Category: Travel

I have decided that the minimum stay for having a satisfactory Herrang Dance Camp experience is two weeks.   You need at least one week to get acclimated to the unique environment, culture and time-table of Herrang.  Just figuring out where to sleep, eat, go to class, social dance, and hang out takes like three…

A couple of nights ago I was the perfect (bad) example of why the floorcraft at the Herrang Dance Camp sucks so much.  So I'm dancing in the open air "dance barn" at like 3:30 or 4am. I'm dead tired, barely standing.  There are very few couples on the large dance floor, perhaps 20. I'm…

So I'm inevitably sick in Herrang. I have long thought that the Herrang Dance Camp would be a perfect place to study the spread of contagions and illnesses.  I'm no epidemiologist, but with hundreds of people packed into dense spaces for hours and hours at a time, in close embrace, breathing the same air, the…

The "Frankie Walk" is one of the newest additions to the Herrang Dance Camp this year. The Frankie Walk combined a walking tour of the town of Herrang and a quiz about Frankie Manning's life, particularly his relationship to the Herrang camp.   Spuds and I did the walk together today, and we really enjoyed it.  You…

  Last night was one of those frustrating / inspiring experiences that happens often in Herrang, where you have the most amazing band playing your favorite song, a roomful of the best lindy dancers in the world — and you can't dance.   The Carling Family Band is perhaps the quintessential lindy hop band.  They…

So as I mentioned in the previous post, there was a spontaneous jam circle at the end of Lennert and W's class yesterday in Herrang. Inspired by the music, I jumped in with one of the follows from our class and did a short sequence — something like a couple of swingouts, a do-si-do, and…

  This is the kind of stuff that makes me remember why I love the Herrang Dance Camp so much.  This was my final class of the week with Lennert (director of the camp) and his partner W.   Toward the end of the class, a swing band marched through and began playing for us, followed…

So starting the second day, my body started pushing back, telling me, "Rik, you aren't 25 anymore."  I was falling asleep all day and night, during class, during the dances, during the camp meeting… basically all the time. My dancing has certainly not in top form, but I pushed through the fatigue.  That must mean…

It's been a different experience being here Week Two of the Herrang Dance Camp rather than Week Four or Five, when I have come in the past.  This camp is a lot less intense so far than previous times I've been here.  And for the most part, that is a good thing.   Herrang in total…