Did You Ever Notice?
The Balboa Rendezvous was this past weekend! Big congrats to Joel and Alison (http://2plyswing.com) for organizing a great workshop! (And everything was on time!). I also was fortunate enough to take a class from them in the beginners' track and I have to say they're fantastic teachers. Not sure how Alison is able to talk and smile at the same time for the entire class. That's talent! (or more accurately, that's really showing a great joy for teaching!) . If an opportunity ever comes up to take a class from them, I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend it!

That being said...

A lot of people were surprised to see me taking all the beginner balboa classes.

"I've seen you balboa before."

"What do you mean? You can balboa .. just the other night ... "

"Oh that's good... you're refining your fundamentals eh ? Because I've seen you do your balboa and it's really good ..."

Even Sheri and our close friend Jenny Kim were telling me to take the intermediate (possibly even advanced) track. My gut instinct was that I needed to get into the beginner track. Because, well.. I can't bal. (Jenny and Sheri are just really good follows and can follow any kind of balboa).

I did take the first intermediate class (more to appease Sheri and Jenny). I lasted four rotations. Enough for me to realize I didn't belong there.

So how had I survived? How had I disguised my Balboa up to that point?

<Dark Secrets Of A Lindy Hopper>: ominous music: dun dun duuuuhnnn
My balboa was really just East Coast Swing moves with a few balboa basics thrown in. (Laura Maloy of Matt and Laura from Austin, Texas, even came up with the term "Jitter-Bal" for me!). (By the way, Matt and Laura are also very good teachers! I thoroughly enjoyed my class with them).
</Dark Secrets Of A Lindy Hopper>

Anyhow, that got me thinking.

I then realized ...you know, for a really long time, my Lindy Hop was actually the same thing meaning that I knew the Lindy basic, a few variations (inside turn, outside turn, texas tommy). But everything else in my "Lindy" was just East Coast Swing moves ...

I then realized.. you know, I think I'm really still just an East Coast Swing dancer at heart as A LOT of my dancing was still based on East Coast Swing..

I then realized .... well, you get the picture. And there's our segue into today's article:

"Did you ever Notice?"
( subtitled "Did you ever Realize?"
  (subtitled "Did you ever?"
    (subtitled "Real Random Thoughts
      (subtitled "Nested parentheses in an article? This guy is a computer science dude fo sho!"
      )
    )
  )
)

*cue intro music*

Did You Ever.... (Random Thoughts By Ben Yau)

• Did you ever notice that Collegiate Shag is just an East Coast Swing basic that is two-hopped? (meaning two-stepped and hopped on each step)
  
  
• Did you ever notice that sugar pushes are just an East Coast Swing basic in a slot (and instead of a rockstep for the women they swivel forward, and the last triple step they go back?)
  
  
• Did you ever WONDER why the East Coast Swing basic is done in 6 counts even though most music is in 8 counts?
  
  
• Did you know that for a long time my Lindy Hop dancing really was just east cost basic moves with Lindy Hop basics thrown in ? I know I mentioned this already but it's a lead in to my next point:
  
  
• Did you know that in the 2000 American Lindy Hop Championships American Showcase Division Finals, Sheri and I, even though we placed 3rd, did not do one Lindy Basic in our spotlight dance? (One sharp-eyed judge DID notice. Sing Lim from Singapore, who had placed us second to last whereas most judges placed us 2nd through 4th, had said something along the lines of, "You guys have great connection and dance well, but you didn't do one swingout. And this is a Lindy Hop competition"). (Good point too by the way)
  
  By the way, Count The Number Of Lindy Swingouts For Yourself if you'd like to satisfy your own curiosity!
  

More Random Thoughts: (still by Ben Yau)

• Did you ever notice that many songs sounds like 'Fever'?
  
  
• Did you ever notice that in swing dancing, though it seems women move a lot more, it's the guys who usually need to change shirts?
  
  
• Did you ever wonder if people with two left feet dance twice as well as those of us with one left foot?
  
  
• Did you know that once someone asked me: "Hey.. how do you do that syncopation thing?" and I replied "What syncopation thing?" and they said "You know, when you move your left foot there and then right foot there?" and I replied "Err... you mean walking?"
  
  
• Did you ever notice that Sheri's smile can get REALLLLLY big? (it's the first thing I noticed about her and the reason I went to ask her to dance in the first place)
  
  
• Did you ever notice that swivels is just like double-timing that tag move but with extension?
  
  
• Doesn't that make you wonder then why the tag move gets a lousy rep?
  
  
• Did you ever think that if swivels made noises it'd be similar to that "DOINK DOINK" sound effect used in the "Law & Order" TV series when the scenes change location?
  
  
• Did you know that someone once described my footwork as follows: "OH yeah... he's doing a kick-ball-change ... *pause* .... without the kick .... *pause* ... and the ball-change." (Our good friend Jenny Kim had overheard this conversation from two guys watching me and Sheri dance).
  
  
• Did you ever have a moment where you mind told you to lead one thing but your body lead something else?
  
  
• And were you able to cover for it by saying you just wanted to try a new groovy move and figured since she was the best follow there you figured you'd try it on her?
  
  
• Did you know that the above line rarely ever works?
  
  
• Did you ever wonder if I just have too much dang time on my hands?
  
  
• Did you ever think it would be cool to invent a watch that could be worn on the back of the hand AND get it to be high fashion to wear many of these at one time JUST so one day you could go up to someone doing this and say to them, "Hey, you have too much time on your hands!"
  
  
• Did you ever want Julius Yang to wear an orange shirt just so everyone would start calling him "Orange Julius" ?
  
  
• Did you know he's probably heard that joke many many times?
  

Hope you had a good weekend folks!