Thursday, June 7, 2007

First Performance

Yes, there's a performance video in this post! Yes, I'm burying the lead lede!

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We basically bailed on most of the class topics and just worked on the Jeep Jockey Jump routine with Jenny. I'm so very glad we did this, as the first performance is tomorrow.

Social danced to the wee hours of the morning.

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Team Practice

We run Jeep Jockey Jump to get warmed up and up to speed. After rotating partners a few times and practicing some specific parts, Jerry moves around some partners and positions. I'm partnered up with Krystina, who's a terrific dancer. We end up as a "B" couple, that is, when the team splits, we do the "B" choreography. I personally think this is harder, as we have to start dancing after the "Lindy Hoppers Under Glass" pose, AND switch choreography. I'm also splitting the center of the "stage" with Jeremy. Hopefully the audience watches him tear it up, and not me messing it up. Yikes!

Jerry adds the "come in from the side doing something crazy" to the beginning of the routine. Really, Jerry?! Today, you add that?! :-) Krystina and I go through "pretend to ride the pony," to "act like a gorilla," "to John pretends to be a girl and Krystina pretends to be a man," but don't find anything satisfyingly do-able. Some of the stuff is just too slow.

We AB-only people get lunch after. I notice that Jeremiah's been staying to do the Swing 1 choreography. He seems to have quite a bit of experience in swing, so he's comfortable adding the new stuff in. He's even doing the special Baby Bop dance (one night only!).

I go for a bike ride with Diana. 30+ miles, awesome, but a killer. I see Brock and Jerry at an intersection towards the end of the ride, muscling a grill for the Baby Bop BBQ. How funny!

I shower up at the 24 Hour Fitness in Tustin that my brother works at. What's that? Worked at? Apparently he's back at a Sport club as of the first of the month. Good for him!

Quick stop at Costco for a contribution to the Baby Bop BBQ. I signed up to bring appetizers, and what's more appetizing than Louisiana Hot Links?! Ok, I bring pineapple too. No word from Trish on last-minute needs from Costco, so I head over to Atomic Ballroom.

I help as much as I can with the cooking, then chill out with food. Brock says he definitely recognized me when I shouted at him during the bike ride, and laughingly tells the story to Jenny and Will who clearly don't care. So I make sure that it gets drawn out as long as possible. Because I'm evil.

Nerves start jingle-jangling. I head to my car and dry-heave for 20 minutes. Jeremy tells me we're changing and meeting in 15 minutes. What?! That's closer to 9:30 than the 10pm I told everyone in my invitation. I change as fast as I can, then we wait and wait. Krystina and I decide to just skip out arm-in-arm with pointy fingers. We didn't get a chance to practice the routine at all during the evening, and I haven't done anything to warm up. so I do some social dancing, and find that the long-sleeved shirt keeps me from lifting my arms very high. Oh well.

And here's the video of the performance [20070620: New Video Link]:



I can see that I'm early on my Charleston footwork on the very last solo section, but recover. My "Shorty George's" need work at tempo, but I knew that. It was our best performance of the material to date, and the first public one for the current cohort of new team members. Yeah for us!

My mother says she only saw the last 30 seconds or so, and didn't get to tape at all. Sorry moms. :-(

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