If you didn’t make it to ILHC 2010, I am very sorry, because it was one of the greatest competition weekends I feel the scene has had in a few years. Not everyone was able to make it this year – Frida, Zacke, Sharon Davis, Juan, Dax, and Sarah to name a few – but there was still an amazing showing of people. There were so many inspiring moments that I’d have a hard time thinking that anyone could walk away without the feeling of “WOW.”
People brought their A-Game and that’s all there is too it. In many ways, I didn’t feel like the placement matter….everybody rocked.
Here are some favorite moments:
Solo Charleston Contest
My dance partner kicked ass and won! Not only that, but he had someone do a front flip over his head, and he still won. That’s gotta say something!
Invitational Jack and Jill Lindy – Todd Yannacone & Annie Trudeau
There are many reasons to include this – like the fact they won – but the reason I do is because of what Todd said before he went out. During Skye’s and Laura’s dance, Skye brought Laura and himself over to the Baltimore Section of the floor. Todd smiled and said that was a cheap shot. Then, when it was Todd’s turn, he not only took the SAME “cheap shot”, but then blew that shot out of the water! He went to the Baltimore corner, showed Annie off to the judges, then to the far corner, and then ran by all the the instructors sitting on stage. Hahaha….very, very amusing.
Invitational Jack and Jill Lindy – Stefan Durham & Jo Hoffberg
The dances I have with Stefan are like none other. He is super creative and I dig his lines. Fun Fact: he drew me in the J&J at ILHC in 2008 as well!
ILHC 2010 – Showcase – Max Pitruzzella & Annie Trudeau
There are sooooooo many things that can be said about this gorgeous routine. The energy, their creativity, their musicality, their aerials, their….. everything. Congratulations to both Max & Annie on their win.
ILHC 2010 – Showcase – Andrew Thigpen & Karen Turman
They killed it!!!!!!!!! Andrew and Karen ARE the spirit of Lindy Hop, according to me. They bring so much energy, heart, and love to the dance, it’s inspiring. I am so honored to have made it into Lindy Hop History this way. For me, this dance will be one to stand the test of time. If only two clips of lindy hop were to survive an apocalypse, I hope it’d be Hellzapoppin’ and this one.
ILHC 2010 – Classic Lindy – Thomas Blacharz & Alice Mei
After they came off the floor, I told them I thought they were the couple to beat. What an amazing job they did!!! The choreography is musical and intricate, they performance is stunning, and frankly, the just danced the shit out of that routine!
ILHC 2010 – Classic Lindy – Kevin St. Laurent & Jo Hoffberg
I am adding myself to the list because I am super proud of what Kevin and I did. This is our first Classic piece and the reviews we’ve been given were pretty spectacular. What was most noteworthy to me about this performance was that I felt like we had SO MUCH TIME while performing. Normally I have to think about the choreography and focus on the details while performing, but here, I had time to look at the audience, the judges, and Kevin. I just felt like…..it was effortless. That was a first for me.
ILHC 2010 – Pro Champions Strictly Lindy – Finals
I thought this was a great showing for the pros AND it was a return to the old school. Kevin & Carla reunited to kick some ass (they took 3rd), Skye and Naomi danced together, and Todd and I competed (we were partners many years ago). It was an old school battle.
And Finally, the Yes Dance!
Yeah, this isn’t the one that was done, but I can’t find a link to it. If you find it, please let me know!!!
Carla Heiney, Laura Keat, and I threw together a very fun performance for Southern Belle. We are dancing to “Black Coffee” by Wingy Manone. If you recognize some of the choreography it’s because I sampled from Al & Leon’s Shim Sham, The Big Apple, and The Tranky Doo.
Kevin and I finally decided that we are staying in Gotenborg, Sweden until next week and will fly to Kiev, Ukraine on Friday.
Currently we are staying at Jane’s house (she is one of the organizers of Swingin’ in Spring which is the event Kevin and I came for) and it’s quite cozy. Kevin and I are still going to the studio to train and we’re still eating out. In someways it feels like a very plain existence, but in other ways I almost feel “normal.”
On a side note, I am rather proud of myself. I very rarely have the opportunity to train the way I have been, for this many days in a row, and you know what? It feels great! ARRRR (*shaking fist in the air)….if my travel schedule was different I could train more…..hehe, or I’d have to come up with better excuses =) Nonetheless, It’d been great to regularly have access to the type of facility I currently do.
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On a differnet note, Kevin and I went to the Liseberg Amusement Park yesterday and had a blast!! We saw rode all the roller coasters, got slightly sick, ate a bunch of candy, and then danced to a 15 piece big band on a real dance floor. Fun fact for you: apparently Sweden has the largest per capita consumption of sugar. Young or old, they love their sweets.
I jumped in two of these pictures so it wasn’t weird that Kevo was taking pictures of people with ginormous candy. Wow, right? Here are some other fun pictures from our adventure:
“Captain Morgan” Jo outside Liseberg.
Finally, here is our “commercial” for the best ride at the park. The Kanonen Roller Coaster goes from 0-70km in 2 seconds! Wow-ee-wow-wow.
Ok, so even though I am “trapped” in Europe, there are still a lot of great things about this trip.
1. I am staying in a nice B&B where there is internet, my dance partner, and Juan & Sharon.
2. We are within walking distance to a dance studio that has mirrors and sound systems in the various rooms, and there is time during the day we can use it.
3. Because I have internet access, I have had the resources to work on my website. Yeah!!
4. I found some great videos online:
Lin Yu Chun Sings Whitney Houston’s ‘I Will Always Love You’
Wow-e-wow-wow. This is made better by the fact that his hair is so awful! But man, what a voice!
Beyonce singing “At Last” for the Obama’s first dance.
This makes me proud to be an American. I showed this clip to Juan and I was in tears afterwards. Beyonce is wickedly talented, has a stunning voice, and is singing live for the US’ first black president. What an outstanding moment in history (and entertainment).
On a completely different note, the Best DUI Ever!
As some of you might be able to tell, my website has had a make-over!!
I was planning on being in Pittsburgh and San Francisco (not at the same time) this week, but instead, I am here in Gotenborg, Sweden. This means I have had more “spare” time on my hands than I was expecting. Since Herrang last August, I’ve been meaning to do a big overhaul of my site, but didn’t have the knowledge and time to do so. One book, many help sites, and eight months later, I can now do some basic wordpress stuff =).
What have I done, really?
For one, I am using the Jessica-Fletcher Redux theme and previously I was using Pressrow. I liked the flexibility that I had with pressrow, but I much prefer the look for the JFR. Just check out some of the goodies in my sidebar (look up and to the right)!! Now, let me just say I thought twitter was just silly, butnowihaveoneandIjustLOVEit. Haha, you too, can now follow along with Jo as she tweets her way around the lindy world *big cheesy smile!
Secondly, I have a new gallery. It’s very time consuming to set up, or at least the way I did it, but I adore the thing! It’s called NextGEN Gallery written by Alex Rabe and it’s awesome. I am sure there are other plugins that are as good as this one, but I don’t know about them (so I can’t tell you about them). Check out My Photo Page and take a look! Oh yeah, the first picture will open, and can still be downloaded, but for some strange reason I cannot get the gallery to show it. Oh well.
Finally, my video page. This has take me HOURS. I probably spent an hour and a half today and 4 hours (intermittently) yesterday finding a plugin I liked, installing, learned how to use it, and then found/created content for it. I am using the plugin Tubepress and I really like how thumbnails have been created, you click on them, and can watch them in one place. Now, I know that isn’t outrageous by any means, but this is the type of plugin I’ve been dreaming of for months, and I finally found it. l
“So why did it take you so long to get it set up?” Well, I wanted to use my videos from my Vimeo page so I put in my user name and the plugin pulled the information off the web, and BOOM, it was working. Pretty cool, eh? Unfortunately, Vimeo stopped playing videos, and I am not sure why. Maybe it’s because I am in Europe? Maybe it’s my internet connection…..whatever the reason, I didn’t want to take my chances. The great thing about Tubepress is that you can use your vimeo or youtube account so with a few clicks of a button, my youtube video’s came up and there lies the time-consuming part. I could tell Tubepress to go find videos on youtube that had “Jo Hofberg, Lindy hop” as the tags, but then there are duplicates and rahrahrah, so instead you can have a place list embedded into your website. Love the idea, but I had to make the play list. I had read that you can’t reorder the play list once you’ve got it up so I meticulously searched for videos starting back in 2001 and did the best I could to mentally go in order of competitions and performances. Then I found out you can reorder it on youtube, just not on Tubepress. Gar. After finding the videos I had to save them to a playlist and then tell Tubepress where that play list was located. Once doing all the legwork, putting in the code was simple…..there was just a lot of stuff to do before getting to that point. The long of the short of it is that this is an awesome plugin and it was well worth my time to search out those videos.
So yeah, those are the three big changes on my website. Let me know what you think about the site, if you liked the old one more, and what plugins do you use that you really like. Thanks!!
To truly appreciate this next clip, you will need to be familiar with the dance scene from Hellzapoppin and have some general idea about HOW much time this video must have taken to create. Enjoy and pass it on!!
Thank you Clay Animation Network for doing this. The Clay Animation Network (C.A.N.) is a traveling animation school based out of Seattle, WA. (and presently travels as far as Dallas, Texas). Students (of all ages) who take classes through C.A.N. work in teams to operate a digital camera, construct sets and characters, compose unique stories, and add sound.
