Yesterday I competed with my team the Shimmy Shakers at the 10th annual International Lindy Hop Championships. I have a lot of feelings, but mostly just feeling grateful and blessed to be here and be a part of this global community. We were one of a slew of awesome competitors in the brand new solo…
Off to DC to Get Weird with the Shimmy Shakers at ILHC!
Tomorrow morning I'm off to Washington DC to compete with my team the Shimmy Shakers at the International Lindy Hop Championships! I'm so excited to share our routine with the world, which is fun, dynamic, slick and weird. And I get to do it with a swell gaggle of shakers. More soon…
Dwarf Quaker Slavery-fighting Activist Benjamin Lay is My New Hero
The New York Times has an inspired write up about Quaker activist Benjamin Lay, “You’ll Never Be as Radical as This 18th-Century Quaker Dwarf.” It really speaks to my condition, as Friends say: “Lay, a hunchback as well as a dwarf, was the world’s first revolutionary abolitionist. Against the common sense of the day, when slavery…
How to Make Spam Musubi Quiche Pie
Spam musubi is one of my favorite guilty pleasures from the Islands. Carb-loaded, greasy, salty, and sticky, spam musubi just make me happy. I was invited to my friend Michael's annual birthday pie extravaganza, where the cost of entry is a homemade pie. It's a fantastic celebration of everything pie, with people going all out…
Thoughts on Dancing, Getting Older, and Continuing Revelation
I won't always be dancing the way I dance now. I've been thinking about that in mostly a negative ways: My body won't let me b-boy anymore… I'm losing flexibility and power, so I have to make up for it in some other way….I won't be able to do the things I do now in ten…
Princess Lockeroo Waacking to Ella Fitzgerald’s “Air Mail Special”
Check out legendary waacker Princess Lockeroo doing a sick showcase to Ella Fitzgerald's "Air Mail Special." Love that mix of waacking and jazz movement!
Freestyle Dancing to “Booty Swing” by Parov Stelar
For a long time, I’ve been wanting to put together a nicely produced video of me dancing, showcasing all of the fun dance styles I’ve been playing with over the past couple of years, including solo jazz, charleston, house, and waacking. Last Saturday, I finally got it together to do it, with the help of…
Learning and Celebrating the Other Role at The Switch Workshop
I am a terrible follower. And I love it. A couple of weekends ago, I got to work on learning the other side of lindy hop, the follower role, at The Switch Workshop in San Francisco. The Switch is one of the first full weekend dance workshops dedicated to focus on learning the non-traditional role…
Dope Profile of Japanese B-girl / Schoolteacher Ayumi
Check out this sweet video short about b-girl Ayumi of Japan. She holds it down both as a professional hip-hop dancer and as an elementary schoolteacher in Japan. And she's an older dancer in her 30s! She's kind of my new dance hero. Here's another dope video of her at a competition from a couple…
Support the Jimmie Lunceford Transcription Project!
Yesterday evening I happily kicked in a couple hundred bucks for the crowdfunding campaign "Big Band Revival: Jimmie Lunceford Transcription." Cause what else is money for except to bring beautiful things into the world, like awesome swing music? This is the second time that Michael Gamble and his crew have rallied jazz nerds and swing dance…