Pictures from the June 04, 2010 blues dance :)

Finally going to be in Toronto for an extended period for the rest of May and June. The past month and a bit has been pretty busy for me in terms of travel: Austin, Ottawa, Montreal, and Amsterdam. It’ll be good to be back at home and the studio to work on some ideas stewing around in my head. I also have a bunch of blog posts that I should have written while traveling but I have this uncanny ability slash weakness to fall asleep as soon as I get on a plane. In lieu, here are a few quick notes.

Our blues dance at Yonge & Bloor Blues is still a work in progress. We finally cemented a consistent date for our dance – the “first friday” of the month. It was quite a bit of effort trying to collaborate and meet with the various dance organizations and factions in Toronto but it looks like things are settling in. Toronto Swing/Simon/Dovercourt now hosts monthly blues dances on the “third friday” so now it looks like we have blues dances twice a month on fridays in Toronto. Huzzah. \o/

For our May blues dance, we held a solo blues jam mini competition at our last dance. I’ll let Kevin “Fats” Temple write more about it at a future blog post but it looks like (from the photos the other Kevin took) people were receptive to the idea of solo blues dancing. Excellent…

Across the highway in the cities of Hamilton/Waterloo, David Trinh and Martha (‘Pa and ‘Ma) are inspiring me to work even smarter in being part of my own scene here. They are pushing to bring musicians and dancers closer together which is a win-win situation any way you look at it. It’s exciting to see other people excited about dancing and building their respective dance community. I can already see, as our two scenes grow, we’ll be feeding off each other’s enthusiasm (and ideas).

Heard a great band trio last night with Roberta Hunt and Toby Hughes in Hamilton. Very danceable! Highly recommended band!

(picture of a bike I took in Alkmaar, Netherlands).

I’ve always lived in a big city yet I’ve never used bicycles as a mode of transportation. I think this summer I’m going to purchase a bike. Recommendations? I don’t know the first thing about owning a bike in the city and I have fears of breaking my face on concrete but I think this should work out. haha.

Amsterdam is great. I will be back (thanks Gen <3).

Svitlana returns with dance partner Greg and does some air defying poses!

Toronto’s multi-talented salsero, hip hop, breakin’, funk, and bluesin’ dancer, Joaquin the Dream.

Photo taken at the back of the Yonge & Bloor Studio, where I practically live when not watching Caprica at home.

Photobooth at the Toronto University Exchange 3D. If you want full quality pictures, feel free to contact me. I can email you the original digital copy or print a 8″x10″ copy ($10 each) for you. As you may know, the TUX event is all about being low cost and accessible for everybody. While you can definitely use the photos for your facebook/twitter/etc I ask that you keep the hamfats logo attached and image unedited.

Click on link below to see the rest.

Oh man, what a bumbler I am. I got so caught up eating sushi in Vancouver with the family, friends, and random strangers that I forgot to post the pictures I wanted before the end of the year. Oh well, maybe next year.

While I can’t speak for Tien, I know that 2009 was a great year for murderous mayhem and dancing for myself. This was the first year I decided to really commit my efforts in being part of a scene instead of just being a coaster slash complainer. It’s hard work though man. It probably would have been easier on my mental health just being a complainer ;)

2009 was also the year where Tien and I started documenting extensively our adventures in dance and “in the scene” and have a spit bucket full of pictures that may or may not have been posted on our site. This is the first of three blog post of pictures that Tien and I have chosen that have some sort of memory of meaning for us (and maybe yourself as well) in 2009.

Photos

1. The ladies from VanCity performing a gospel/african routine at Lindy Bout 3 in Vancouver spring/early summer. A great routine that had no pretension of being grand but instead was just grand just in itself. Plus I really love african based routines.

2. The Showboat stage in Kitsilano Beach. The best outdoor dance venue in Canada in my opinion.

3. Masquerade Ball in Montreal. I traveled back and forth to Montreal in 2009 six times this year. I love Montreal. They have the best lindy hoppers, new york mambo dancers, funk dancers and lockers in Canada. I’m going to move there one day.

4. Nancy at Dovercourt rockin’ out with her hair out.

5 & 6. Live music in New Orleans. Disneyland for jazz addicts like myself. I flew there twice (for Louis Armstrong Festival and ULHS) but they really had me at, “hello”.

7. Rebecca and Tien dancing in Ottawa. They put on some great events last year and am looking forward to heading north from TO some more this coming year.

8. Shannon and Randy dancing blues in Grossman’s Tavern. We would later go on to compete (and win) together in a strictly blues competition in Minneapolis and teach a successful beginner blues workshop for the university students in Toronto.

9. Lindy Hop finals at the Rhythmic Arts Festival in New Orleans

10. <3 Frida <3. And Mike & Casey workshop in Toronto.

11. The Hot 6. My first foray into starting a lindy hop troupe. Even though it did not work out in the end, it was a great learning experience in troupe management and choreography by democracy. Going through the process and life cycle of a dance troupe really help me realize just how much harder I would need to work on dancing and dance development to really make an impact in the scene.

12. My good friends NaYoung and Dan dancing together at Kevin SueChueLam’s fundraiser. Sorry Kevin is not in this picture. :)

13. “The Latin Jazz” mambo group: Marlene, Joey, Randy, and Laura. We learned and performed a hard mambo routine in under a month.

14. Alain from Cats Corner. I want to be awesome like him when I grow up. :)

15. Crazy random “dance” competition at Dovercourt. When I think of Toronto dancing early last year, this is one of those moments that will be permanently etched in my mind (for better or worse).

16. My girl Genevieve and I in Dublin, Ireland. Our trip was full of dancing, drinking, and riding the super exciting city bikes. The picture on the right is me trying to figure out how to use the city bike program.

17. Jo Hoffberg performing a burlesque routine at Followlogie. I have nothing but mad respect for the ladies who do this dance. It’s not just stripping, trust me.

18. Toronto getting ready to do the “Frankie 95 Global Shim Sham”. Who knew there were so many dancers in Toronto???

19. Funny story: I entered a jack and jill event in Ottawa and was paired up with this awesome lady. However, she did not speak english and I did not speak french. When we reached the finals, it took me a couple of minutes to visually explain that we were actually competing again in an hour for the spotlight finals. Hilarity ensued.

20. Singers that I met (sorta) in Toronto.

21. Back in our old place on Harbord street, we threw quite the dance parties (salsa, blues, urban). These are a few ridiculous ones.

22. TUX, the toronto university exchange, is probably the single dance oriented event in Toronto that was just about dancing and not about making money. TUX 3D, coming up this January, should be even bigger and better than last years.

23. Training at my old dance studio, “Mad for Dance”. Too many hours spent in the basement-like facilities of this dance studio.

24. Randy and Kathleen teaching at Dovercourt. Me looking looking like numbnuts as always. Kathleen and I started training and performing together late last year. Tonight, we are going to teach at the weekly Saturday night dance at Dovercourt.

Tomorrow, I will be off to Vancouver for the Christmas vacation and to pass the time at the YYZ, I will take a cue from Boston’s Big Picture, and reflect on this past year through the photos Tien and I have snapped. The photos I plan to choose may not be the best technically, but I imagine that they will all have a great memory attached to it. Stay tuned :)