My Woman Swings

M-lady and I headed out to go swing dancing, socially, after Bud went to bed tonight. We thought we'd check out the local scene here in San Diego. So we headed down to a dance in La Jolla called the Firehouse.

It was an interesting scene. Lots of good dancers, but of a pretty different style: sort of a soft Hollywood style swing. M-lady and I are more Savoy style dancers. So we certainly stood out. One of the local instructors came over to ask us who we were after a couple of dances, and we both got asked to dance a few times by various locals.

After dancing for a little while, the DJ announced signups for a Jack and Jill competition. For those not int he swing scene, this is a competition where you get assigned a random partner, so it's much more focused on actual partnering, leading, and following, rather than tricks and mini-choreographies one may have put together with a regular partner. M-lady and I decided to enter, just for kicks.

We knew we'd be at a bit of a disadvantage, with our out-of-town style, but we both drew pretty good partners. I got the only guy who was dancing as a follow; I'd watched him dance a bit earlier in the evening, though, and I knew he was pretty good. I also know how to lead a little more heavily for guys.

The competition was structured in standard format: 12 competing couples, judges tap couples out until there are 5 left, those get to solo and are judged by audience applause. My partner and I did pretty well: I gave him enough room to show off, and I did a couple of tricks which no one in SD seemed to dance. We were certainly drawing attention as the only same-sex couple. We were the last couple tapped out giving us 6th place. Oh well. There were a lot of boos from the audience when were were tapped out... I think we were a crowd favorite.

M-lady made it to the finals, though. They danced 4th, and did a well-structured little solo, with some charlestons, breaks, and a great free spin. M-lady danced beautifully, and the crowd loved them: they took first place, winning the competition. Go M-lady!

After the competition, M-lady and I got asked to dance by lots of other folks. It was pretty nice. Our best dances were with each other, though.