There is a poll over on Swingutah

I just talk to Skye and he is excited to come out. Let show him and Frida how much we love to lindy. Come to the workshops. Its going to be awesome weekend for Utah.

Hey, so if anybody else is trying to go up from Provo on Saturday, we'll be leaving rather before noon, and hitting the last two workshops and the evening dance.

Please take notes (mental at least) for me at the workshops everyone!! =D

i don't know about anyone else, but i wish i could go to logan this weekend.

ugh. i'm not in logan right now. ='( as if i didn't need a reminder...

props to skye and frida for bringing the spirit of lindy hop to life for me. Who knew that Ithaca, NY and Sweden would be the birthplaces of such inspiration for me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26_VqCRZebw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7qFFjXvy-M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1EWx_abK34
Frida & Skye (the last couple in the rotation) at ULHS 2005 -- Medium Tempo finals

Shoot, i'm going to try to sleep now.

I wasn't being sarcastic about Frank Manning. I'd have quit dancing because of all this modern "greatness" that makes me want to puke, except for what I learned from him.
What Manning told me changed my life. I have nothing but respect for him. It was a shot at something else.
I forget I have to beat points with a hose to get them across to the people on this forum.

And because you want to go, bobthemoo, means jack to the rest of this depopulated club. Either don't schedule a dance to begin with or don't cancel it mid-week.
And it's a poor decision, from a business standpoint. But our marketing and sell sucks, and that's partially my fault.

"Bags": if these dancers are so great, what's the reason to take offense as "piss [on a parade]"? I must be out of my mind if I can't see the obvious reasons why these people are so "great." If I'm yawning, man, I must know nothing about dance. if it's all its cracked up to be, why do you care what some embittered amateur has to say about it?
I'm sure the arthur miller vanilla style is a white man's fantasy. but it doesn't sell to me, and I can't sell it to others. sorry.

So here is the thing I can understand how spencewebb would be frustrated by the dance being canceled. If I wasn't going up to Logan because I couldnt afford or wasnt interested in going to a workshop then I would want to be able to attend a BYU dance as well.

On the other side of things I think Justin did the right thing both weeks by canceling the BYU dance and here are the reasons I think he did the right thing:
1. Utah as a state has not been a very united swing state and I feel that Logan often feels more left out then other cities in Utah because they are so far away from the rest of us. So canceling the dance shows Provo support of the event,
2. Even though we would have roughly the same number give or take ten people come to the BYU dance it would be a tough dance to run because many of the people who help the dance run attend the larger events such as ULX and HN.

As far as the workshop gos even though I feel I have got more from other workshops I went to this last summer and even last HN was better as far as the instruction I feel I got tons of things fixed in my basic swing out and I learned some new concepts as well. It all comes back to one thing life is what you make of it so you might as well have a good one and like life a workshop is what you make of it as well. you can show up expecting to learn nothing and accomplish that or you can show up and try to dig into what is being taught even if you feel the teacher is poor at teaching or you dont want to learn their style there are other things to learn at a workshop and sometimes its not about what you learn sometimes its about helping others learn [Emoticon not found] there really isnt a reason for the smilly glasses I just wanted to put them there.

If by "arthur miller" you mean "arthur murray", then let's all compare this vid (except for at 2:46 which rocks my world)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SGvd5tseZY

to what we've seen of skye's and frida's dancing. Arthur Murray is an interesting case. I don't have a problem with his whiteness or with his dance skills (cuz he has plenty in his own realm). I do appreciate his effort (an adept one too) to bring a vernacular dance -- such as the collegiate shag in this case -- to the masses. He's just really stiff. I also don't see much reason to put skye or frida, individually or collectively, on the same side of the spectrum as Mr. Murray, but please, everyone, describe the similarities. Frida and Skye's connection with the original Harlem dancers (such as Manning, Miller, Hampton, Sullivan, Minns [through the rhythm hot shots], and others i don't know thanks to Herrang) is too strong, consistent, and apparent in my mind. Another thing that is funny for me to try to imagine is them doing c. shag or balboa or even smooth-style lindy. Other than Skye's apparent fascination with the over-rotated swingout (which i believe is quite unique to Dean Collin's and a few of his pupils in LA), they're too entrenched in the spirit of harlem renaissance dancing. If the videos i posted above don't illustrate that, i can post others. Those above are just some of the more salient ones for me (i.e. minnie's moochers in 1999 or Harlem Hot Shots at the Basie Centenial Ball or need i say MADDOG!!). The list can go on if anyone wants it [Emoticon not found] thanks everyone for bringing these examples to mind.

g

Back in October, I chose to go to one of the smaller classes, since I hoped there would be a little more personal attention and didn't get much out of it. I suppose I should go to a few more workshops with a different mindset/preparation, and practice Gumby's room reading techniques.

As for putting on a dance without many of the hardcore dancers in town, I don't see how it could be done. You need a room, a DJ, people to help with equipment, people to teach lessons, and enough people out on the floor to make less confident dancers feel a little more comfortable about trying to dance. If you're stuck in ptown and want to dance, volunteer to DJ and/or teach lessons. No guarantees that will get you the other required puzzle pieces of a scheduled room and BYU official presence, but it will make the schedulers job easier.

As for rooms, I really miss the KMB. Nice fresh air, reasonably good visibility, and great regularity of location make it a lot easier for people to come back. Aside from hiding in the middle of the SFH or the RB, are there any other options that we should be looking into?

so one thing ben from logan was telling me that i found interesting was that many teachers that come from out of town are frustraited by utah when they come into town because we dont tend to stay for all the classes at a workshop and we just tend to pick and choose what we go to i can see why that might be a reason that we may not be gleaning as much as could be possible from our local workshops. if you miss the begining lesson alone then you miss what the teacher is setting you up to learn and many little things that will help you grasp the teachers style

the larger part of the Utah dancers are just at a different level then most places. It is hard to teach a lot of new concepts and ideas in a workshop setting here in Utah. If a lot of you feel like every time you go to a workshop you keep getting the basics drilled thru most of the workshop, that should tell you something. It's always been like that here.. but it's like that in other scenes as well.. in workshop settings that is. Something to think about.. I am going by the master's classes I have attended here and what has been taught.

That is a topic for a private conversation. In general most scenes have a wide mix of beg/intermediate dancers. So the classes are catered to their level. That makes sense in my book. But it is frustrating for the more advanced dancers who feel like they get shortchanged. The scene with the more advanced dancers I personally have been to is Seattle.A great place to learn and be inspired by other dancers just by being on the same dance floor with them. During workshop weekends it gets watered down due to the mass of out of towners that come in. If you are looking to improve in your dancing find dancers that are at a higher level than yoursel, challenge yourself to imitate some things they do and learn from them or just watch them and become a move burglar! ha ha ha ha!! that's what i do. Most of them don't care.. a very few will get annoyed but the majority don't care. Most advanced dancers are open to discussing anything you want to talk about with them when it involves dance and technic.. they are big nerds about dance just like most of us.
what I think is sad is that we have these great teachers like Sky, frida, Steven Mitchell and Ria, Mike Faltesek, and Ryan B, come out and they never really teach any really advanced concepts.. in other words they never really teach their full potential. I think Mike and Casey did an excellent job at teaching a really solid class with some great foundational skills and some advanced skills as well.. they were also lots of fun. In my opinion Utah is coming along quite nicely, it's advancing at a good speed and there are a lot of really dedicated dancers who are hungry for more all the time.. But if we spend 9 months out of the year learning from the few elite dancers we have like Jeremy Weight, Shane and Juiie, and Ryan Martensen, oh and Thomas L (blues man) from provo.. we would improve in our dancing a lot more and a lot faster so by the time you get the rockstars at the end of the year when BYU and USU bring them out.. we can all be at a higher level and they can teach at a higher more challenging level... It's what happenned in Ithaca with Sky, and the Moochers.. and also Seattle and Jackson Street.. Utah has tons of potential I can see it now more than ever.. we just need to put our pride aside and come together as a collective scene so everyone can flourish and benefit from it.

Word. Now we can add Kevin to that list of elite dancers. I learned some sweet stuff from him at lessons on Tuesday. Give me more!

Wow. Seriously spencewebb, it seems like you have some very, very strong feelings about many things. I've re-read a number of your posts on this forum, and I was blown away by how strongly you feel about certain topics. Here's the thing: a majority of people don't share your feelings (for example most the world of swing dancers enjoys Skye and Frida. Case in point: ALHC). I'm glad you have a venue to share such feelings, but come on. Doesn't it feel a little out of place for you to be attacking so many people because you feel different than them. This behavior has never a:solved any problems or b:helped anyone see your point of view. I really enjoy everyone's point of view (especially those different than mine), but let's be constructive.

In response to Hot Chocolate and Gumby and our Utah scene: I also am really glad to see the Utah scene come along. We have really made great strides since I started dancing here, and I think there are so many people who have contributed to make the scene what it is. When it comes to the people coming to workshops, one of the problems that has steadily been an issue is the number of college scene people with not enough money. I sure wish I could have afforded all of Harlem Nights, but I couldn't. I would love to be able to attend the Wednesday workshops with Shane and Julie, but I'm constrained by my provo locale. That being said, I would really enjoy seeing all of the BYU folk having and attending workshops. Unfortunately I can't imagine the Swing Prez. having that kind of time to set things up. I look forward to seeing how Shane and Julie's workshops progress, I think they have alot of potential.

I just go there for the food... and the company.