Gold Dust On My Feet On The Sunny Side of the Street

I am so tired. I swear, if I weren't sitting at my desk, I would be running into walls as I try to walk around.

My feet have a few sore spots (no full blown blisters though, which is good but surprising). I have several sore muscles.

I had an amazing weekend. Let me tell you about it.

Thursday, as I mentioned, was sort of the kick off. The Big Band Bash pales in comparison to the rest of the weekend. The band was quite good (Nate Anderson Band).

Friday was when the party really got started, so to speak. The Friday evening dance was at the Apollo Ballroom in American Fork. They have a great floor that is "sprung" as they say. And by that they really mean sprung- like if you just stand still and don't dance you run the risk of getting motion sickness from all the bouncing. The band was decent. They were more of a dixieland jazz band and the pieces they played seemed to be either hyperspeed or catatonic. Still it was good music. It would probably be worth going to these dances just for the music.

The dancers though! Omigod the dancers. I was completely intimidated after watching just a few songs. Remember those videos I posted? The kids who came out for the exchange really are that good. I sat out at least as much as I actually danced on Friday and just watched. I was really completely blown away.

The evening dance ended around midnight and I went to IHOP with a few other people for a bite to eat before the late night dance. The late dance was at Noah's and had three small studios for dancing and a lounge (where most people ended up, I think) with a large couch and a nice TV (for watching a movie and then playing Rock Band). Shortly after arriving I discovered that I was too tired to actually dance at all. Things just weren't connecting, so I left around 2.

I slept in Saturday morning, but as soon as I woke up things started going downhill. I'm not going to tell you about it though because it will take away from the fabulousness of the weekend.

Saturday evening was beyond spectacular. I don't even know where to begin. I guess the band, which I have already raved about, but New Deal Swing really is fantastic! If I had to pick just one dance of the whole weekend to go to, Saturday evening would be it. Actually, there were quite a few people who did it that way. Because I had such a bad start to my Saturday, I was determined to have a fabulous evening. I refused to wait around to be asked to dance. I had an amazing time dancing with guys of every skill level (some of them were still very intimidatingly good) and by the end of the dance I'm pretty sure I was a much better dancer. If nothing else, my confidence level was up and I was enjoying myself immensely.

During the band breaks we were entertained by the (unique to ULX) Polygamy Lindy contest. Contestants start out in groups of three (one lead, two follows). After the first round half the leads are eliminated and their follows are assigned to the leads who are left (so you have groups with one lead and 4 follows). For the final round all but two of the leads are eliminated and the follows are distributed between them. It ended up being 12 follows to each lead. It's quite something.

Saturday's late night dance was a continuation of the fun. There was a blues room, a lindy room and two gigantic sandwiches and a room full of deliciously comfortable cushions. Officially though, we were all just hanging out, not dancing. Why? Because Salt Lake has a rule: No dancing after 2am. Because, you know, dancing is a gateway activity that always leads to debaucheries like Sex, Drugs and Drinking. Unofficially though, the energy level stayed up, for the most part, and the dancing went on into the night. Having the blues room was nice because it provided an opportunity to mellow out a little but still keep dancing.

I imagine some of you are wondering what I mean by blues dancing. It's honestly kind of hard to explain and I'm certainly no expert (having never done it before Saturday night). There is no basic step really, it's mostly about just getting into the music. It tends to be kind of slow and sort of sensual. Look it up on youtube, I'm sure you'll find something.

I left around 4:30am and crashed almost the second I walked in my door, completely exhausted, but in the best way possible.

Sunday night was the final dance of the weekend. Not very many people showed up compared to the other dances. I actually talked to some of the guys that I had been dancing with all weekend. It was a nice, relaxing note to end on.

I think I shall have to do it all again sometime.