berlin blues explosion 2017: saturday

Saturday at Berlin Blues Explosion!



Let's start with breakfast.





And then some more brilliant classes, today with Gas & Alba and Annette & Dan Nash (yes, live music in class is pretty awesome).



After classes, Mio and I met up with Sandra and Niclas for a fika.


Again, this light ... So beautiful.


Even when it's raining. :)



And then more Tangoloft and this fabulous musician, Stefano Ronchi. In my opinion he could have been the only band, every night.

Also, the strictly finals were Saturday night. I can't even describe my surprise when they called me and Philippa up on the stage as couple number 5 in the finals. Philippa kept telling me we had a chance, but I couldn't really believe it ... But there we were. Dancing in the finals was So Much Fun. Like, I was in total shock, but I still enjoyed every minute of it.




They didn't announce the winners until later, so I had time to dance and relax and spend time with friends and just be happy about the fact that we made finals. And watch the J & J finals, of course!

And then they DID announce the winners ... and Philippa and I got second place.

WHAT

I was happy enough just to make finals. No - I was happy enough that Philippa even asked me if I wanted to partner up with her, and dance with her in the prelims! And then we got second place! Even though we didn't do very much "leading and following" (we did, of course, but dancers will know what I mean); mostly grooving. I talked to some of the judges about it later, and they agreed that while we did do a lot of solo in our dancing, we had a great connection, great intensity, and great quality of movement. I DIED


Much later, a happy Philippa lounging on a couch by the dance floor. It was just really great to get to share this experience with her.


And even later, at half past four in the morning, Michael photographed me. All the excitement and nervousness about being in the finals had melted away and left a kind of relaxed bubbly happiness that made everything rose colored and shimmery; dancing for the rest of the night was just complete bliss. But maybe that's not making the finals, or getting second place. Maybe that's just blues dancing. Maybe that's just being in the right place at the right time. Maybe that's just realising that this life, right now, is the best life I've ever lived.

berlin blues explosion 2017: friday

Berlin. I don’t think I have sufficient words for how much this weekend was exactly what I needed in my life right now. But I’m going to try:



Dancing until 6 in the morning, without even noticing the time passing. The most fabulous social dances in a looong while, like not just great dances but exhilaratingly great, the kind that will completely restore your faith in yourself as a dancer while still inspiring you to keep working and working and working. (Also, dancing with the same person for over an hour because it simply didn’t stop being wonderful - when did that last happen?)

Some three hours of sleep per night, then getting up and making it to class on time (!). And they were some truly great classes, I got to play with shape and posture and direction and groove and all the yummy things that I love about blues.

Sitting on couches just off the dance floor, enjoying the music (well most of the time - you know I am a horrible snob when it comes to live bands), chatting with dance friends from abroad who I don’t get to see as often as I would like, but always appreciate immensely when there’s time and space for a longer chat.

Also: The light on the streets of Berlin. I’m mesmerized, every time.

Here's Friday in photos:



Had breakfast at our usual breakfast place (because it's the best), Impala.



Classes with Dan Repsch & Jenny Sowden. Yay for classes that make me rethink the patterns I fall into as a follower, YAY!


Then I fell down the stairs to the basement (where the bathrooms are). That hurt. I can laugh at it now, because it must have looked ridiculous; it was a very slow fall, the kind where I kept trying to regain balance and reaching for something and slipping and actually having time to think "this is going to hurt" ... My knees and lower legs have insane bruises (still, after more than a week; they have changed colors beautifully over the week, from dark blue to greenish to purple red and now almost brown), but other than that, I was fine. It is kind of hilarious though that the staircase actually had a real warning sign - AT THE BOTTOM OF THE STAIRS. :)

Then, prelims time; no photos from that because I was competing! I was really happy with my dancing in bot the solo & the strictly (partnered with Philippa, who wrote to me the week before and was like: we have fun social dancing, do you want to compete with me? Of course I wanted to!), and mostly unhappy with my dancing in the J & J. More on the comps in a later post. :)


And after some rest and dinner: Tangoloft! Oh Tangoloft, how we love you.

Teachers' J & J (gah the inspiration I get from watching these lovely people dance):









Other parts of the night were spent chatting and being silly in general ...


... but most of it was spent dancing, until DJ Tracy (<3) finished the night at 6 in the morning; I can't remember what she played, but I had one of those fantastic dances that just go on and on, so it was probably brilliant as usual. :)

(Want to see my photos from BBE 2014? Start here and go forward from there.)

rebecca + martin // bröllop i åhus

Jamen just! I juni fotade jag ett underbart bröllop som jag inte kommit mig för att blogga. Det var en av de där lyxiga dagarna när jag bara tänker "hur är detta grymma mitt jobb?!". Romantikern i mig bara älskar att hänga med kära och lyckliga människor hela dagen. Och jag var så smickrad och glad att Rebecca och Martin så gärna ville boka mig att de faktiskt fraktade ned mig till Skånes östkust istället för att välja en närmare fotograf. Så fint. Såhär blev det:














Och förresten! Man kan se alla mina fotade bröllop i portfolion här: http://kristinladstrom.se/brollop/