One of my Favorite Swing Dance Pieces

Jan 15, 2007 in videos, friends, Education, Dance, swing dance, Entertainment, cool stuff, School, life, art, Relationships, fun, blogging

I’m a lover of Swing Dance. My first love was Lindy, but West Coast has really stolen my heart. However, I will never forget some of the great memories I’ve had with Lindy. My first dance teacher, Denise Gibson, has gotten hip with the times. She’s posting videos of some of the dances she’s put together over the year on youtube.

About 9 months prior to the release of The Pink Panter starring Steve Martin, the Moorpark College Swing Dance Club performed a routine to the Pink Panther Theme. Denise and I choreographed the piece together, and it is one of my favorite pieces I ever did with the MCSDC.

YouTube - Pink Panther

technorati tags:swing dance, moorpark college, lindy, west coast, teachers, education, college, fun, entertainment, school, friends, relationships, videos, youtube, dance

The Future of the Web

Feb 3, 2007 in culture, friends, thoughts, videos, myspace, swing dance, Dance, Entertainment, cool stuff, Work, life, blogging, art, Relationships, photos, fun, technology

I love open source. I love the idea. I love the practice.

The concept of open source software is pretty simple. The community freely, openly develops software, each individual collaborating and contributing to others in the community. The result… It’s the future on the Internet.

My former swing dance partner (Denise Gibson) wanted to create a website for her students. She teach swing dance, ballroom, swing dance, and other styles of dance at local colleges and studios. She wanted to provide them with a web experience where they could bond as a community, communicate with each other, meet new people, and enjoy a multimedia arrangement of dance information.

I wasn’t sure where to start. It’s been a while since I was out of the IT game. Of course, it never occurred to me to develop a website for her based on ASP.net or any Windoze platform for that matter. So, I played around with the applications available through my godaddy.com hosting service.

WOW! What a selection!

I stumbled across an application called Joomla. Mind you, by this time, I had evaluated Xoops, Geeklog, Serendipity, and a slew of others. Something about Joomla just really kept me interested. Sure, it has one ridiculous flaw in the fact that an article can only be placed into a single section+category. Hell, they should have talked to me about my infamous name/value pair class I developed back in the days of the psychic chat network. Those were the good ol‘ days, but I digress.

Joomla is as extensible as you can get. Build a community, host discussion boards, member managed blogging, private messaging, newsletters, AJAX shout boxes, eCards, contact management… The list goes on forever, literally. People in the Open Source community are developing tons of projects for Joomla every week.

In a matter of weeks, I developed a community website that had many of the same features as Myspace (minus the abundance of bugs). Granted, denisegibson.com does not have 11 million members, but that’s besides the point. I encourage anyone to test out Denise’s website. Even if you don’t know anything about dance, take a look and see what is possible in just a matter of days with open source software. Who knows… You might just find yourself picking up a pair of dance shoes after all!

Folks, this is where the web is going: community building websites with multimedia entertainment, newsletters, cool features. And it’s all going to be free!!!

www.denisegibson.com - DeniseGibson.com

technorati tags:dance, swing dance, college, dance partner, fun, art, life, culture, thoughts, friends, relationships, partnership, entertainment, work, technology, blogging, videos, myspace, photos, discussion boards, community, cool stuff, future, web, Internet, students, ballroom, dance studio, open source, collaboration, software, contribution

My First (and only) West Coast Swing Dance Choreography

Originally posted Jan 26, 2007 on my Wordpress blog in videos, friends, Education, Dance, swing dance, Entertainment, cool stuff, School, art, Relationships, fun, life

It is Fall 2005. I’ve been teaching swing dance with Denise Gibson at Moorpark College for a couple of semester. We both love West Coast Swing. We’ve been taking lessons from the world famous Sonny Watson, and we’d both love to bring it more exposure in the college community.

We start teaching beginning West Coast Swing to a beginning ballroom class. Now, for those of you who know anything about West Coast Swing, it is not as easy or simple as some of the other forms of swing. When it is done right, West Coast Swing is the coolest looking dance on the planet. Period.

West Coast Swing, however, is not an easy dance to learn. Nor is it an easy dance to teach, let alone to beginners. Denise and I are doing our best to prepare the students at Moorpark for a 6 week master class in West Coast Swing with Sonny Watson. When Sonny arrives, the students are excited! They are doing a great job. They are struggling but making excellent progress!

Next thing you know, the six weeks are over, Sonny is finished, and the beginning dancers now have 8 weeks to prepare for the dance concert at the end of the semester! Here is the result:

Remember! These are all beginning dancers. Some of these people have never danced a day in their life before this class. Some, this is their very first partnered dance class. For all but a handful, this is the first time they ever heard of West Coast Swing Dance. One semester! Look how clean they are. I’m so proud of how well they all did

technorati tags:west coast swing, swing dance, life, fun, school, Moorpark College, friends, art, education, relationships, videos, youtube, dance, college, stage, performance, entertainment

Dance with Words

Do you love dance?

Whether you are addicted to dance and stay up until 5 in the morning at your favorite dance convention or not, we're looking for those who want to help create "A World of Dance". This blog is created for those who love dance: dancers, choreographers, teachers, students, spectators alike.

Share with others about your passion for dance. Share your personal accomplishments. Share your dance team's accomplishments! Share your dance events and competitions.

Have dance products? Talk about them here.

Have a good experience with a particular dance group? vendor? clothing company? studio? Share it here.

Are you a student with a phenomenal teacher that everyone should know about? Sound out here!

I think you get the point. If you have anything to do with dance, you should contribute to A World of Dance. The only requirement is that you contribute positive stories and at least once each month. Share your passion of dance with the world.

Happy dancing! Happy writing!

Dance Event: High Desert Dancesport Challenge Dance Competition

Come be a part of the 3rd Annual High Desert Dancesport Challenge Dance Competition
Ballroom, Latin, West Coast Swing, Salsa, Jack & Jills, Pro-Am & Amateur

March 23 - 25, 2007
Location: Antelope Valley College
3041 West Avenue K
Lancaster, California

ALL ENTRIES/REGISTRATION DEADLINE
FEBRUARY 26, 2007
Sorry, No Refunds or Substitutions

All Jack & Jill/Strictly Swing Contests Registration at the Event Only
West Coast Swing, Salsa, Night Club 2-Step, Cha-Cha
$15 per dance
TO COMPETE, YOU MUST PURCHASE A 3-DAY COMPETITOR PASS

Judges & Instructors Include:
Teresa Shiry, Luis Crespo, Tom Hicks, and more!

For More Information, Contact:
Lisa Sandoval, Organizer
lisadance1[at]aol[dot]com

Linda Chesnutt, Marketing Director
chesnuttls[at]adelphia[dot]net

Janet Diaz, Competition Director
hddance[at]adelphia[dot]net

For More Information on: Tickets, Package Prices, Registration Forms, Rules, Workshops
Schedules, Directions, Hotels, and Eateries visit:
www.highdesertchallenge.com

Dance Event: World Swing Dance Championships

Date: May 4-6, 2007
Irvine Marriott Hotel
1800 Von Karman Avenue
Irvine, CA 92612

Buddy Schwimmer
http://www.usaswingnet.com/worldswing/

In conjunction with The Lindy and West Coast Swing Connection
Teveya Dovbish & Eileen Dovbish
lindywestcoastconnection@earthlink.net

A combination of Lindy and West Coast Swing with equal prize money for contests
And workshops for both styles of swing

Invited judges and workshop teachers:
Bill Cameron
Laureen Baldovi
Sonny Watson
Benji Schwimmer
Lacey Schwimmer
Buddy Schwimmer
Heidi Groskreutz
Manny Variel
Phil Adams

Kim Clever
Dave Frutos
Minn Vo
Corina Acosta
Ben Yau
Sheri Yau
Benjamin Ricard
Genevieve Kerouac

DJ's Jack Smith and Tip West
Saturday Midnight Buffet

Contests:
Jack & Jill
Young Adult
Team
Masters
Junior
Showcase
Cabaret
Lindy vs. West Coast

Event Ticket
$110 Before March 1
$125 March 1 - 31
$135 April 1 and later

I'm sure there is not much I need to say about any of these instructors, but I'll say it anyway. They are all gifted dancers, performers, choreographers, and teachers. You will really enjoy learning from all of them. See you there!

Lindy Wins the US Open Showcase Champion

There's a bit of a rivalry between Lindy Hop and West Coast Swing. Hoppers, as Lindy Hop dancers are sometimes called, claim that West Coast Swing is slow and for old people, while the West Coast Swing dancers (sometimes referred to as westies) claim that Hoppers lack technique and smoothness). The rivalry is mostly playful, but it is playful in a Cold War kind of way. Well, the best thing for both styles of swing dance happened this weekend: A Lindy routine won the Showcase division of the US Open of Swing Dance.

Despite the title "Open", the US Open of Swing Dance is primarily a West Coast Swing event. People will cite various reasons for this. My opinion is that the West Coast Swing performances have been much better than the Lindy Hop performances over the last couple of decades. Since West Coast has consistently won the US Open titles, the Hoppers have slowly stopped showing up to the event. That is, until Ben Morris came to town (yes, Ben has been around for a while, but I'm trying to add some draaama to this story).

At the young age of 3 months (I keed, I keed, but Ben is very young), Ben is already an accomplished Lindy Hopper AND West Coast Swing dancer. Now, this talented cross-over performer has won the Hope Diamond of the Swing Dance world. The Showcase Division of the US Open has recently seen winners such as "So You Think You Can Dance" winner, Benji Schiwmmer and his partner Heidi Groskreutz (also a SYTYCD finalist) and "30 Seconds of Fame" winners, Jordan Frisbee and Tatiana Mollman. Past US Open championships have sported the likes of Mary Ann Nunez and Robert Royston.

I know there are many other swing dance legends from the past that I'm not mentioning here because I don't know them off the top of my head. I'm not professing to be an expert on US Open history. The point is that Ben has accomplished something great here. This is not just because he had a wonderful performance. It is also because he brought Lindy back to life at the US Open. Huge congratulations to Ben Morris on his Showcase win at the 2006 US Open Swing Dance Championships.

Click here for the complete 2006 US Open results