Boogie By The Bay 2009 – Update #1

Boogie by the Bay!

Virgin America flights here – DC to San Fran non-stop $109 round trip – pretty daggone good but the coolio consoles we heard so much about were not exactly working – the flight attendant said “Panasonic was unfortunately not in DC so couldn’t fix ‘em, but they will be fixed once we land in Phoenix” – which why is that comforting to us since we’re not going to Phoenix.

Lotsa lotsa folks here AUGHGHGHG!! France (20 of them maybe?), Aussie’s (12 of ‘em), New Zealand, UK … and the non-US-ers are GOOD – we’ve heard over and over again from the pro’s who travel that there is a real difference in the way people abroad approach learning this dance – something about thinking of themselves as life-long students – the word we keep hearing is “humble.” They study the videos, work together to get fundamentals solid, roll their feet, use a rolling count, concentrate on connection … and then they come over here to the US and they are FIERCE about being technically correct, dancing with intention and emotion and musicality …. they’re catching up to us fast. Soon the circuit will include comps in other countries and we will be the ones fighting jet-lag UH OH!!

Juniors!!! Yaaaaay!!

Decent crowd of us here from DC:

Tracy
Dave Dante
Joe Arasin
Kelly and Jay Hull
James H
Jody
Lara Deni
Adair and Denny
MeeeeeGell and Alina
Jim Coakley
Me and Genieboy
and Julia Prescott (honorary member of our community)

Tonight was Strictly’s – Novice, Intermediate, Adv/Allstar combined, and Champions.

Advanced/Allstar couples

(those I could catch – there were 54 – think I missed a bunch of names):

Lara Deni and Michael O’Connor
Trey and Zena
Benjamin Plante and Honey
Kyle and Angie
Matt Nichols and Dawn Kiehm
Todd and Joy
Tall Paul and Tara
Wendy and Scott Miller
Shane and Tiffany Lubran
Lauren and Sean
Joanna Meinl and John Kirkonnel
Vivian and Ian Kirkconnel
Peter and Sharla
Jody and Torri Ellington
JB and Taylor
Alfred and Stacy
Will Shaver and Peggy Allen
Brennar and Manna
Adair and Rome
Cat Wiles and oops forgot
The Rodgers
Dave Damon and Margaret Floyd
Keith Gussoni and Ruth
Yenni and Scott M
Chris Lo and Kelly Hull
Stevie and Jake
Sean McGeever and Courtney
Andrew and Chevy
Jimmy Ho and –
Manny (first time in Advanced!!) and Joy Brazil
Georgie and Connor
Rachel Diamond and Eddie V
Ben Mchenry and oops forgot
Billie Montgomery and oops forgot

Who Made Finals:

In Novice

Joe Arasin and Tracy!!!! YAAAAAAAAAYYYYYY!!!!!

In Intermediate:

Steve Hall (UK) and Jennifer Guy
Steve Hunt (also UK) and Brianne
BJ and Erin
Santosh and Amy
Carole Stoude (French, but UK now) and Brady (Oz all the way)
Michael Heath (Lubbock, which actually has an international airport, who knew?) and Quenna
Wayne Brodd

In Advanced, 17 couples (of the 54 in prelims):

Trey and Zena
Alfred and Stacy
Kyle and Angie
Shane and Lauren
Ben and
Miles and —
Brennar and Mana
Darren and Amber
Yenni and Scott
Tall Paul and Tara
Natasha –
Peter and Sharla
Jake and Stevie
Sean and Courtney
John Kirkonnel and Joanna
Cat and
Rome and Adair

Champion Preliims:

Erica and Nick
Angel and Blake
Kielbasa and Rutz
Ben and Tori
Luis Crespo and –
Royston and Batista
Arjay and Sarah
Lindo and Jessie
Edwin and Katie McCaslin
Michael Kiehm and Jill DeMarco
Parker and Brandi
Samantha and Jen DeLuca
Jordan and Melina
Maxence and Szekeleley
Doug Silton and Kelly Arsenault
Chuck and Tessa
Shawn Tobias and
Rob and
Jason and Yvonne Wayne
Kyle and Tat

Champion Finals:

Ben and Tori, to “Don’t Need It” (Jamie Foxx)
Luis Crespo and an adorable French girl named “Almandine” or some other name of a mixed drink to “Beat Goes On”
Kielbasa and Melissa Rutz to "Strobe Lights"
Mark the Marine and Sharlot to something blues which I don’t know the name of, of which I don’t know the name, the name of which I don’t know, something blues which I could care less what the name of it is
Maxence and Deborah to “Get Involved”
Lindo and Jessica to "Let It Rock”
Robert Royston and Stephanie to “Further On Up The Road” (blues)
Samantha and Jen to “Right Round”
Kyle and Tat to a contemporary song I hadn’t heard – “Your Love” maybe it’s called?
Yvonne and Jason to "Puh Puh Puh Puh Puh Poker Face"
Nic and Erica to “Fire on the Dance Floor”
Arjay and Sarah to “She Wolf”
Parker and Brandi to “What’s Your Name”
Jordan and Melina to “Troublemaker”
and last of all, Angel and Blake Hobby to some dang blues song, which I also don’t know the name of, of which I don’t know the name

Decent hotel – not the friendliest or most efficient, a Hyatt with that Hyatt Atrium thing, little old but decent enough. No hot water in the showers, oh yeah and this is the hotel where your toiletries slide off the bathtub ledge soon as you turn the water on, and where last year the towel rack crashed off the wall and into the toilet – but so far no disasters, tolerable enough. Fitted sheets – hallelujah! No sleeping on a bare mattress! Soap that is actually big enough to last two whole days!

more tomorrow, after JJ's!!

Love Liza