Near-death end of song almost-collision with our buddies Nick & Nina in the Invitational Strictly Lindy at Lonestar Championships 2010, beautifully captured by Igor Roshchin. Sometimes hitting the end of a song is more important than floorcraft…

Nathan Bugh is pure genius. I’m serious. This guy is brilliant. He lives in New York. He’s the best dancer, the best musician (Masters at Juilliard, people!), he sings and plays piano and who knows what else (recent acquisition: Banjo Ukulele from 1920), his slides make Juan Villafane & Kevin St Laurent blush, he’s a fast-tapping hoofer from hell, his dance classes melt my brain and make me feel gooey inside, he throws Evita Arce around like he’s Billy Ricker, he knows The Spirit Moves better than me and Juan (I know, I didn’t think it was possible), and he wears green shoes.

Did I mention he’s a Killer… a Killer Diller.

www.nathanbugh.blogspot.com

This is us dancing together at Lonestar Championships in Austin Texas:

Love that guy!

Real WOW photos of Jo and I performing our burlesque feather fan dance at Lindy Focus, taken by Colin Butler. Thanks Colin, very saucy!

I just got back from a whirlwind tour to Seoul Korea, for Camp Swing It! A million thanks to Kang Seok for bringing Juan and I out, it was an amazing experience! We can’t wait to go back, it was agony being there for such a short time (only 4 days!!!).  Here are a few fun facts from my trip:

1. Seoul has, to my estimation, the biggest swing dance scene in the world, with guesses at more than a thousand regular Lindy Hoppers in the city!
2. There are 15 swing bars in Seoul – that’s 15 dance venues, devoted ENTIRELY to swing dancing, 7 days a week!
3. For 10 hours of classes at Camp Swing It, I was in flight for 34 hours (to and from the USA). Totally worth it.
4. Heated floors are the GREATEST THING EVER.
5. Kimchi is yummy.  It is rumoured Kimchi is the reason why the Koreans never got SARS or bird flu. I’m more interested in bringing some to Herrang and seeing if it will prevent Herrang flu.
6. The Jack & Jill at Camp Swing It involved taking a shot of Soju (which is a Korean distilled rice wine, which reminded me vaguely of Japanese Sake) before and after each partner rotation. To prove you had finished the shot, you had to turn the glass upside down on your head. When dancers were refusing to drop out, the challenge increased to half a bottle per partner rotation! How was this possible? Camp Swing It was sponsored by a Soju company!!! Yeehah! Soju is yummy and dangerously easy to drink…
7. Korean dancers are amazing! The need for translation slowed down classes, and STILL we taught twice as much material as we normally get through. (Our translators by the way were all beautiful and wonderful, we love you, thank you so much!!).  The Koreans are amazing students – like sponges!! Social dancing was also a pure joy, the level is so high there! If you get a chance to visit, do it do it do it!
8. Korean girls have MAD STYLE! I would have stolen their clothes right off their backs, but they were too tiny. I was a giant in Korea. “Sharon, how you swing out so fast? You so big!”
9. Whilst filming our class reviews for the Camp DVD Juan and I discovered a costume room full of kimonos and sumo suits, wigs and giant fans. Interviews were thus conducted in costume, with props. Jo, Kevin and Shesha performed the Al & Leon Shim Sham for the camera, whilst wearing sumo suits. Keep eyes peeled on youTube for that one…
10. Camp Swing It was the first official collaboration of The Killer Dillers with fab Los Angeles’ group, Hot Club Stomp. That’s Laura Keat, Jeremy Otth, Mikey Pedroza, Nikki Marvin & Shesha Marvin. Awesome dancers, brilliant performers, real professionals. It was a pleasure and an honour! Here’s to many more…
11. All the instructors were challenged to a battle by a single Korean B-boy. We were beaten. Badly.
12. On the final night, after the camp had finished, I fell asleep at the dinner table (Korean BBQ), my Korean metal chopsticks still in my hand.

 
Here are the Killer Diller performances from the weekend:

 
And here’s the B-boy challenge:

 
Oh and look, I found it:

Definitely one of my great idols, she had the most beautiful lines with her graceful ballerina’s legs. If Cyd Charisse was the womanly femme fatale, Vera-Ellen was sweet, innocent, childlike, even a little goofy. She combined classical ballet and pointe work, with the 1940s style “American ballet”, ballrooming, tap, vernacular jazz and blues movement, acrobatics and even toe tap. She had the tiniest waist in Hollywood at the time. Check out Vera-Ellen dancing in these films, alongside the likes of Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor and Danny Kaye:

Wonder Man (1945), The Kid from Brooklyn (1946), Three Little Girls in Blue (1946), Carnival in Costa Rica (1947), Words and Music (1948), Love Happy (1949), On the Town (1949), Three Little Words (1950), Happy Go Lovely (1951), The Belle of New York (1952), Call Me Madam (1953), Big Leaguer (1953), White Christmas (1954), and Let’s Be Happy (1957).

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Just had to share a few of these wonderful photographs that David Holmes took this past weekend in Austin, Texas for the Lonestar Championships. It was one of those mad and magical dance weekends, that sometimes can’t be captured in photos, but actually David has really managed it. Here are a few he took of me, and a few of my favourites in general…

Oh and PS: I won 2nd place in the Charleston Battle, beaten only by my dashing dance partner Juan who took 1st! Juan also won 2nd place in the invitational Jack & Jill with the lovely Laura Glaess. Oh and my sister Killer Diller, Evita “Pocket Rocket” Arce, won 1st in the Blues contest, dancing with sexy Jeremie Anderson. Great weekend all round, highly recommended for 2011!!! Congratulations to Scott and Tena for an amazing event!