Okay, so it's now February, and I'm about to write about three events, all of which happened before Martin Luther King Day. There's been plenty written about two out of three of these events, so my reviews won't add much. I just wanted to add my 0.02 about how great they all are.

Lindy Focus IX ran from December 27, 2010 all the way into New Year's Day, 2011. This time around marked my fourth consecutive Lindy Focus, and every time I go, the sheer quality of the event, and all the work that Michael, Jaya, and Sosh put into it, simply astounds me. I've participated in the event every which way and sideways, and I've boiled down my Lindy Focus formula to one of volunteering, competing, social dancing, and hanging out. There's simply not enough time in the day to do everything, and Lindy Focus offers great classes from top-notch teachers, but I take my time at this event to hang out with all the people I never get to see enough of, and dancing with even more of them. Lindy Focus is always a great combination of social time and inspirational dances for me, and this year was no different--I left feeling completely exhausted, but also completely fulfilled and missing the entire camp. That's just the way Lindy Focus works--you want to live there, and you never want to leave!

The following weekend, I was off to Philadelphia for Lindy and Blue's LaBLove event for 2011, from January 7-9. In the past year or so, I've developed a great connection with the Philadelphia dancers. The community in Philadelphia is amazing! There are great things coming out of the city, in choreography, in organizing, in energy and exuberance, and the attitude is contagious. I took this weekend to capitalize on that great energy, socialize to my heart's content, and explore Philadelphia even more. In addition to the event, I managed to go out on a delicious chocolate tour with some friends, have a lazy waffle breakfast and shopping day with another friend, be coffeeshop-productive with other friends, and thoroughly enjoy myself. The Philly group have managed consistently now to bring out my good side, dancing and otherwise, and LaBLove was no exception. Extra kudos for letting me DJ at Jazz Attack beforehand and Powerhouse Blues afterwards!

To complete my trifecta of awesome events, I hit up the Lone Star Championships in Austin, TX the following weekend (for those keeping track, that would be January 14-16). I managed to make it to the event last year, and had a fabulous time having fantastic dances all weekend long. This year didn't disappoint! I come to Austin expecting good music and even better dances, and Lone Star provides all that in the best low-key environment you could imagine. I was lucky enough to make finals in the Advanced Strictly with Michael Gamble, and we had hours and hours of great dance time through the whole weekend. I also got the opportunity to work a bit with one of my other favorite people, Nathan Bugh. It was all time well spent! Between all the dancing, all the great music, all the great people, and all the time spent at the Fed, Lone Star definitely had to be my last weekend for a while. I left Austin completely satisfied and completely exhausted. It was the perfect end to my trio of travels.

Obviously, I would recommend any of these events to anyone. Just maybe not all three in a row, if you're not up for it!
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For today's love of the YouTubes, I picked one of my favorite recent routines, which debuted at Lindy Focus just a little over a month ago. Andrew and Karen are fabulous dancers, and their choreography is just as good--full of great energy, great dancing, and great humor. I don't know if I know any other dancers that use their face to the extent that these two do. Plus, have you SEEN Karen's hair?!

Check out Andrew Thigpen and Karen Turman performing their most recent showcase routine at Lone Star Championships 2010, in Austin, TX. This routine had everyone going crazy with tears of laughter, and of course a standing ovation at Lindy Focus. Just watch, you'll see:
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I took my first trip down to Austin, TX just last weekend, for the Lone Star Championships. What a great event! Extra kudos to Scott (Angelius) and Tena (Morales) for striking just the right chord with the event.
I got in Thursday night and was super excited to dance at the Fed, Austin's weekly Thursday night dance venue (and the place where activities would be taking place for the rest of the weekend, too). Lucky me, I got put on the guest list for the evening by one of my friends who is involved in the Austin scene--those kinds of things (not paying for a dance) kind of mean a lot when you're STILL unemployed, like I am. I, like quite a few others, was only lukewarm on the band playing that night, but I still managed to have some fun dances with locals and others who were in Austin early for the event. It was nice to catch up and be girly with Sharon again, too, even though I had just seen her two weeks ago at Lindy Focus. Then Brooks, Jo and I spent a couple hours hanging out at the afterparty, watching Nick Williams absolutely nail the part of Danny Zuko in the karaoke version of "Summer Lovin", and joining in with the others for the most entertaining version of "Love Shack" I've heard in a while. Yay, B-52s!
Friday was pretty low-key, involved some bubble tea and a little bit of shopping with Jo and my new friend Gina, plus airport runs and a bit of food, kind of, and then Brooks, Jo, and all the rest of us staying at their place headed over to the dance to meet up with Beth and Yossef and really kick off the rest of the weekend's dancing festivities. Namely, a lot of dancing and competing, and not a lot of sleeping or eating, necessarily.
I said it already, but I want to say it again: super kudos to Tena and Scott for putting on a really great event. Through all the competitions (and there were tons!), I never felt like I was running out of time to socialize or grab a dance with someone. The overall relaxed vibe of the event was exactly what I needed for that weekend--games time included--and I'm super happy that I got to go. I would love to see a little bit of time set aside for competitors to speak with the judges, since the competitions are mostly focused on the lead-follow of dancing, but I understand how hard it can/could be to arrange that. So instead, I'll just review videos of prelims to see what I can pick out. Yay for Yossef winning 2nd place in the Intermediate J&J, too! He and Mallory Griggs looked fantastic out there, and I'm glad Nashville was represented. Next year, I hope we can have even more Southeast representation (outside of the usual bunch of me, Michael, Jaya, Beth, Yossef, Jeramie, and Amber). There are dancers in the Southeast, I swear!
Lone Star is definitely an event I want to go back to next year, and Austin was a lot of fun to visit. Besides having a whole bunch of my friends there (and them wanting me to move there), what I saw of the city was interesting enough to keep my attention. Other highlights include:

-Nearly never having a bad dance at the event
-Still being able to dance as much as I was inspired to, and being inspired to try new things
-Giant City Sextet! They were just what I wanted to hear
-Late-night Fluxx games with something like 8 people and 14 rules on the board
-The Invitational J&J silliness (see videos for proof)
-Creating the "bored stripper face" with Beth and getting it down to a science
-Meeting Wingy and Edmund, two of the most awesome orang
-Good brisket at the Salt Lick in Driftwood, TX with about 50 dancers,even if they didn't have macaroni or rolls, and what kind of BBQ place doesn't have macaroni or rolls
-Mumbling and grumbling about how "grumpus" is totally a valid word and should count for Scrabble points for team MeBeth
-Gin&Strawberries, even though the recipe is more complicated than you think
-Meeting lots of great new people/dancers (and non-dancers!) and getting to spend some time/dance with them
--And of course, getting more time to hang out with some of my favorite people

Obviously, I would highly recommend going to the Lone Star Championships next year. I bet you'll have fun!
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