alain’s dance blog

Mélanie Huot-Lavoie and Alain Wong competing in the Lindy Hop performance division at the Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown 2007.

Mélanie hasn’t seen the video yet, but I think we are satisfied with our performance. I was really stressed the morning of, waking up before everyone else in our hotel room and then watching CNN in the lobby because I had nothing else to do to keep me distracted.

We did get some good feedback from dancers, so that was cool. Ben Yau from California commented on the fact that despite our short stature (we were by far the smallest couple performing), we did a good job of dancing big. Yay arms and hands.

Let me know what you think of our performance.

I’m debating between three different texts/types to finish my Showdown t-shirt depicting Phil Onochie and Jojo Jackson in the Freedom (Slow) division last year. Help!

Some of you were surprised to discover that I paint on t-shirts - I remember now that I took down my t-shirt website a while ago. So here goes… the first in a series of handpainted t-shirts by yours truly, inspired by Lindy Hop dancers.

This one depicts the Solo Charleston dance-off at Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown 2006 between Max Pitruzzella and Sharon Davis. Max had injured his right arm, so he danced with his arm in his shirt. To me, this was a truly memorable moment. Sharon tore down the house with her gutsy performance (and yes, she won).

Can’t wait for Showdown this year. In two weeks!

Ann and I are teaching a new class this September at Cat’s Corner dubbed Lindy Revue.

The Lindy Revue concept

Une revue est une formule théatrale qui combine musique, danse et sketches. Pour ce cours, Alain et Ann ont combine le meilleur de nos cours de Dazzle & Flash, Charleston et Routines & Chorégraphies pour creer une routine qui vous mettra a l’epreuve sans vous decourager!

The goal is to learn a choreography in six weeks and to present it at the Friday night dance at Cat’s. There will be video reviews and even a dance blog for the class.

Check out the cool logo!

Next week, we’re having our second Battle of the Swing DJs at Cat’s Corner. It’s going to be a tag team battle AC vs. DK.

In the old school corner, we’ve got DJ Danny-O, head DJ at the Canadian Swing Championships for the last six years, and superman DJ “Ka-El” Karrwright Lee, who just got back from Japan. I had to convince Karrwright to come out of retirement for this one, so this will be a rare occasion to see one of the Montreal originals in action.

In the newcomer corner, we’ve got the youngsters from Cat’s, DJ Carl Nelson who will be DJing at the upcoming Albany Chill, and DJ Alain Wong (me).

Don’t miss it. It’s gonna be violent.