music from 11/20 in Williamsburg

this one was from the once-every-six-weeks graduation dance in williamsburg; wendy runs 6-week courses in three levels of basic lindy hop, and this is the party at the end. while she's got some regulars who are comfortable social dancing, and several folks from the wider scene usually show, the dance is beginner-heavy. i try to keep the music easy. this time i got first half, which meant keeping it even easier. as often as not, this leads to playing lots of stuff that was "top 40" in the knoxville scene back when i was starting out...

Shout Sister Shout - Lucky Millinder 140
Potato Chips - Slim Gaillard & his Shintoists 140
Swingin' On Nothin - Jo Stafford 125
Solid as a Rock - Count Basie 136
Ja-Da - The Famous Castle Jazz Band 152
My Baby Likes To Bebop - Ella Fitzgerald 140
Everybody Eats When They Come To My House - Cab Calloway 154
South Of The Border - Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra 146
Let's Do It - Billie Holiday With Lester Young 152
Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop - Lionel Hampton & His Orchestra 136
Winter Weather - Benny Goodman 156
I Got The Sun In The Morning - Artie Shaw 138
Baldhead - The Fabulous Treniers 139
Yes Indeed - Dick Haymes With Harry James & His Orchestra 159
Now You Has Jazz - Louis Armstrong 172

oops

oops 1: jesse, nearby dancer shauna, and i attempted to carpool for dancing at william & mary last night. we had a a location written down, but we got there and found... no one. still waiting for word on where the mix-up was. we had a nice time eating appetizers and dessert at a local bistro instead. but it wasn't dancing.

oops 2: 11:00 p.m. is NOT a good time for lesson planning. not if lesson planning involves dancing and if the room currently featuring the most open floorspace happens to be above a school kid's bedroom. hopefully, one oops isn't enough to create a permanently hostile neighbor...

lines

i want better lines.

i'm not really sure how to go about getting 'em. best guesses = grab a private with someone who looks great, and get over it and start using video more to get instant feedback on what i look like. a lot of photos i see of myself these days have this slightly awkward look that makes me cringe a little, and i want to get rid of it. here, i'd say it's mostly just too much turnout and stiff looking arms? and i keep seeing weird amounts of tension around the neck, too. but anyway. yet another set of stuff to work on. (forget looking fat or making weird faces in photos... dancing's given me a whole new set of things to pick at myself for!)

any good tips out there?

btw, this one's from the swing dance competition in williamsburg on saturday. jesse and i came in third. the whole weekend was an awesome time -- if this was a mini-exchange, i can't wait to see vblx. the photo was taken by andy nishida.