Swing Fling 2011 Update #4
On the plane out to L.A. for VIP Awards, 3,600 ft. above snow-capped Rockies in a blue blue sky…
Final words on Swing Fling 2011:
Massage tables! Are these guys making a killing at dance events? I’d think so but haven’t asked. Abi Legget had a table right outside the ballroom, Pam Marshall carried her’s room-to-room. I would imagine these gals would be booked from morning till night, all weekend.
Music: good mix most (not all) weekend. Primarily April Prince, with some TJ and Erica Lyons. Festa had a separate Blues and Soul room but both times I looked in it was empty. Heard the Hustle room was mostly empty, too, or very light.
The combined Allstar/Pro Jack and Jill prelim lineup (to give you a feel for who was there):
Boys:
- Alfred*
- Jason Miklic*
- Robin Smith
- Jody Moscaritolo
- Jason Barnes*
- Greg Scott*
- Dean Garrish*
- Don Herron
- Doug Rousar*
- Luis Crespo*
- Tybaldt Ulrich*
- Rob Jackson*
- Anthony DeRosa
- Mike Glasgow
- Jason Wayne*
- Markus Smith*
- Erik Novoa*
- Michael Diener
Girls:
- Patti Jobst*
- Sophy Kdep
- Kay Newhouse
- Lee Warren
- Melissa Greene
- Lemery Rollins*
- Lara Deni
- Taletha Jouzdani*
- Hazel Ulrich*
- Kelly Hull*
- Dana Simonetti
- Yvonne Wayne
- Stephanie McHenry*
- Sascha Newberg
- Mrs. Michael Diener*
- Jill Dumarco*
- Jenifer Lyons*
- Deonna Ball*
- Yuna Davtyan*
(The *asterix = made finals)
Judges were Chris Schaupp, Loryann Greenhouse (hustle), Kelvin Roche (hustle), Festa, and Robert and Nicola Royston
Bill Cameron, emcee for the division: “I hope you’re taking advantage of our great pro workshops. Jason and Sophy are teaching tomorrow at 10am – what are you teaching Sophy? ‘How To Make Babies?’ You seem to be very good at it!”
Bill again, Sunday morning: “… and Jason Wayne will be dancing with Yuna Davtyan. STAY AWAY FROM YUNA SHE’S MINE. DON’T TOUCH YUNA.”
Bill was in rare form all weekend, very funny on and off the mic.
Speaking of Jason Wayne: A line of women stoood waiting for a dance with him from 1am Saturday night till we left at 5. Including Yvonne! His own wife had to stand in line to get a dance! Laughing about it Sunday morning she said it’s always that way for him, even at home (Bay area) – it gets tiring. To his credit, we watched him Friday night going around the edges of the ballroom asking the shy women to dance. By Saturday he had a hotel-full of breathless, starry-eyed groupies. I’m glad the Waynes came out to the east coast and introduced themselves – their presence made a difference all weekend long.
All in all the weekend was an improvement over recent Swing Flings. Beautiful lighting, great accessibility to Dulles, decent hotel (though we heard not all rooms were good – some were cramped and dingy), the judging panels could use some improvement, music was good, ballroom and floor 40% bigger and attendance about twice that of last year’s …
And here we are in L.A.! Six rawther noisy AirTran hours later …