MadJam 2009 Update #1
Yallo! Liza here, on our way to Chicago, and now have some time to write about MadJam … we were way extremely too busy *at* MadJam to even breathe since MadJam is our local event.
Great weekend! Friday afternoon I passed Jessica Cox running somewhere and asked if she was having fun (this was her first time at this event) and she said “WOW YES the energy in the ballroom is JUST CRAZY!” Jessica was right, it was high energy all weekend, beginning Thursday night with a rockin crazy steamy (steamy as in sauna – we were shvitzing in there – note to Dave: next year turn down the heat in Jr. Ballroom!) hot dance to kick off the whole weekend with a bang.
Saturday night we left the ballroom early – we thought! – trying to be good and get ourselves to bed – we thought it was 2am and discovered it was 5:30 already! Met people at the elevators who were just as surprised as we were to hear how late it had gotten to be without noticing. It was like that all weekend long – great dancing, high energy, loads of comps, round-the-clock social dancing in the Jr. Ballroom and awesome social dancing in the big ballroom every night - crazy fun.
We wore purple all weekend. We, meaning me. Heidi wore Dave’s Purple Hat. But the prize goes to Kimmie and Jim, who were PURPLED OUT on Saturday, after midnight: wig, top-hat, glasses … Facebook pictures to follow (and by the way, loads of people had cameras and have posted albums of MadJam pics on Facebook – look for them all!)
I brought a huge bag of red and yellow arm bands and Saturday night before Classic we distributed them to anyone who wanted to have fun with Jordan and Tat (they wear arm-bands as part of their costume.) It was spozed to be a surprise. But the minute I saw them on Thursday night I yelled “HI! HI! HihihihihiHIYOUGUYS!! WE BROUGHT ARM-BANDS FOR EVERYBODY IT’S A SECRET! oops” so then it wasn’t a secret anymore. But they said they were glad to know beforehand because if they had looked out and seen a sea of arm-bands it might have been distracting. Not that they can be distracted. But it was fun wearing arm-bands to show support.
The Saturday night show was fantastic! Jordan and Tatiana, Brennar and Torri, Parker and Jessica, hustle (sorry, don’t know hustle-people names,) and a beautiful and moving tribute to the memory of Mike Glasgow’s son Ian – Classic Rock songs (Ian loved classic rock) danced by all the pro couples.
The weekend included hustle comps, wild New York style street hustle social dancing (the hustle people were ecstatic – they rarely get top-level hustle pro’s and famous street dancers gathered together for an entire weekend), and the launching of the hustle version of our wsdc (World Swing Dance Council.) I’m not crazy about hustle. However. What I did like about hustle was the clothes. We wcs dancers are bor-ring compared to the disco-ball snazz n’ glitz n’ flash n’ trash. Fishnets! Lotta leg! (“leg” as in when your leg includes your gluteus maximus and halfway up your back,) seriously spiked heels. Couple of rawther shortish skirts above the fishnets, some where, if sitting at a table, one found oneself at eye-level with the meeting of the fishnet stocking and the rawther shortish skirt which meant one didn’t notice much hustle dancing since one was interested in deciphering whether that was actually a nu-nu which was peeking out at one or if there were nude-colored underpants inside the fishnets and the peeking-out thing was an underpants-covered nu-nu. Not a … whatever. A nu-nu just out there in the world.
The all-star and pro strictlys were CRAZY great! So many allstar and pro dancers! In DC! Sheesh! The All-Skates gave you whiplash trying to look everywhere at once. Awesome JJ’s too! Jordan and Jessie drew each other in the Jack-and-Jill (this keeps happening!) and Jordan looked out at the audience and said “Okay repeat after me: 1, 2, 3, awwww!” Which we did, of course. Har har. But come on, they are SO CUTE together! It’s sickening.
Saturday afternoon I was rushing through the lobby and stopped to watch a crowd of hand-dancers goofing off dancing awesomely cool stuff on the marble floor hilarious, fast, Xavier in the middle of course.
Saturday we were up at 8am to get ready for the day (after sleeping, what, an hour maybe?), left the ballroom 6am the following morning. Up again three hours later at 9am (comps and finals started early.) Crazy busy weekend … exhausting but fun!
Loads of people from California came out for MadJam – CALIFORNIA! – lotta folks who’ve never travelled to the east coast for an event before this. I asked as many as I could if they had fun and I haven’t heard a single complaint yet, not anything but raves about what a blast it was. And – the most amazing – actual real live TEXAS dancers actually LEFT TEXAS and came all the way out to the east coast for MadJam! Now THAT is an astonishment. Texas people don’t travel. I don’t think they even realize that anyone actually does west-coast outside of Texas. I don’t think they realize there are actually human beings outside of Texas. So it was great to have them!
Five disappointments:
- Catriona Wiles intended to come but couldn’t get a visa. WAAAAAA!!! Huge disappointment. So many people had been looking forward to dancing with her, seeing her dance, and just enjoying her presence. And where Cat goes or doesn’t go, Paul goes or doesn’t go, too, so Paul wasn’t there either. Waaaaaa DOUBLE waaaaa. They were super SUPER missed.
- Geoff Pann’s camera was stolen. Someone took it out of its case dropped the flash on the floor and walked off with it. Very not good, and makes me worry about carrying mine around with me. Geoff said “I don’t care about the camera – it’s just money. Money is money. What I care about is my pictures.” I can relate. Sort of. Okay maybe not.
- I brought mucho purple. Since we were driving, not flying, I didn’t need to worry about weight so I just THREW (and I do mean threw as in hurled in a frenzy) every purple everything I owned into the suitcase. However. When I looked at what I brought it was all tops! I forgot to bring pants! So I had to wear a pair of GB’s old jeans, which I cut up so they wouldn’t drag on the floor and cinched at the waist with a belt. I looked like a moron, or the guy from Deliverance.
- Kiona fell during her routine with Christopher Schcaupp, and maybe tore or hopefully just sprained a ligament in her knee. They had to stop dancing, of course, and she spent the remainder of the comp in a wheelchair.
- Sean Brennan, I have just learned, was taken from the ballroom in an ambulance late Sunday. Does anyone know how he is, or what happened? I DO hope he is okay! T
- Clyde and Terri Miller
- Nicholas and Giselle (Toronto)
- Brian and Cali!!!!!! YAY BRIAN AND CALI !!!!
- Jason and Lemery!!!! yaaaaaaayyyy!
- Rajeev and Charlotte
- Michael and Sara
- Will Mattox and Tracy
- Ken Minchin and Caroline Amblard
- Justin and Lori Perella
- Blaise and Kelly Hull
- James and Alina
- Benjamin Plante and Adair
- Rob and Kelly Laderoute
- JB and Abby Wood
- Brennar and Deonna
- Maxence and Katrina
- Arjay and Tatiana
- John Lindo and Lisa Schaup
- Jordan and Jessica
- Jody and Connie
- Joel and Michelle
- James and Jamie
- Keith and Lara
- Don and Whitney
- Jason and Erica
- Jason Marker and Anne Marie
- Chris and Katrina
- Alex and Sergei
- Jason and Sophy
- Roberto and Rosa Perez
- Orion and Rebecca (they didn’t drop anybody – they nailed it, again. What an awesome routine.)
- Daniel and Shari
- Glenn and Jannel!
- Brandon and Rachel Cuccinata
- Justin and Trendolyn
- Brandon and Charlotte
- Ed Malone and Lemery
- Steven Hunt (yay Steve! from England!) and Bonnie
- oops forgot
- Christina DeMeola (sweetest person in history of human race)
- Alan Brady and Maria VaSILLYya-va (yaaaaaaaay Maria!!!! Yaaaaaaaay Alan!! Yay Maria you rock!!)
- Billy and Abby
- Zena
- Michael Diener
- Jody and Sascha
- Orion and Connie
- Michael and Rose
- Kelly Strouse
- Patti Jobst and Robin Smith
- Kristin
- Rose
- MIKE GLASGOW AND WENDY MILLER!!! YAYYYY!!! or, as someone – I will not say who or why, but it was very funny - said: “Yeah, baby! Vinda – f(*&ing – cation!”
- Xavier and Anne Marie
- Maxence and Wendy
- Yenni and Alfred (Asians!! Asians!! Two at once! AUGHGH!)
- Brian and Torri
- Brennar and Lisa
- Parker and Jill DUMarco
- Jason Barnes and Melissa Rutz
- John Lindo and Deonna
- Jordan and Jessica
- Arjay and Tatiana
he results are all on the web now, but here are the results (of people I know) which I scratched down as they were announced:
Novice Hustle Strictly:
GENIEBOY AND FAYFEE FIRST PLACE!!!!
Novice Strictly wcs:
Intermediate Strictly wcs
:Adv wcs Strictly:
Pro Strictly:
Riosing Star:
Classic:
Showcase
(in which everybody dropped people and fell – little scary to witness but no one was hurt):
Nicki Fiore won Newcomer JJ!!!!
Novice JJ:
Adv JJ:
Sophisticated JJ:
Allstar JJ:
Pro JJ:
And now, since we are actually arriving here in Chicago, I will actually start paying attention to what is happening THIS weekend instead of LAST weekend and will send a Chicago Update later!