I've been thinking about this for a while -- the original date on the post is February 25, and it's now March 20. I was struggling with what I wanted to say, and how I could say it, so much so that I all but stopped writing about dance for the last couple weeks. Anyway, one night, about a month ago, my dance partner exclaimed suddenly, "I need to trust my follows more!" Partner dancing involves a lot of trust, even when you don't think of it as such. As leads, we have to trus

There are a metric fuckton of philosophical posts about following out there. I've been thinking about my own understandings ever since one of the raddest lindy hop follows I know, Jenna Applegarth, posted a mega post a while back. I couldn't be typing them without the thoughtful conversation I had with Cindy Lyons (Tampa) and Avery Finn (Denver) in the wee hours of the morning after Lindy Diversion this past weekend. Credit where credit's due. I'd like to suggest that when li

Ok, if that title sounds incredibly boring and dry -- I get you. Registration forms aren't something too many dancers think too hard about too frequently. However, I have special training in form development as a Professional Data Gatherer, and I feel an obligation to help other organizers build better forms. This post is a small recap of part of a talk I gave at LindyCon: Minneapolis and at Winter Blues 2016. Once you've got an attendee convinced that they want to come to yo

Imagine the most masculine dance you can. What does it look like? Who do you envision doing it? What words come to mind for masculine movement. Often, what I hear are the following words: sharpness in both angles and movement speed, largeness/openness in posture (taking up space), pelvic movements, and chest isolations (other than shimmies). Does the image you conjoured look anything like this? I don't think anyone would argue with me when I say that Dexter Santos dances in a

It's no secret: I love competing. For me, it is an opportunity to push myself harder, and to push my friends harder, and to push all of us to push the artform of blues. It's an opportunity to be inspired and to inspire and show each other how we understand the blues. In terms of how we compete, and what leads to someone winning, there are two parts to competing: technical prowess, and gettin' nasty. These two things can pull at each other and create a tension for judges. Tech