And I am back! I really needed the month of September off of blogging, but now I am so excited to jump into it. Mondays and Thursdays you can expect a new post on vintage style, beauty, dance, disney, travel, and the like!
For my first post back, let's go back in time with a Ticket to the Twenties! One of the best things about being a member of the Hollywood Hotshots is the incredible events we get to be a part of. For this, we stepped back in time to the 1920s, spending the day teaching 1920s dance lessons, enjoying the vintage cars, performing, and social dancing to the musical stylings of the California Feetwarmers. Here's a little clip!
Plus, I felt beautiful in this stunning dress from Loco Lindo, alongside my other hotshot ladies! While I love dressing in 1920s beaded flapper dresses, this floral day dress is so lovely and easy to wear and dance in. A little pin-curl in the front of my hair and some red lips, and a daytime 1920s picnic came to life!
A special thanks to one of my favorite photographers ever, @stevek_photo for the two stunning pictures of me and my dance partner Blake!
Sorry for the weeklong absence from the blog! I was in recovery mode from the wonderful adventure over Labor Day weekend at the National Jitterbug Championships at Camp Hollywood. Camp Hollywood is one my favorite swing dance weekends of the year - amazing music, competitions, dancers from all over the world, and a joyous time of celebrating as a community!
For those of you who have never experienced a swing dance weekend, each day basically goes like this: classes in the mornings from 10am-3pm, then competitions from 3pm-6pm, a break for dinner and then social dancing, more competitions, and partying from 9pm-6am! Then you crash for a few hours, wake up, and do it again! My friends and I decided to skip classes this year to use that time to catch up on sleep, lounge by the pool, and socialize some more.
In the pictures above, you can catch a couple shots of me competing, which as you can tell from my expression is a complete bore to me. *ahem*
Of course, I am kidding. As these are the National Jitterbug Championships, people travel from all over the world (including Sweden, France, even South Korea) to compete, so the competition is pretty fierce. Even so, my incredible partner (and great friend) Juan and I made finals in the Classic division and alternates for the Strictly Lindy division. Translating that into non-dancer speak, the Strictly Lindy division is the fast moving, aerial-filled dancing that you probably think of when you think of swing, and the Classic division is to medium-tempo music and is more about style and musicality rather than flash. I felt really proud of how we performed, and had a ton of fun to boot! I always leave Camp Hollywood inspired and ready to work even harder for the next year!
And while the competitions are a huge part of the weekend, the best part is seeing friends from out of town, hanging out, and being silly!
A huge thank you to everyone who made it a Camp Hollywood to remember! Back to regular scheduled programming on Thursday! ;)
One of the nice things about having long hair is versatility it provides. You always have the option to fake a short haircut, without having to commit to it. So occasionally when I see a gorgeous dress like this with butterfly sleeves and a ruffle detail, I embrace my inner 1930s and pin my curls up.
I haven't spoken about this company on my blog before, but let me introduce you to a wonderful brand Loco Lindo which specializes in vintage reproductions - especially for swing dancers! I first discovered them because they are sponsors of The Hollywood Hotshots, a dance company I am a part of that primarily specializes in preserving American Vernacular Jazz dance from the 1920s through the 1950s. So I have luckily gotten to wear many Loco Lindo outfits when performing on movie sets, live shows, or private parties!
In the case of this particular dress, I got extremely lucky and found it at a vintage warehouse sale in great shape and for an amazing price (I think around $28!). I am obsessed with this mustard color and the wrap style of dress is one of my favorite silhouettes. It's easy to wear, flattering, and gives an outfit a vintage flair. One nice thing is that wrap dresses are coming back into vogue and now you can find them at most modern department stores like this or this or this or this.
I took the month of June off of the blog to focus on some other ventures/adventures - but I am back! I am just coming off of the best birthday weekend ever - filled with dancing, ice cream, surprise dream dresses, friends, and a new disneyland annual pass from the best family in the world!
First of all this dress: if you are not aware of the clothing company Trashy Diva, you are missing out. I have been coveting this dress for the last year and a half, and a fellow diva made birthday miracle happen and sold me hers! It is the perfect little black dress, and I felt like a million bucks dancing the night away.
Plus it was LindyGroove's birthday and the release of the new Jonathan Stout and his Campus Five CD which you should all go listen to and buy here. There was live music, friends, family, and popsicles! The best birthday this girl could have ever asked for!
Blog - I would like to formally introduce you to my best friend Keegan. This is a little bit of a throwback post, because we did this photoshoot a while ago, but I couldn't resist sharing a few of the shots we got. Sometimes you just have to get dressed up and dance in the street. Keegan and I have been dancing together since 2012, and have been best friends for just as long! He is not only an amazing dancer, but a talented photographer, filmmaker, storyteller, and a generally awesome human. I am so blessed to have someone who is down to dance, hang out, or talk with about anything and who, despite life's ups and downs, continues to stick with me through it all.
A special shoutout to our amazingly talented photographer and good friend Ben Z whose work you can check out here.
If you haven't heard, there is a new documentary out called Alive and Kicking. It features quite a few of my friends and gives new audiences a bit of insight into the joy this dance brings to everyone in the scene.
The night before its premiere, my friends Lance and Vicky over at Lindygroove hosted a pre-party with live music, social dancing, and general merriment. Lindygroove remains one of the best social dance venues around, and I feel so blessed to get to be a part of it as a teacher, DJ, and most importantly as a social dancer!
It was a fantastic evening of celebrating this thing we call Lindy Hop!
This year's Inspiration Weekend was so wonderful. Between spending time with friends, dancing to amazing live music with some of my favorite lindy hoppers, competing, growing, and getting stoked on Lindy Hop, here are couple of the most inspiring moments of the weekend for me:
#1 - Anthony Chen, Irina Amzashvili, and Natalia Eristavi - 30 second showcase
This routine was AWESOME. So clean, and so original. Plus I love these guys so much - as dancers, they are incredibly inspiring, and as people, they are some of the nicest I know. Anthony is seriously one of my favorite leaders ever - a special thanks to him for all the amazing social dances this weekend - they were so fun!
#2 - 2nd place with Juan Cuadra - Amateur Lindy Hop Battle Finals
Although it is obviously an honor to take 2nd place, to be perfectly honest, I was not completely happy with my performance in this comp... but that is exactly the reason it is on my list. Doing this with such a wonderful partner and really reflecting on where we both want to improve, has inspired me with more motivation to work harder, focus on more specific goals, and continue to grow and compete! I am incredibly grateful to Juan for his talent, (annoyingly unending) humility, and support of me. Dancing with him is such a privilege and joy, and he always inspires me to want to work harder in this dance, so yay Juan!
#3 - the amazing music and social dancing!
So this is actually a video from 2 years ago, but you can catch a glimpse at one of my most inspiring moments of any Inspiration Weekend - the first time I ever swung out fast to Jonathan Stout and His Orchestra playing "Jumpin' At The Woodside". At this point in my dancing, I had not yet figured out the art of swing dancing fast, and for the very last song of the weekend, Shesha Marvin (an amazing lead and one of the event organizers) asked me to dance. I was a little bit nervous, but for the first time ever, the music, my partner, and my own dancing all connected, and everything clicked. I was swinging out fast, and it was effortless. It was also f*cking awesome. Shesha has always been a support in my dancing (and for so many others as well), and I will always remember that moment as a breakthrough for me in my journey as a Lindy Hopper.
This year, the music was just as awesome as ever, between Falty and the Defects and Jonathan Stout and his Campus Five, as well as his Orchestra. I had amazing social dances with so many people - Andrew Jose (especially swinging out to Jammin The Blues surrounded by our friends and feeling so happy!), Matt Richey (one of the most awesome, genuinely nice people I know, and so much fun to dance with!), Mike Faltesek (so lovely to get to know him this weekend and the cutest dog ever!), Augie Freeman (this guy is seriously one of my favorite people in the history of people, and how lucky am I to get to know!) and Keegan Mullin (my best friend on the planet!) just to name a few.
Also, a shout out to a few of the ladies of lindy hop who I am so lucky to be friends with and be inspired by - Kelly Young, Leslie Greene, Morgan Bates, Natalia Eristavi, Irina Amzashvili, Monchette Gonda, and Renata DePersis.
Final thoughts: Inspiration Weekend continues to be one of my favorite events of the year. A huge shout out to Shesha, Nikki, Mikey, and James who work so tirelessly to make it possible. To end this post, please enjoy the amazing Lindy Hop Tournament finals from this year.
Aaah, Valentine's Day. A time for pressuring your significant other to declare their affections with grand gestures of overpriced jewelry, flowers, and chocolates. A time for those single people without a significant other to brood on the worthlessness of life without a partner. Kind of a sh*t time, if you ask me.
I won't lie, being single on Valentine's day (or "singles-awareness day" as many of my students call it) is no fun. So on a day where it can be so easy to lose yourself in depression and worthlessness, I think it is important to remind yourself of just how awesome life can be, and how much joy you can be for others and have others share with you.
In that spirit, last night I went dancing at Grand Central Market where one of the greatest swing bands around, Jonathan Stout and his Campus Five was playing. I got to dance, eat, hang out with old friends and make some new ones. It was a lovely, old-fashioned evening, and the best part: it was a piece of cake to forget it was Valentine's Day.
