Mountain Balboa Blowout 2013
Balboa, Rocky Mountain Balboa Blowout, Swing Dance

Rocky Mountain Balboa Blowout 2013

After years of not traveling further than San Francisco, all of a sudden last year Chris and I decided to leave our bubble and start traveling to dance events – I left one job with over 2 weeks of vacation time saved up and realized that not using it was the dumbest thing ever (yes, they paid me out, but it wasn’t worth it). We’ve been invited to teach at several out-of-state events in this last year, and we love teaching, meeting new people and seeing a few sights, so we’re trying to take advantage of as many opportunities as we can. And now that we’re meeting people who live all over the world, we need to keep traveling so that we can see (and dance!) with them.

Last weekend we went to snowy Denver for Rocky Mountain Balboa Blowout. Now, Chris and I were both born and raised in Southern California, and we are NOT built for snow. I went to college in Iowa, but that was 10 years ago now (yikes!) and it was a small town and small campus so I didn’t have to deal with a car. So of course the first time we venture out to Denver, the town is hit with the biggest snowstorm of the season!

We were prepared for cold weather, but I forgot how darn WET snow is. I SO did not bring the right shoes – I only had one pair of flats with me. 7-Eleven bags to the rescue!

But that said, we still had a great time! RMBB is a fab event – we always had it on our list of events to go to, sooner or later. The music is great, the venues are pretty, and good/NICE dancers always turn out. We taught two classes (advanced Balboa and LA Lindy Hop) and I was in 2 contests – just the right amount of obligations for a fun weekend away. (Teaching and competing *are* fun, but sometimes you don’t want to keep an eye on the clock.)

Here is video footage from the two contests I was in – enjoy!

Open Strictly Balboa – 
Chris & Beth, 1st Place
(For my family members who only want to watch our spotlight, that starts at 9:52 😉

Invitational Jack & Jill –
randomly paired with Andreas Olsen, from Sweden, whom I met only the previous night!
(Andreas and my spotlight starts at 5:08)

Big thanks to David Bradford for the video footage and for the great dance we had! 🙂

Cal Bal Classic 2013
Balboa, California Balboa Classic, Hal Takier, Swing Dance

Cal Bal Classic 2013

The weekend before last was the California Balboa Classic, a new Balboa event in Los Angeles with classes and dances. Originally intended as a small event for locals, word about this one spread like wildfire and the workshops sold out within a week or two, even after an entire extra class track was added! And people even flew in from other states! I’m SO excited about this new event – I’ve felt for a long time that LA needs a dedicated Balboa event, and I’m so glad that the response was so good.

Like the hams we are, Chris and I entered the Open Balboa and Swing contest – “Balboa” and “Swing” here referring to their 1930s & 40s meanings where Balboa was only closed (chest-to-chest) position, and Swing is anything that separates from your partner.  I had a TON of fun with this contest – there were several rounds where we were told to demonstrate musicality, showmanship, etc. A lot of Balboa contests tend to emphasize one end of the spectrum or the other, but it was nice to have both in this one.  I just hope it didn’t go on too long for the audience!

Here are the videos I could find – they’re linked from Facebook instead of YouTube, so I hope they work for you.

Open Balboa & Swing Classic Finals – Warm-up

Open Balboa & Swing Classic Finals – Chris & Beth Spotlight

Open Balboa & Swing Classic Finals – Fast Battle

And finally, Chris and I got to take home these GORGEOUS glass trophies! First Place, and the couple featured in the photo are 2 of our dance heroes, Hal and Betty. We stole several of their moves for the Fast Battle, and I will proudly display this in honor of them and all of our old-timers.

Lindy Focus XI – Balboa Comps

We’re in our final day at Lindy Focus in Asheville, NC and getting ready for the New Year’s Eve party tonight. (I’m trying mobile blogging, so hopefully the formatting isn’t all wonky!) Chris and I are having a blast – we’ve done a couple contests, dancing a bit part in the show tonight, and I took my first burlesque class ever (from Sharon Davis/”Bonnie Fox” (if you look her up on YouTube, please note it’s NSFW!!)) I actually took the night off from dancing last night because I was so tired – I know I missed some great music and dancing, but I’m feeling WAY more human today. 🙂

My dad emailed me last night that he found some YouTube footage up from the weekend already – here’s a clip of Chris and me dancing in the Balboa Jack & Jill – in J&J contests you’re paired up with a random partner. I’m up first dancing with Marshall, who I’ve not seen in years, and Chris dances with Lana, a gal from Kiev whom we’ve never met before this weekend!

We also competed in the Underground Lindy Focus Championships – Balboa Edition (at 2:15 AM!!) and made it to the final four – everyone jumps onto the floor and the judges give out challenges, and they tap out couples until they get down to 6 couples. We had to do Pure Bal (chest-to-chest the whole time), No Basics, Slow Bal, and Lots of Spins – the challenges were actually really fun and a good way to loosen up for the finals! Here are the first 2 rounds of the finals – We’re in the second group out on the far side in both videos.

There are a TON more videos already up from the weekend, if you want to see more search for “Lindy Focus XI”.

Happy New Year!! Stay safe and don’t drink and drive, and I’ll see you in 2013!