alain’s dance blog

During the Quebec Swing Rendez-Vous, Benjamin Ricard from Port-O-Swing showed me their nifty new brochures. There’s a picture of Ann and myself inside.

Port-O-Swing is the big swing dance school in Quebec city. They teach many different jazz dances, including Lindy, East Coast, Jive, Blues, Shag, Balboa, you name it. Benjamin and Geneviève are most know for their death-defying acrobatics.

Two weeks ago, for my birthday, Ann Mony and Anne DesRoberts surprised me with a gift after my Intro to Swing dance class at Cat’s.

Over the last two months, fellow dancers have repeatedly asked me about my new job and what I did there. And unfortunately, because Standout Jobs was still in stealth mode, I could not give an answer - until today.

We’ve launched. Check it out at http://standoutjobs.com

Standout Jobs powers your online recruiting efforts. Focusing initially on small and medium-sized high tech companies, we help them promote their employer brand and build one-on-one relationships with potential candidates. This is done with an easy-to-build interactive career site (think Wordpress), a one-stop job distribution system to post on multiple job boards, an applicant tracking system to manage candidates, and a bookmarklet to source and hunt down potential hires.

Think of Standout Jobs as Basecamp for recruiting. If your business is hiring, Standout Jobs can help you with relationship-based recruiting.

As for my official title, here’s my newly printed business card:

I’m in Palm Desert California with Fred and Ben preparing for our DEMO launch. Wish us luck!

We’ve also announced $2 million in new financing today from the great folks at iNovia Capital.

To read press coverage on our launch, check out VentureBeat, Mashable, GigaOm, TechCrunch, CenterNetworks and MontrealTechWatch.

So the new flyers just came out, and it’s the first time I’ve been featured as a Special Guest in a dance event.

I’ve been to every single QSRV since it was founded, that is two years ago, and it’s always been a blast. Nathan Shetterley and Véro Paquet can throw a mean party.

First year featured Mike Faltesek’s first visit to our lovely province, and that private with him two years ago was life-altering for my dancing. It was also my first contact with Adam Boehmer and Marcie McCabe, two of the most infectious Charleston kickers anywhere this side of the Atlantic. And the Pacific. I also discovered sweet music by DJ Kelly Porter from Detroit. She played some awesome hot vintage tunes that I had never heard before, from peeps like Willie the Lion Smith.

Last year they introduced comps to the event. Ann Mony and I were lucky and got each other in the Jack and Jill. Too bad the footage was corrupted and the videos were lost - I heard we danced well. This year we decided that if we got each other in the Jack and Jill, we would change partners.

Mélanie and I also presented a routine that we had prepared for the Showcase division, but the comp was canceled for lack of participants. It was replaced by a Strictly, and we came in second. It was the first time Mumu and I competed together, so we were both really happy with the result.

This year features a team battle in honor of Quebec city’s 400th anniversary. It’s all happening at the Imperial Theatre on Saturday January 26, 2008. There’s a Facebook group for Montrealers looking for rides.

Québec Swing Rendez-Vous, January 25 to the 27th, featuring guest teachers Mike Faltesek, Nina Gilkenson, Thomas Blancharz, Alice Mei, Mickey Fortanasce, Kelly Arsenault, Kelly Palmiter, Laura Berger, Dan Amores and pretty much the whole province of Quebec, Canada.

See ya there!

Mariel Adams and I danced in the Strictly Lindy division at ALHC 2007 in October. Here’s our performance.