I know, I know, it's been a while since I've posted, and I am sorry.
On July 1, I saw museums in Berlin, and went to some special exhibits and then went to synagogue and dinner before catching the night train. I took an overnight train from Berlin to Malmö (which had to cross water, so the train actually drove right onto a boat) and then from Malmö to Stockholm Sweden, and then took the metro and 3 busses to get to Herräng (about 120 km north) for camp. Camp was a lot of fun. I am sure I won't remember a quarter of the stories or things I learned there, but I will try to give an explanation of what I've been doing for the past week.
I arrived at camp, and it was nothing like I've ever seen. It is housed in a small city called Herräng, and throughout the year, the city's population is about 600. They have a small store and a bus stop, but other than that, not much. I learned that in the four weeks of camp, the store and hamburger stand earn enough money to stay open the rest of the year.
The camp is housed in the buildings of the school there. We use the schoolhouse as a dorm, the gymnasium, the patio, and the stage area as dance floors, and there are also 4 temporary dance floors outdoors, covered with tents. The dorms are packed with as many bunk beds as could possibly fit, and the showers are in the Gym - communal with privacy not existing, and hot water a desired ammenity. So basically, since 300 people showered at least twice a day for a week, using 6 showers, you can imagine the excitement when you got a hot one.
Anyway, enough about the buildings. The camp was awesome. Directed and run by Lennart and the Swedish "Harlem Hot Shots" - their swing troupe, the camp has an environment like nothing I've ever seen. The classes offered this week were Lindy hop, Boogie, and tap. Regardless of which classes people were taking, nearly all of them knew lindy hop. Each day, you would take three or four eighty minute classes, and by late afternoon, you'd be exhausted. After a cold shower and a filling dinner, there was the nightly meeting.
The meeting was something that everyone looked forward to each day. Led by camp director Lennart Westerlund, it was something that can't even be explained how funny it was. Lennart simply runs meeting, talks about history of the dance, shows videos along with many of the explanations, etc. But the amout of humor in these meetings is incredible. For the teachers, it is quite the honor to be asked to attend, and besides the hot shots, there were many other teachers, from the states, and around the world.
Frankie Manning, who is 91 years old, and the only remaining member of the Whitey's Lindy Hoppers" troupe was (as he is every year) in attendance. He is revered as a legend in the land of Lindy Hop. I had the opportunity to take a class from him on Tuesday during camp, and it was wonderful. At night, there are social dances going on from immediately after the meeting until the last dancer goes home. I was one of the last ones out many nights, staying out until 3 or 4:00 some nights, and as the week went on, was out until almost 5 am dancing. The difference between dancing that late in Sweden vs. dancing that late in the states is that it DOESN'T GET DARK. The sun sets around midnight, and there is this dim dusk period for an hour or so between 1-2am, but then it starts getting bright again. By the time I left the dances each morning, the amount of light outside was equivalent to the light at 11am in Atlanta. It was crazy. during the day there it got quite warm - about 85 F. But at night, it would get down to about 40. the contrast of temperatures was like being in a desert.
On Monday and Tuesday night, there was a band at the night dances, which made it even more fun. On Wednesday night, it was Blues night, and everyone gets all dressed up to go dancing, and they play only jazz blues music that night. Immediately following the meeting each night, they have an optional class or two that anyone is allowed to take, so I took the beginner blues class that night, and learned a bit before making a fool of myself at the dance.
Thursday night was another regular class day, but at night after the meeting I went to an Aerials class, and it was really cool. you had to come with a partner, so I went with another one of the guys in my class, Ivan, from Barcelona. After stretching out, they started us out with a lot of balance excercizes where the girl had to climb up on the guy and keep balance. I felt kind of like a cheerleader, it was funny. But then we learned two aerials that were really cool - a jump and a flip. It was a lot of fun.
During the blues night, Frankie Manning was there, and I got to dance with him!!!! I was so excited. Since he is so old, I expected him to be much weaker and more frail, but when I danced with him, it was almost like dancing with someone my own age (with celebrity status)
The last night was a bit sad with people leaving, but the theme was a birthday party for the camera-man, and it was really fun. Again, people got dressed up, but this time, more to the theme. I stayed up dancing until about 5 am, and then the next morning I got up early and got a massage and then took a private lesson from Naomi and Peter, which was fun and useful.
The camp runs for 3 more weeks, each bigger than the previous, so even though I was there in the smallest week, I was happy with that. The dance floor was manageable, and the class sizes were adequate. I hear that in the later weeks, you have to nap 10pm-3am and then get up and go to the dance because if you go earlier, there's not room to dance.
In week one, there were 25 countries represented. In my corner of the dorm, I was with people from Lithuania, England, Sweden, Holland, France, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, and Spain. The highest represented countries at camp ar 1-Sweden 2-Russia and 3- US. that is overall. US represents more in the later weeks though. There weren't too many this week.
You know the saying "The more you know, the more you know you don't know"? well, after dancing with so many fabulous dancers, seeing so many great performances, and taking all these classes, I have just been exposed to what kind of dancer I am FAR from becoming. Many of the fabulous dancers were my age!! But the nice thing was that the camp was filled with really nice people, and everyone was always willing to help and support everyone else throughout the classes and dances. I'm not going to say that there was no one that I tried to avoid...after all, at this event just as in many other dance events, there were the dirty old men that you wonder if they come to learn or just to dance with the 20 year old girls...but other than that, it was great.
In the meeting on Monday, we watched live as a documentary on the camp was broadcasted on Swedish national television. It was an hour long special recorded last year during the camp, and it was great to watch. A quote that sums up the camp is that
"It is the Mecca of Lindy Hoppers. when you are in Herrang, you are in heaven."
I'm sure you are all having Bela withdrawl. ok, at least lie to me about it. The cruise was alright. I, like many of you already know, am not a huge fan of cruises, I just like spending time with fun people. Unfortunately, spending every waking hour with family for a week is a little tedious sometimes. I already get to do that at home. There were a total of 22 of us on the cruise. It stopped in San Juan, Puerto Rico; St. Thomas, USVI; and St. Maarten, a Dutch/French territory island. Of the 6 days of sailing of the 7 day cruise, two days were overcast, and really too windy to sit outside. They did have a good gym, which was nice, but it's really hard running on a treadmill when the waters are rough. You keep getting thrown off! The food in the dining room was really good though. It's really nice having two waiters waiting on you for 4 courses, for seven days. Yum. Thanksgiving was weird though. although they offered turkey in the restaurant, it didn't really feel like thanksgiving. Oh well. We went to the beach on St. Maarten and for a little while in St. Thomas. and in all three stops, we shopped a bit. It's weird how different people choose to spend their money. One of my cousins, who drives a porche and is dating this woman who came along...his girlfriend went shopping and bought a watch for $12,000. Now, I am perfectly content with my Fossil watch. It tells time, and I don't have to take it off to go swimming. Granted, there are no diamonds in it, but I think $12K for a watch is a bit excessive, even if you've "been wanting that specific watch for 5 years". All I could think about was "that is half a downpayment!!!!" But hey, to each their own.
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