Swingcal Physics of Swing Lecture

Since I've already posted my SwingCal etiquette lecture, I figured I'd post my other most talked about SwingCal lecture (the others I've given were boring, so I'll spare you).

A little background, Will and I are both physicists, and so we both prefer to think in terms of physics. Our students will agree that we make a ton of physics analogies when we are teaching, as the Berkeley scene has a disproportionate amount of technical thinkers. I do want to say that, as any physics analogy, none of these models are perfect. Like a spherical cow or Indiana Jones moving at .8c, we don't mean all of these to be taken literally. I know that there has been a lot of talk of the role of the follower in the real swing blogosphere, so I'm not going to go into that. Most of the students in SwingCal had only been dancing a couple to a few months, so simplicity=good.

Yeahhh google docs template!

This first slide is about the usual depth of physics we go into when teaching a beginning lesson...

Here we get a little more complicated. Impulse people, impulse. Thinking ahead and being decisive is good. Say no to whiplash.

This slide was more analogy than anything, but you can't talk Newton's First and Second without mention of the third.

I know a lot of people use the potential/kinetic analogy a lot when talking about the swing out. Totally true.

I believe we also mentioned that when you artificially add energy (such as on 8) it feels uncomfortable and is more difficult to maintain because you are doing additional work on the system! Same if you are the kind of lead who stays in one place for the whole swingout. Think of all the work your follow is doing!

'

Yes, we totally did. Also worth a mention that trying to put together a similar graph using Matlab proved extremely difficult to look nice.

Quote of the day for this would be "For those of you who are mathematically minded, sorry but this curve is not differentiable at the ends" -Gina

This is a reference to this video here starting at around 1:45 or so.

The animated GIF in the above slide can be found here

Look, a swingout is just like a binary star system! I think it's funny and also relevant sometimes people have more "dancing mass" (heaviness) than others, which forces the partner to move around them more.

Will had a really cool physics demo on his computer showing spring systems of different masses, but his computer wasn't working for this presentation.

We had a hard time thinking of how to end the presentation, so we decided to keep it short and to the point.

And finally, when we took questions..

Student: What happens when you are doing a swingout at relativistic speeds?

Gina: The beats get slower.

SwingCal Etiquette Lesson aka The Awful Things That Can Happen While You're Dancing!

For those who are unfamiliar with the Berkeley swing scene, the class that we teach, called SwingCal, includes weekly lectures along with dancing lessons and social dancing. One of these lectures, besides include swing history, swing venues, swing around the world, etc... is the infamous ETIQUETTE lesson. Back when I first started teaching, it was somehow decided that I should give the etiquette lesson because so many horrible things had happened to me while I was dancing. I've decided to post these because they are funny, especially to those who are there, and so that these memories will not be forgotten. For reference I presented these lectures after only dancing for about five months or so.

This one should be a no-brainer (no air steps without permission, peoples!) but the story that goes along with this slide is a pretty good one..

I was at a New Years Eve party where the dancing was mainly blues and there was plenty of booze. I was dancing with a friend of mine, who probably had been drinking, and he lifted me (without permission!) right into a chandelier. Yup. So there I was, on New Years Eve with my head in a chandelier. The worst part? one of my friends saw it and cracked up laughing before asking if I was ok.

Preeettty self explanatory.

Well, we've all seen this one. One of the major complaints I hear from lead friends about follows is that they get a little too close down there. We call it the magnacrotch... which leads me to my NEXT SLIDE...

This explanation is not for the faint of heart! Now, the SF blues scene is pretty notorious for being the most scandalous, liiike, ever (hence why I don't blues anymore at blues venues in SF, but that is another story) so some may not find this story surprising.

This one time I was at a blues house party, and this one lead, who will go unnamed, started rubbing his erect penis on my thigh. First of all I was like (in my mind), dude why aren't you piking, but then I was like DUDE I AM 18 AND YOU ARE OLD AND A FUCKING CREEP. This was, coincidentally, around the time that I stopped blues dancing. I wonder why.

So the way that this goes with the slide above is... sometimes people get "happy." I don't really care, as long as you don't try to make me know it.

The worst part about this is that I had only been dancing for a few months, and he had been dancing for years, so I didn't feel comfortable saying anything. To this day, I still regret not calling him out in front of everyone.

Yeeep, don't dance when you're sick. Not cool.

To quote an old math teacher of mine "I've often wondered how someone can be 'hot' and 'cool' at the same time, and I've finally figured it out; you can be 'hot' and 'cool' because you're 'sick'!"

But in the case of dancing, it is quite the opposite.

Oh man, oh man, I see this way too often and many follows think that its normal for a leads hand to be below the waistband of her low rise jeans. Not ok. In fact, if a follow is uncomfortable with wherever your hand is back there, it is wrong, PERIOD. Too many times when I was first starting out I'd say "oh I'd be more comfortable if your hand was a little higher" and the lead is like "oh thats where its supposed to be." Eff that.

Haha, oh Brian. This slide is for Brian (pictured above).

Self explanatory.

Ohh where to start. So the ABG reference is what we usually refer to as the accidental boob grab. One friend of mine has a particularly funny story involving his ABG experience during a sugar push (sooo awkward) but the image of this slide refers to something different. Back when I had only been dancing for... barely a month of solid dancing, I go to the 9:20 on my birthday which HAPPENS to be the dance just before SFLX so there are tons of people there. I'm dancing with this guy, and its going great but when the song ends, he dips me in a way that traps my arm, and he leans in so that my finger goes RIGHT INTO HIS NOSE. I KID YOU NOT. So I basically picked some guy's nose, against my will, at the end of a dance. Needless to say I apologized, and got the hell out of there.

Looking back, I think the conclusion of this presentation should have been that so many awful things happened to me that its a wonder why I still dance at all! Just kidding. But after I presented this (back in Spring 09), the comment I most got from other teachers was that I'd probably scared all of the students away from social dancing. Which I guess is why I still don't give it now.

Anywho, I hope all that read this found it entertaining. I am going to go save it in the SwingCal wiki now so that this presentation will live forever long after I am gone.

Also should include the "lecture" that was given in Fall '08. CHECK OUT BRIAN'S CREEPY STARE!

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=666077343513

The Shirtdress Project...

I've been wanting to make a shirtdress for far longer than I care to admit (basically since I began sewing) but somehow never got around to it. At first it was because I lacked the skill to tailor it to my standards and then later something always got in the way- too many buttons, no pattern, no fabric, other projects, etc. Finally I went fabric shopping and hunkered down to sew this thing.




Shirtdress beginnings... I started with the Simplicity 2447 pattern to get the base for the shirt but found it vastly insufficient and did a lot of modification. The fabric was a pretty heavy polyester suiting.


I ended up making a muslin for the bodice to get a really good fit. Here it is almost completed.
Originally the dress started with long sleeves but since I didn't want to look like a burgundy Elfaba, I shortened them. I almost made it a coat because the fabric was heavy enough but I decided not to since it would have been unlined.


The finishing touches- pocket, buttons and a detachable belt. I also made a matching headband.


Since I didn't have a gold belt buckle I just used a vintage button to close it.


Overall, I am very pleased with the result. Yay!

So many snuggies!

Happy belated holidays everyone! This Christmas, Dwight and I decided to do something a little out of the box for everyone's presents. We knew we wanted something practical, cute and warm and really only one thing fit the bill.

The Snuggie of course (booklight not included)!
We made 11 custom Snuggies with black-friday fleece and matched everyone's pattern to their personality. Each snuggie was also vertically custom tailored as you can see in the photo below:

Mel and Brian are very happy with their new sleeved blankets.


Getting swallowed by the snuggie. Halp!

A most epic birthday dessert

A couple weeks ago, Michael completed his 20th trip around the Sun so we thought it fitting to celebrate. We had ourselves "bougie" day in the city- admiring the Richard Avedon exhibit at the SFMOMA, drinking expensively delicious Blue Bottle coffee and dining at L'Ardoise in the Castro. I have been known to make a few birthday cakes so it was only fitting that I made dessert. Michael loves custard (specifically Don Tat) and food in large sizes so I went the giant-Chinese-custard route. His initial request was for one "as big as a table" but seeing as I did not have an oven that large I figured a 9inch round would be plenty.



The recipe was from the book, Every Grain of Rice which is fantastic cookbook for Chinese cooking. My grandmother has some sort of connections to one of the authors so she gave us a copy for free back when it came out. Though I'd never made one of this scale before, it turned out beautifully and made a delicious conclusion to the long day.

Zucchini and Mozzarella Pizza

I'd say that pizza is currently my new thing; with such a consistent and easy dough recipe (<3!) how can you not want to make a pizza out of every bit of fresh produce on sale at Berkeley Bowl? The other day, it was zucchini and mozzarella, which we paired with a simple salad and fresh asian pears.


With all of the craziness of classes/midterms, Movement, Teaching at SwingCal, NSU Choreography, and organizing a lecture series, I have most definitely been left with little time to cook for myself, so I took advantage of the opportunity to spend some time in the kitchen making delicious noms.


Because really, there is no better way to relieve stress than with a delicious slice of homemade pizza. See, look at how happy Michael is!

New Orleans and ULHS 2009

Best Vacation Ever. Period.



Oh that I could turn back the clock just a couple of weeks. There is a constant torrent of misery outside. Instead of the sounds of street musicians in the background, I have my grandmother’s soap operas. My toes are stationary and cold instead of tearing up a dance floor. And my boy is on a computer somewhere in Santa Clara. (Or at least he was a couple of hours ago.) New Orleans, I miss you.



As an enthusiastic lindy hopper, one event beckons above all others. The Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown held promises of out of this world social dancing and unmatched competition. Sprinkle in the allure of some New Orleans flavor, and these two Travel Buddies were all but forced to heed the call.

I am not sure I have ever experienced so many instances of thinking “I can’t believe something this amazing is unfolding!” in such a short period of time. Instead of simply coming away from this weekend satisfied, I feel like I have added many entries into that library of memories I will keep fresh in my mind forever. ULHS has left me inspired to dance harder and get better. New Orleans and the company I was able to keep have left me just happy to be alive.

The Host: When it comes to getting hosted, I must be the luckiest SOB ever.
Joe (Mr. Host) is a fifty something year old sax player who lives with his wife in the Faubourg Marigny (10 min walk from the French Quarter). He does not dance, but when ULHS needed volunteers, he happily signed up to take in some lindy hoppers. Brian and I got our own guestroom, a key to the house, a wealth of restaurant knowledge, and all the ice cream sandwiches we wanted. Even cooler, Joe used to be the manager for Tony Sheridan and has links to the Beatles, Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Hollies, Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, etc. We had some nice chats in the car. Host Win.

The Food: Fantastic when you have a plan.
Brian and I had some ups and downs in terms of food in NOLA. When we just randomly went looking for noms, things generally did not turn out great. (We had pizza one day we were running late. Unacceptable.) Thankfully, Joe supplied us with a list of cheap eats that definitely left us with some winners. I had some fantastic Andouille Gumbo at the Gumbo Shop, and nothing beats constant access to fresh beignets 24 hours a day.



Our first foray into the French Quarter involved hunting for grub at midnight. I don’t think I have ever eaten a meal so horrifically bad for my arteries, and I wouldn’t change a thing. We split an “All that Jazz” po’boy from Verti Marte that was over a foot long and must have weighed 2-3lbs. It was stuffed with turkey, ham, cheese, bell peppers, lettuce and TONS of shrimp. Sitting on a stoop at one in the morning eating that sandwich was one of the most insane experiences ever. We gave up on the sandwich about 2/3 of the way through and headed over to Café du Monde for some beignets. They do not skimp on the powdered sugar. I fear that my life has been shortened from the lack of nutritional value in that meal.

The Music: Orgasmic.
I am slightly afraid of dancing in SF again. The whole “Groove Lindy” scene has never been my bag, and now that I have experienced the best line up of live bands I could ever hope to encounter, hopefully DJ’ed sets out in the Bay will still keep me motivated. I distinctly remember on Sun night that my feet were in excruciating pain, the floor had cracks in it, and there was no room to move, but because the Loose Marbles were playing, I had to dance.



My favorites of the weekend were the Loose Marbles, the Palmetto Bug Stompers and Uncle Jack’s New Orleans Jazz Band. Brian, who has always expressed a mild aversion to blues, was totally feeling the Washboard Chaz Blues Trio. The Loose Marbles held the whole event together. They played Thursday night, Friday afternoon, Friday late night, Saturday late night, Sunday afternoon, Sunday night and Sunday late night. I wish they could have played more. Uncle Jack’s flat out killed it on the Saturday night dance. They managed to fill a giant room and kept the floor moving fast.

The Social Dancing: I had to get used to being the worst in the room again.
The crowd at ULHS was not big, but the talent level was off the charts. It was super intimidating. Unlike Camp Jitterbug, I gave up on stargazing as much as I could. In addition to it being kind of creepy (yes, I am aware), there were too many fabulous leads just roaming the floor. I think my only mild regret is I didn’t ask Andy Reid when I had the chance. No matter though. There will be other events, and other than the Friday night and late night dances (which were just OK), I could not get over how much fun I was having.



Gosh, if I had the time to recount all of my favorite dance moments, I’d be here all day. There are a few moments that topped the rest. “Competing” with Carl outside and “almost” making it to the finals. (This was literally my first dance of the weekend.) Complaining about the rain and the floor outside at the French Market, but still tearing it up with BZ to the very last song of the afternoon because the Bug Stompers were just too damn good. Getting asked to dance TWICE by that fabulous female lead from Sweden who placed 7th in the Showdown. Goofily dancing with Ryan whether it was with us being rained on or dressed to the nines. Packing like sardines in a pub listening to the Marbles, and having an incredibly musical dance with Ed that may have only involved two turns at max. Refusing to not dance at a bar despite there being NO ROOM, because the Bug Stompers were too compelling. Asking a random guy to dance at the House of Blues, and having him respond yes with genuine excitement. Finding out personally that Vincenzo Fesi is not a swing zombie, even to the creepy girl that was staring at him for two or three songs.



The Competitions: More grit and less finesse.
The competitions this year at ULHS definitely marked a break from years past. I wish that I had been around for other ULHS’s, just so that I could have a non-youtube frame of reference. Without all of the “Big Names” in every competition, it is hard to say that the winners of these contests were battle tested by all potential opponents. Some notable absences for me personally were Frida (this one hurt the most), Naomi, Nina, and Max. The Showdown, Showcase and Team divisions were missing the strength of more prominent names. The Endurance competition was missing all together. The style of competition was changed up. Liberation was replaced by the Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown. Freedom was replaced by a Blues contest. Revolution was swallowed by the Jack and Jill. I actually liked the changes for the most part.

Tournament style competition opens the door to more one-upping and couples’ interaction during competition. The format really seems to rev up the crowd, as people had to choose one couple at a time to root for. There was some added drama as Todd and Alice were felled in the quarterfinals by a lower seed. Joanna and Chance (1st place) put on a display that was incredibly gritty and full of life. I’m not sure if they would have won a spotlight competition. Dax and Annie (2nd place) probably would have taken that. It is just after each round, Joanna and Chance kept the same spirit and energy despite the ever increasing tempo. They fed off of the crowd. In the end, it felt like choosing between untouchable technique (Dax and Annie) and lightning in a bottle. You got to go with lightning. Oooo…I better stop writing before I get cheesier.

My favorite competition was the Blues/Slow division. Spotlights were still in effect. The Washboard Chaz Blues Trio moved the contest away from slow lindy to something more like a musical heartbeat. Peter and Ramona (1st place) totally lit my senses on fire with their display of lead and follow skill as well as a funkier side. CT described it perfectly when he declared later that sometimes they were not even touching, but they were still “SO DIRTY!” Todd and Alice (2nd place) put on a clinic for turns and footwork. Everybody in the finals brought a different flavor. It was just reaffirmation that this dance is so diverse, and as long as the strength of commitment is there to one’s movements, it doesn’t matter how it is danced.



The Disappointments:
There are a few things that I was hoping to see that flat out just did not happen. I wanted to see Skye and Frida compete in person. Everybody knows that I am completely enamored with what they put out there on the dance floor. I can’t pretend that I was not sad that Skye barely danced (as far as I could tell) and that Frida just was not there. I also would have loved to see Naomi compete in the solo blues competition. Dax displayed innovation and a perfected sense of body awareness, but nobody shakes it like Naomi.

I also have a few gripes with the rest of ULHS. Late Night at Fritzel’s did not do it for me. Dancing upstairs while the band is downstairs is not cool. Just being upstairs made it feel like a brothel. Late night is generally my favorite place to dance, but the environment encouraged more drinking and canoodling than dancing. Another issue was that other than the WWII Museum and the House of Blues, the floors kind of sucked. For daytime social dancing, I’ll suck it up. Bring on the concrete and the rain. Unfortunately, I believe that the quality of floor during the quarterfinals for the Showdown may have been Todd and Alice’s death knell. They were slipping and sliding, and couldn’t reach their full potential. Finally, I was also disappointed that the event was so small in terms of turnout. There was just an overall awareness that ULHS might be losing a bit of its appeal. Apparently it also ended up $4k in the hole. I hope that for next year, everybody sees how fantastic New Orleans is as a location, and makes the trek.



It was such a privilege to be able to go to New Orleans and participate in this event. Although the trappings of ULHS certainly dominated the entire weekend, I’m going to most strongly take away how much enjoyment I got from interacting with people with whom I really love spending time. It was wonderful to reconnect with some old friends, and to make some new friends. And there is nothing better than racking up amazing experiences with someone you adore. I really had the time of my life.


Forge Ahead