October

Cambridge Lindy Exchange

September

Workshop & Tea Dance

Air Force Ball performance
  
Trip to Germany, Italy & France

August

Gothenburg Lindy Exchange

Copenhagen Workshop

Liv and Maarten’s visit

Busy Tuesdays

At the moment, Tuesday evenings can end up being quite cramped, between playing cricket for Cav and performance trainings with CLH, but last week was something else. It turned out my team had three games scheduled on the same evening (needless to say we could only complete one).  This caused quite a bit of confusion and bemusement, particularly for the teams we didn’t end up playing. The good news is we won the game we did play, and went to 7 wins from 8 games in the League. After the game, Lotte and I headed to The Snug to hear Torben Rees Trio perform again (I recommend getting a hold of Torben’s first CD, by the way). As usual we had a bit of a dance in the tiny space between the band and the tables  — if you have Facebook here’s a link to a video posted by James.

Reasons Herräng Sucks

1. The limo service is expensive.
2. You get tired, sweaty, and stinky.
3. It’s hard to sleep.
4. In real life people aren’t quite as into Lindy Hop as seems necessary.
5. As soon as you leave, you want to go back.

Grrrrr…

Emma Ball

We attended our second ever Cambridge May Ball on Monday night. The troupe was booked to perform at 2am, so we had a lot of time to kill, about 1 and a half hours of which was taken up by standing in line for food at one of the several hamburger/crepe stands that seem to be at every ball. This left us a little bored, so I decided to take part in a juggling demo (involving one of my co-workers as I later learnt). That’s a bread-stick in my mouth, by the way.

The performance went over really well. There’s a quick change where the girls run off and get out of their Charleston outfits, so this picture is of the boys having a bit of a shim-sham battle to Darktown Strutters Ball.

Afterwards we conducted a class. The room was really beautiful, and it was only a slight challenge to think of steps that work well for the girls in high heels and ball gowns.

Dancing at The Snug

As promised, here’s a video clip of me dancing last Sunday night at The Snug in Cambridge with Maria. Colin Hazel is playing ‘I Can Give You Anything But Love’. James Bush is the cameraman.

Outdoor pursuits

Things have started to pick up a bit for Cambridge Lindy Hoppers as far as social dancing goes. Last weekend we decided to exploit all this nice weather and hit Parker’s Piece (a park in central Cambridge) armed with a stereo and some snacks. These photos were taken by Graham Stratton. Then on Friday we hit Jazz@John’s en masse (there must have been 25 of us) to stun the crowd, and it worked. A lot of people came up to us and asked us where they could learn. More importantly, we had fun. In other news, the cricket season has started and this year I’m captaining Cavendish during the week and playing for Cottenham again on the weekends. I started well with the bat, making 31 not out off about 15 balls in a practice game at Cottenham, and then made 32 (5x4s, 1×6) in the firsts on Saturday. Unfortunately it was a losing cause however, with our guys bowling and fielding badly on a very fast ground to see Doddington make a whopping 360 off 45 overs. Then a friendly game for Cavendish against Blackheath on Sunday was a success despite our loss. We were missing at least 4 of our regular experienced players, and had a host of guys who’d never played together (or never played before) so we used the opportunity to give everyone a bowl and a bat. Blackheath batted first and made 205 from their 40 overs, and we were all out for 143 after a spirited start and some middle order defiance. Even though we lost, we did well to keep them to so few runs, and definitely put in some good individual performances with the bat . The Cavendish season-proper starts next week, so we’ll see what happens when it counts.

Sponsor Me!

On Saturday the 17th of March, I’m going to be taking part in a dance marathon. 8 hours of non-stop swing dancing, all in the aid of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. So, I know what you’re thinking. Why am I telling you, the Internet, about this spectacular dance charity event? I’m glad you asked. I’m telling you because you can be involved even if you can’t be there, just by sponsoring me! Donating online is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to sponsor the event. The Cystic Fibrosis Trust will receive your money faster and, if you are a UK taxpayer, an extra 28% in tax will be added to your gift at no cost to you. At present there is no cure for cystic fibrosis, but the fautly gene has been identified and doctors and scientists are working to find ways of repairing or replacing it. One of the main objectives of the CF Trust is to fund this work.

5 things meme

Catherine Howell tagged me today for a meme that requires me to post 5 things I think you probably wouldn’t know about me, and then tag 5 more bloggers. I don’t actually usually participate in these things, but this time I was so annoyed that I had forgotten my login details to my Educause blog that I set about hacking back in to my own account, and lo and behold I made it. So here goes.

1. When I was 12, I went trekking in Nepal.
2. I suffer from labyrinthitis, which has brought a new appreciation for a sense we rarely think about: balance. Nobody can see the effect of this illness.
3. I’ve been to the USA 14 times in 14 years. The last time I was there was 2003. Most of these trips have been work-related, and I want to go back this year because it seems like such a long time ago that I was there.
4. I’ve lived a double life since the early 1990s, as a member of obscure online communities such as The Foothills, Brainstorms and GCS. None of these communities has a special topic, they’re there for online discussion, and I met some of my best friends at them.
5. Tonight I’m performing in the opening night of a dance show called ‘Elemental’ at the ADC theatre here in Cambridge, and I’ll perform every night this week, finishing on Saturday.

I tag dogpossum, Vike, Dozka, Barrington and Swingsuz.