Bust and Boom at the Atomic Ballroom

Following my swing class last Thursday, I ventured forth to the Atomic Ballroom's Friday night dance. Fellow classmate Phil had mentioned something about lessons there, but I hadn't payed any attention to the idea. Turns out they run three separate non-repeating intro classes on Friday nights in the run-up to the dance. Should have done that.

The night started with a quick into to the basics of the Balboa. Not too bad. Somehow, I got frozen out of the ending circle of practice dances and meeting people. Then, I was so intimidated by the skill level of everyone there that I stayed a wallflower. I didn't actually stay that long as I had a 7am ride, but it was pretty much a bust. [EDIT 20071204: This was a lie. I could have stayed later and still made my ride. I was just too intimidated to dance.]

Returned tonight and took two classes before the dance. The first covered the Charleston and East Coast Swing basics and a brief routine combining the two. The second covered the Lindy Hop basic and swing-out, which was like this:



I really liked the availability of two or three lessons in a row, as it makes the drive down to Irvine seem a bit more productive. I'm very tempted to get the month-long-pass for March. I could, in theory, take three lessons on Tuesday, three lessons on Friday, and two on Sunday for the month of March. Swing boot-camp, so to speak. Tempting.

At any rate, I danced several times with Cindy, Julie, and Nikki, all of whom I met at the last beginner class before the dance. Lots of fun to practice the Lindy swing-out and the sugar-push.