Bal-Aska 2012

September 15, 2012

So things are getting all jumbled and out of order because my blogging isn’t keeping up with events, but that’s a good problem to have – and we just keep pushing on! 🙂 Last weekend Chris and I went up to Anchorage, Alaska to teach at their first ever Balboa event, Bal-aska – and we had a ball! It was a whirlwind trip of only 3 days plus travel time, but we managed to sneak in a little sight-seeing between classes.

No fancy-pant camera on this trip, this time my phone was in charge of recording memories. And DJing for classes, and mapping out the wild streets of Anchorage. Smart phones and jet planes are 2 reasons I’m glad I didn’t actually live in 1938. Anyway…

Our trusty rental in The Last Frontier

With the promoters and staff of Bal-aska – Patrick, Roxanne & Binky

Chris got in the spirit of Autumn up there –

it’s painful coming home to 100 degree weather!

Friday night’s band – featuring the youngest member of the clarinet section!

Outside of the Saturday venue

This incredible book was one of the weekend’s prizes,

and there was a shriek from every girl in the room when it was announced. 🙂

I snapped a photo as a note to buy it, and my own copy is racing to me right now!

Friday afternoon we stopped by the zoo – who let this animal out of the cage?!

Playful Otter

Polar Paws

Chipmunk in the tree was squeeking and teasing the foxes behind the fence.

Black Bear, Black Bear

Overlooking the bears

Little Campbell Lake

Don’t fall in!

Hiking on one of the Kincaid cross-country ski trails

And Sunday morning we took a scenic drive along the south coast. Beautiful!!

Another Maharaja Costume

June 13, 2012

Since we’re talking Majaraja costumes, I thought I’d share one I made for myself a few years ago. (oh, no, I just checked and it was in 2008…that was a long time ago already!!)

The Friday night theme at Camp Hollywood was Maharaja — Chris wore a tuxedo (inspired by Hal), and I made a “1940’s does Arabian Nights” playsuit – you know, like how all the costumes in period movies of the 30’s & 40’s look more like contemporary fashions with only a slight nod to the past. That’s what I was going for.

Again, this is a rayon fabric for good swish. The skirt is a long panel that’s gathered with box pleats into the waistband, and I put butterfly sleeves on the top for ease of movement.

These photos are from the Amateur Balboa contest – we got first place that year. It was also probably the best hair day of my entire life, and I like to think that had a little to do with winning. 😉

Photos by Lisa Johnson

Maharaja Costume

June 12, 2012

A few months ago, Balboa & Lindy Hop champion Laura Keat contacted me to ask if I would be interested in making a costume for a new routine she was working on. As a rule I don’t sew for other people (I don’t even hem Chris’s pants, he has to take them to the cleaners), but this was a special project that I was very interested in working on.

On Saturday night at All Balboa Weekend, Laura and her dance partner, Jeremy Otth, performed Hal & Betty Takier’s “Maharaja”, a musical short from 1943. This is one of only a few clips we have of LA Swing from the 30’s & 40’s, and this one is a wild ride – the energy and enthusiasm combined with their street dance technique has been hugely influential to modern balboa dancers. In honor of Hal’s recent passing, Jeremy & Laura wanted to represent this in their recreation.

Inspiration: 40’s Playsuit

Inspiration: High-flying skirt!

I worked with Laura to create a 40’s playsuit like the one Betty wears in Maharaja – unfortunately most of the footage we have is pretty blown out and details are hard to see, but that gave us some creative license in the design. For the top and the skirt I used a rayon twill, lined with a rayon satin (I’ve got a bit of a love affair with the drape and flow of rayon – perfect for swishy skirts!)

I draped the top and the skirt, and we decided to put buttons down the skirt so that it can fly open for this routine but be not as…revealing for others. 🙂

Cute, right? Well, get ready to be wowed – they NAILED the routine! Bummed I couldn’t be at the event in person, but so glad I got to be part of it anyway!

Jeremy Otth & Laura Keat perform Hal & Betty Takier’s “Maharaja” in tribute at the 2012 All Balboa Weekend

Photo by Shannon Sheldon

The Rendezvous Cup

April 12, 2012

I have a confession to make. I like dancing more than I like blogging. 🙂 At costume events, there’s always a lot of time for picture taking (which is at least 50% the reason for going. The other 50% is eating tea and cookies). But at a REALLY FUN dance event, it’s hard to remember to take pictures. I get wrapped up in the music and people and just forget. So it’s embarrassing that after Balboa Rendezvous, I walked away with zero photos.

BUT! We did come away from the event with The Rendezvous Cup this year! 🙂 We have to give it back next year (unless we win again 😉 but it’ll have our names and some witty saying added for 2012.

Giant thanks to Joel Plys for putting together the 9th Annual Balboa Rendezvous. As I mentioned in a previous post, Chris and I attended as in-class instructors, and we were in the Level 1 classes all day on Saturday, dancing with and working one-on-one with students. For Level 1 there were 8 in-class instructors, which sounded like a lot at first, but it worked really well – the students got a lot of personal attention, and they learned the material much faster. The main instructors were top-notch, and I recommend putting this event on your list if you’re interested in Balboa.

And the MUSIC!! Oh my goodness. We’re spoiled here in Los Angeles with our fantastic bands and frequent live music, but Glenn Crytzer and His Syncopators came down from Seattle and — holy smokes, they’re incredible. Every time I walked into the ballroom I thought a (remastered!) vintage recording was playing. The band’s balance was just perfect and the rhythm section felt like the Heartbeat of Balboa. Pop over to their website for a free listen!

And ok, here’s a contest photo I dug off Facebook. I guess the back of my head’s better than nothing?!

Photo by Douglas LeClair

SoCal Balboa Workshops

March 9, 2012

I’m supposed to be madly working on a Teen’s dress for this Sunday’s Lanterman Ragtime Tea Dance, but I wanted take a minute to highlight a couple Balboa events I’m involved with this month.

March 17th: Atomic Ballroom in Placentia, CA is hosting an Intermediate/Advanced Balboa Workshop. Augie Freeman is the instructor, and he’s asked me to partner with him (cause I look better in heels than he does.) Augie is a classic SoCal Balboa dancer, and a fantastic teacher. Follow the link to get more info.

March 29th-April 1st: Balboa Rendezvous in San Diego and Balboa Peninsula – I believe this is the longest running Balboa event in Southern California (probably on the West Coast?). The weekend full of workshops, live music and contests features some of the great international instructors who call California home. Chris and I are part of this year’s in-class teaching staff, so we’ll be attending the classes, dancing with and giving feedback to the students (we’ll be really nice, I promise!). In addition, this event brings together many of the great old-timers who danced in the SoCal ballrooms in the 30’s and 40’s – it’s a real treat to listen to them reminisce about the dance. Registration is still open for a few more days, so head over to the website to check it out – if you have trouble with the website, post a message on the FB page and I’m sure someone will help you out.

“I’m Just A Jitterbug”

February 24, 2012

I’ve fallen off posting about dancing much in the last couple months, but a recent Facebook conversation reminded me that I’ve been meaning to post this article originally published in a 1939 Look Magazine. It shows some “behind the scenes” shots of LA swing dancers who were filmed as inspiration for the Walter Lantz cartoon short “I’m Just a Jitterbug”.

The footage of dancing was rotoscoped for the cartoon (basically traced), which seems to be looked down on by animators, but it’s fun for us dancers, because it’s so true to life. Only 2 couples are shown in the Look article, but from watching the footage we know that Ray Hirsch and Patti Lacey were part of this project too, because we see their signature moves in it!

As was unfortunately common in this era, there are racist and derogatory images included in the article and cartoon. I have included them in this entry because I feel strongly that it is inappropriate to cut them and not recognize the bigotry present.

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Human Jitterbugs Are Models…

For Dancing Insects In an Animated Cartoon

Nobody ever knows what a jitterbug will do next. Even those masters of miracles, the Hollywood animated cartoonists, who cam make pigs dance and ducks talk, couldn’t figure out the jitterbugs.

“When the jitterbug craze hit the country,” says Cartoon Producer Walter Lantz, “we started out to make a jitterbug cartoon. But after making many hundreds of drawings, we realized it was impossible to follow the intricate steps conceived by these dizzy dancers unless we could work from actual jitterbugs in action.”

So Lantz rounded up jitterbug teams, turned them loose in front of a camera, then had animators study them on the movie screen. Even then, the timing problem was too difficult. Finally, each frame of action was projected and a tracing was made of it. Animators then drew the cartoon bugs over the tracings of the dancing teams.

Some of the human models and the cartoon scenes they inspired for “I’m Just a Jitterbug” are shown here. The cartoon required 12,000 individual drawings, but it takes only seven minutes to show it on the screen.