HDC - day 3, Swingin in the Rain

Classes today were great, especially the last class with Hasse & Marie, which was all about feeling and connection, not so much about fancy moves. It pissed down with rain all day, however. I've become addicted to this thing they have here called banana bread (it's like a really juicy sponge cake with lots of banana and walnuts in it). Yummy... Speaking of which, I'd better go out dancing now as well as eat something. It's past midnight. Some people are resting. I've just been to Folkets Hus, where Lennart interviewed the old timers, like Dawn Hampton. She was amazing to listen to.

Swing dogs chose winning flavour at the Ice Cream Parlour

At tonight's meeting, Lennart introduced 3 dogs on stage and their owners. (participants at the camp who brought dogs). He then proceeded to say that the dogs were to be let loose on stage and run up to the bowl containing the yummiest ice cream. It was the funniest thing I've seen! The dogs of course, had no idea they were so funny. The winning flavour was..........
Pistacio!

Dawn Hampton

I went straight up to Dawn Hampton yesterday. She was sitting on the side watching the dancing. I kissed her cheek and said "You are wonderful, it's my first time here!" "ooooooh, you're in for a treat", she replied. I said: "EVERY word you say go straight to the heart! She was very moved by it, and I told her I'd seen her on DVD etc. I said she ought to write a book. I think I made her happy and it was great. I love the lady, she's all heart.

Yesterday, at the meeting, she said:
"Go home and tell your friends alllll about Herräng. And if you don't have any friends, tell your enemies!"

HDC, day 2 - First 3 classes

A photo from last night's meeting. Here are all the teachers for this week, dancing to the Muppet Show Theme song. Lennart has an eye for fashion, don't you think?

Well, today was first day of classes. We had 3 lessons with some free time in between, where I could have coffee and just hang out. The first class was taught by a Swedish couple, the second by Shane & Ruth from Australia (difficult...) and the last was taught by a French couple who were great, the best today in my opinon. After dinner (I had fish again), I filmed a short video with someone from the course so we would remember today's class.

Not much rest today unfortunately. Will go to the meeting again in 10 minutes. Then a crash course, or taster in something interesting. After that, social dancing until some ridiculous hour.

I feel I'm getting a little irritated when I don't learn quickly enough. I also hate people who say "do you have a problem with balance?". I've also now figured out when to shower, when to get up, and what to bring to different places. It's tricky here, since it's sometimes dark and people are asleep in here.

HDC, day 1 - Going Underground

Yesterday we drove from Malmö to Åkerholm. Karin, Maria and I were all pretty tired by the time we left at 6 pm. We then had many great philosophical discussions and sang Hasse å Tage songs on the way to my parents' house. When we arrived, we ate lasagna and had some red wine. Went to bed around 1 am. Set the alarm for 8 am today. Last night of proper sleep in awhile.

I woke up earlyish, a bit restless. Thinking about Herräng and what it will be like there. I think it's virtually impossible to imagine how it will be before you get there and see it for yourself. I just have this feeling it will be like going underground for three weeks: different people, different bed, different surroundings, different food, but most of all a different lifestyle - virtually no sleep, adrenaline rushing through your veins 24/7. Yes, "Going Underground" is what we're all about to do. See you guys back in the real world later.


Arrived at 3.30, checked in, paid for course. Everything is crazy but cool mayhem around here. There's 10 beds in our room, quite good. Spoke to a guy in my adjoining bed, Charles from Stockholm. He's been here for seven years in a row. Waiting for the first meeting tonight and first social dance. Food was great - fish. You get so much though...

My Happy Ending?

I was out in town with Sara yesterday. We watched Sex and the City at the movies, and since we're both huge fans, we loved it! Afterwards, we went to a bar and had a drink and talked for a long time - a really good, long heartfelt conversation, mostly about relationships. I have feelings for someone at the moment, but who knows. I need to focus on the dance.

Tom in America called. Right now, I feel like he's the closest friend I've ever had, although we've only known each other for six months. He says things like "If you ever need anything..", which was so nice. I'm really touched that people who aren't even in my family can be so nice and unselfish and giving, a safety net of sorts or a sturdy wall to lean on. I can't wait to go over there to dance and learn more.

1 day before take-off

I keep waking up very early, (like today at 4 am) or sleeping for ten hours. It varies. My body is kind of excited for many reasons and I'm probably a bit nervous about the Herräng experience. I'm not nervous for the dancing or anything. Probably just a bit worried that I will forget something important. I know now that my cats are taken care of and doing fine, which is very nice. My car is all set, I can relax there too. I've written the packing list. Can relax there too. I bought stuff in town. Phew.

Still need to wash today, do the physical packing, post some stuff, meet up with Sara, get instructions on Herräng.com, take out money, get a haircut, take rubbish out and water plants. I have everything written down carefully so not to forget anything, so it probably won't be a problem, but it will still be nice once we're actually in the car, on our way.

Herräng

Photographer: unknown

This week has been crazy busy with preparing for Herräng Dance Camp, where I'll spend the next three weeks in a bunk bed with hundeds of dancers. (We won't share the same bunk bed..) Stocking up on flu medication, painkillers and other useful stuff from the drugstore, a new bikini, some new dance pants etc. Trying to get everything sorted and ready here for Friday's departure. Maria Schilling and Karin will go with me in the car, and we'll make a stopover at my parents' on Friday night, leaving for Herräng, early Saturday morning.

It's been a year since my new life started. I'm excited and happy, and I want to just think of Herräng as a kick-off or a celebration of sorts. A celebration of everything that I want to be, and have become.

Let's dance. Shall we?

Spontaneous dinner

Yesterday I felt like cleaning, but again, I put it off. That is, until I got the excellent idea of inviting people over for dinner. People who have never been here before. Of course they are all dancers. Two of them, Karin and Maria are going with me up to Herräng. Mette and Micke are a couple from the dance. Kristina (the tall girl) is Mette's cousin. Olle is my favourite dancer and a great listener. All in all, a great combo! Olle brought wine so we were the only two drinking since the others were driving. We talked about deep stuff and had a good time while the rain poured down and there was a thunderstorm outside. Very cozy. "Describe yourself with 3 words", "What makes someone a good dancer", "What made you start dancing?" were three things that we talked about. Lovely lovely lovely. And as a bonus, I now have a semi-clean house.

Honestly, what does schnapps do to you?

Well, I hope the person sitting behind me bending over to take this wonderful photo of me had a good time. Oh lord. I look so hot. Not.

Herräng countdown and goodbye Kårhuset

OK, folks. I've simply been too tired and not focused enough to start thinking about Herräng do's and don'ts. Now, however, I have a few days to get everything ready: costumes for theme parties, sexy dress for blues night, fifty billion t-shirts and just about a zillion other things that I have to pack also. I also need to fix the car, because some lamp lit up today, which was pretty typical. When I go to Herräng, I'll try to blog regularly. In the meantime, I will enjoy the last dance at Kårhuset on Monday, and also will enjoy last time with friends afterwards in the pub.

Midsummer's in Föreberg

Föreberg. Yes, it exists. Actually there are two Förebergs quite closely situated to one another, and our GPS made us go to the wrong one. Nevertheless, Ingrid and I arrived there about an hour late. We had cookies and coffee first and then, later on, we had dinner with sill, meatballs, potatoes, the usual stuff. Oh, and the schnapps.

We also played a few silly games, and in my drunken state I had to be as huggable as possible and break a balloon. Quite nice.

No midsummer's with the dancers without dancing either, so plenty of that.

First Lindy Disaster, June 16th 2008

I never thought I would be this shocked to see myself caught on camera dancing. This clip made me feel slightly sick, but I know it's a good thing to film it and be objective. You see your mistakes more clearly. After 3 weeks in Herräng I'll do it again.

Luckily, I got to dance with Anton (who was the teacher for the Basic 3 course). He's great!! No matter how crap you feel, he is always happy and smiling, positive and encouraging. Again and again. Thanks to people like him, beginners turn into experienced dancers. Some people on the dance floor just save the ship from sinking. The goal, however, would ideally be to save myself from doing just that.

Ulf Carling & Co

Ulf Carling, and excellent drummer, comedian, vadeuville is also splendid dancer. He is of course Gunhild's brother. We took this shot outside when we were waiting for dances. Ulf, Maria, and Anders Elmqvist. Check out a funny (and fantastic) drum solo of his:

Stockamöllan

Will do a longer post this time with some various photos. I drove to Stockamöllan, situated between Eslöv and Höör. In the car with me were Anton, Anders Mannesson and Anders Malmberg. We had a good laugh! When we arrived at the sports field, we put up some tents. Ali (Anders Lindgren) also showed up with the big military tent in which loads of people were to sleep.

We then went to the festival site, really nicely situated by a pretty river. Gunhild Carling and her family were the hosts, and we saw alot of great jazz and swing, Ulf Johansson and Jan Lundgren as well as a lot of Gunhild herself in all her splendour. We came back quite late to the camp site, crammed seven people into my Golf for the 5 minute car ride, and set up a camp fire when we got back. It was cold out.

On Saturday the courses started. I was in Intermediate level. The courses were all held by members of the Harlem Hot Shots. Their founder, Lennart Westerlund (from Västervik, yay!) is a very cool man. He went across the Atlantic in the 80s, met up with people who had done the lindy hop a long time ago. They became quite obsessed with the thought of skipping everything they'd learned about jitterbug and rock n' roll dancing, and just starting from scratch with this dance. In short, they brought it over here in the 80s and it revived like nothing else, in the early 90s. I spoke to him after our first class and told him Tom Koerner said hello. Quite cool, he knew of him and Debra very well. Anyway, classes that first day were: Swingin at the Savoy, a bunch of quite easy moves that we knew from before, Harlems Special (best class ever!) I did it by mistake, it was meant to be for the advanced group. We did a routine with a cool jump in it. One of the dancing friends, Olle, told me: "Perfect!!" I was very excited about that. We went back to change, then came back for social dancing. Then we looked like this:

I found the blouse in a second hand store for 100 kr, totally awesome and vintage. I felt during the night as if I could do faster and faster songs, as time went by, by applying some small changes and tricks to the dancing.
Today, Sunday, we had 3 hours of lessons: Jig walks, foot work variation and at the end of it all, Lennart from the Harlem Hot Shots told us his facinating story, and how he brought the lindy back from America. He is also the founder of, and in charge of Herräng Dance Camp.

Ted arranged breakfast in the mornings, and on Sunday we had breakfast outside, quite nice!

Well, needless to say, we went back for more social dancing today before heading back home.

When we went back, I had a few cool fun girls as well as Anders M in the car with me. We went back around 10pm and my legs are aching like mad.

The Tango Journey, part 5

Yesterday I went to Lund with Rubén to be in the class and the practica afterwards. I can assure you, I have no words for how it felt to film this dance with him, and even to watch it afterwards. I come from a place where we only wear sneakers and sweatpants way too much, and it feels like I've gone through a transformation during the past year. I've never worn high heels in my whole life. Neither have I exercised nor danced really, let alone Argentine tango.

This was big deal for me. One of the highlights of my life I would say. There is a first time for everything. I even did my own stunts :). I started out in February, but I've only been to two social dances ever. Scary stuff.

Having said this, swing dancing is still my passion in life. I do like the contrast though, occasionally. The past two days have been totally unreal. I can't wait for dance camp now.... off off off I go.

Summer break, here we come!

Practised to dress up retro-style for today's graduation ceremony. I rarely wear lipstick, especially if it's called "Devil". Nonetheless, I now know what to do this weekend. Thank you Anna-Karin for doing my hair quickly but efficiently. Our 9th graders left us today. Marga, the principal always does individual speeches for each student leaving. It's very touching. Something else that was very touching was this letter and rose I got from Zena.


Here is a cute pic of my darlings who left us today. Good luck in your lives, and I really hope that you'll take everything we taught you and use it a way which is unique to you - You are all very special people. Love you.

The wow-factor

Guys and girls, I've had the most amazing day. I've danced with Rubén, learned alot of new things, had a few drinks in a soccer-crazed state downtown, but above all:
I FINALLY SPOKE TO TOM ON THE PHONE! It was really cool. In some weird way, I feel like I recognize him through the DVDs that I have. He was great great great, and I cannot even begin to tell anyone how cool it is to finally speak to someone whom you've never spoken to, but who knows most things there are to know about you. He does. I owe alot to him. Oh wow. *Huge adrenaline rush*

Tonight, when I say my prayers, I will start "Thank you God for Skype!"

Getting ready for Stockamöllan

Oh man, I've been so busy. Time really flies. Tomorrow is last day of school before summer holidays. Phew. It will be nice with a break, albeit a dance-craze. Madness starts on Friday when almost all the dancers from Lund and Malmö go to Stockamöllan to take classes between 10-15 (Sat & Sun), then afterwards, dance socially to live music from Sweden's top jazz acts. I will sleep in a huge military tent that Ali, (a friend whose real name is Anders Lindgren) is bringing. I don't know whether I'm driving or not yet. I hope a few of us can go together in a car, but I don't know yet. I bought my clothes, which is a big advantage. I think I'm all set. Just have to check for sleeping bag and buy something soft to put under it on the ground. Dancing, campfires, hot dogs, singing and a whole lotta swing awaits!!

Tango Journey (Journal), part 4

Today I took the last private lesson with Rubén. We danced a few dances, I felt stiff and dizzy and a bit weird. Nervous too because he is quite decisive when he wants me to do something right. Also I was nervous because I thought I was going to use the high heels. I didn't have time in the end. Anyway, we talked alot about being light as a feather (Me??! Light???! As a feather??) Did a few exercises where we were standing on one foot just brushing the other one along the floor lightly. Then one where we walked forward as if we were skiing, weight on one, light on the other. He talked alot about not using the legs to create energy but the center of your body. I had to tense other muscles today. He also told me to take proper steps and follow through, in ocho for example. He then showed me molinete backwards and it turned out I didn't keep my knees together after the backstep. He showed me some other moves bolero ?? connected with a gancho forwards, and sometimes you do it fast in a combination of moves. But the main idea was to really really listen to the signals, keep the weight on one foot and at all costs, keep the other one light as a feather.

He ended by showing me some stuff I could work on at home, regarding my balance which is a bit poor. Stand on the floor. Do a turn (quarter of a circle, half a circle and full turn) using your center for energy and keeping one foot lightly on the floor. Then switch. Next: Put one knee up, lift foot off floor a bit... do the airplane as in Bosu class... He said, keep dancing socially, and get practise now, and he told me we can film tomorrow. I will attend 2 classes and one practica with him in Lund. Will get a lift too which is really nifty.

The sixth sense

I sometimes have a very strong feeling about something. I have learned recently that I can usually trust my gut feeling. Today I have a few of those, and it's freaking me out. Good thing I have tango lesson later, and beer with people from work.

Water balloons

Today, I get paid to have my students throw water balloons at me. Splishin and a-splashin!

It's not just me

Apparently, I'm not the only one around here with a diehard passion for flavour.

Flea market

I spent an hour browsing Drottningtorget's flea market with Maria L yesterday. Very interesting. It intrigues me the amount of crap people have lying around. Nonetheless, one happy man walked home with a just-as-new mailbox. Another left the place with a potty. You never know what you might find.

Tango lesson etc

Hmmm... I tried thinking about what I was doing when I was dancing. This in itself is a bad idea. It's harder to relax. I got 3 dances with Ruben thank God. Because what came next wasn't as pretty. Danced with someone whose sweat was dripping all over and on me and on my hands. Honestly, I sweat too when do lindy (who doesn't??)but this was gross, since you're facing each other and since I'm so short. It was really disgusting, basically not my favourite experience.

Hoping for better luck on Tuesday and Wednesday's tango sessions. In the meantime, LINDYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY TOMORROW. Phew.

Excursion with Emma and Maria

Today's Shop-Till-You-Drop-For-Stockamöllan excursion turned out to be a fabulous one indeed. Maria, Emma and myself went to Myrornas and Uff, two of the biggest second hand shops in town, to pick up retro-style clothes for the Swing dance camp coming up in a week. I got a cute blouse and 5 skirts for about 350 kr. Not bad eh? Plus, it all looks great. Maria is an expert at this type of shopping. We shopped, we dropped, we learned.

The Tango Journey (journal) part 3

After our little excursion to a few second hand shops and a nice lunch at a cool café, I headed of to Jericho again for my lesson number 2. Ruben started by trying two dances again. He reminded me about my right arm and said that the left one was great now. We danced some more, before he proceeded to tell me about footwork and legs. We did ochos in place, walked forwards and backwards. What I should think about was:
*Knees together
*feet should always be in contact with the floor
*whatever foot is free from the weight, keep it light so you can do the next steps with it, whatever they may be.
*when you walk, keep feet in two straight lines.
*first the leg moves, then your weight shifts - don't use your hips.

We talked today, again, about being upright, maintaining good posture, not losing frame etc. It was cool also to realise that sometimes the man/leader waits for a good while before moving. When he stops my foot so I can do the ocho, I should stop my foot against his foot before moving it over, kind of in a decisive manner but slowly. It felt better today, but it's hard to feel progress this quickly. I can feel it in my knees though.

The Tango Journey, part 2

OK, I did it. I went dancing tonight, at Camarin, one of the many tango places in Malmö. How cozy it was, and the atmosphere was really nice and friendly. Rubéns father was there, and danced alot with me and taught me new things. Many great dancers there, and I did things I had no idea I could do. Before I knew it, I was half-lying down on somebody's body sideways, for example. Sounds weird? It was, but oh how cool. Best dancer was also the best singer. A man from Chile who was imprisoned there during the Pinochet regime, now residing here in Sweden. He was something else on the floor. I realised then what tango should really feel like. Oh lord. OH LORD. When he sang his songs, I had to stand in as a sound engineer, also when setting up the amps. If Rubén is not happy with progress tomorrow, he'd better blame his dad ;)

The tango journey, part 1

Today I took my first private lesson in Argentine Tango with Rubén. Natalia, his girlfriend and dance partner was also there with their baby. The plan is to have 3 lessons - one today, one tomorrow and the last one on Tuesday. In between, I will have normal tango class on Sunday for 1,5 hours, as well as maybe some social dancing tonight if I feel like it. I hope it will develop my follow skills and my balance.

Today, lesson 1, we talked about the upper body. Ruben danced 2 dances with me to see where we were at. He noted straight away that I let my right arm go behind my back (losing frame), so he told me to bring the arm up slightly, providing a stop for him, so we can connect better. Then we danced some more. Next thing he told me was to hold on to him a little firmer on the left hand side, but not too hard. We tried that, and all of a sudden I could feel everything much more clearly. We then talked about that the torsos should square up, and be parallel at all times. I had to do an exercise against the wall where I leaned against it and did ocho backwards and forwards walking in two straight lines, but keeping my torso squared up with the wall as I did it. We then did one dance where I had to put my hands on his chest, leaning forward and only using that energy to move forward or backward. Then one where we practised squaring up our torsos. I then had to think of a pole or a rope going through my body, keeping it upright. To visualize it, I had to walk across the room, keeping my posture upright. Then backwards. We did a thai-chi type song at the end, which was very cool, just feeling all the impulses before I move.

In short, for memory: Lean forward, don't let your right arm move behind your back, make sure you connect properly on the left hand side, square up all the time, and think of a rope going through your body to keep a straight posture, especially in the "molinetto" move, where the lead serves as a pole and you move around it.

Another BBQ photo

Here's another photo from the BBQ the other day, and Ingrid's nice cute house is in the background. I go to visit her quite often. I love her cute kitchen. Everything is kind of 50s style, and the original cupboards etc are still there.

Bellevuestock ´08

Well, the teacher (i.e. me) overslept by 2 hours. I was supposed to have everything set up ready to go at 8 this morning. I woke up at 8.25. Oops. I had to focus like never before and got things going by 9.10, only ten minutes behind schedule. All 40 kids sat in their seats just staring at me setting up sound system and instruments, dead silent. Quite cool, and very very rare indeed :)

Concert went amazingly well. Being a project leader is something I would probably be very good at. I like doing this sort of work.

Anyway, must must must clean up now. Kisses to all...

The short and the tall

Inspired by the photo from yesterday of the 2 Aris Allens, I realised it's been ages since I watched this video. Paul Simon is my God, if I ever believed in one. Isn't this fabulous? Even the shoes are white too...

On a serious note, dig that bass - oh yes!!

OK, time to shape up

I'll do some fun blogging to get my creativity going, and then maybe practise some shim-sham. The picture is from last night in Lund. It's me (a Swedish size 35) and a guy, Anders, who is 2.0 meters tall (size 47). We happen to have the same Aris Allen shoes, and it makes me laugh so hard every time I put my foot next to his.

Speaking of shim-sham, it looks like this:

Hibernating

Today, I just feel like lying down on my bed, and ignoring everything that goes on around me. Problem number one. Problem number two is that there seems to be nothing going on around me, nothing to ignore.

Today is not one of my better days.

But I know that things go up and down. Mostly up. I'm a positive spirit, although today, I simply don't have the energy.

Please, let things go my way for a week? Pretty please?

Summer is approaching

I have no idea what to do on Midsummer's yet. Would be nice to meet up with some of the dancers. But who knows?

As summer is approaching, so is my break. I am extremely sensitive to sounds and noises at the moment. Hopefully some proper swing music in Herräng will cure it. It's just the sound of slamming doors, and loud voices, alot of people screaming or talking at the same time... Sometimes we'll have 3 students playing 3 different distorted tunes on their cell phones simultaneously. Maybe someone in the adjoining apartment is also drilling in the wall at the same time. This, my friends, is really more than I take right now.

My favourite song

Here's my shot at Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours". I love this song.

BBQ at Ingrid's house

Yesterday we had a BBQ in Ingrid's garden in Lund. It was great fun. I only had the energy to do hot dogs though. We talked alot, and I even danced a bit, with Olle, Niclas and Krister. I even got some slow blues dancing. Me happy.

The perfect cartoon

I told someone that has helped me greatly in the process of beginner dancing about the feeling I have, that dancing, to me, now is like the perfect cartoon springing to life.

I started talking to someone else, when he after a brief moment interrupted and asked: "Tell me about the cartoon again?".

It's just nice to talk to people like him, people who are interested in what you have to say.

Oh boy does it feel wonderful.