TL;DR Balboa week was amazing, I loved it, and didn't want it to end.
I didn't think I'd say what I'm about to say now, but: my week in Herräng this year was wonderful. I thought I had booked to many things this summer, I thought it would just feel stressful, I thought Herräng would be yet another of the many events lately that have made me feel like a shit dancer, made me feel redundant and invisible, and added to my dance crisis ... But that didn't happen.
Bless balboa week, bless Herräng week 1. That combination was perfection for me right now. The classes were brilliant. Such great material, some of it very challenging and some of it a comforting feeling of "I've done this before! This isn't too hard!". And the level in my class was so high! Most of the leads were an absolute joy to dance with.
But the socials were the best bit. The big ballroom was decicated to fast swing, so all balboa for me (I had ONE lindy dance the entire weekend - tack Tobias. :)). I loooved the music, I loved having all the space, but most of all, I loved that there wasn't the usual insane surplus of follows. Ten of fifteen follows extra per night maybe - it was, comparatively, heavenly. And I got to dance almost as much as I wanted. How often does that happen?
People had warned me that there would be fewer people than normal, going week 1 compared to any other week. There certainly were fewer people, and I was so grateful for that. On Friday, which was the last night of our week, a lot of people who were coming for week 2 were already there, as it was the start of the weekend. The dance floor was crowded - and the walls lined three people deep with follows. I was sad, I felt like my Herräng experience of the past week had been taken from me! But as soon as the band finished, most people left and I had a few blissful hours, back in the lovely balboa week feeling. Both Liam and I were, in fact, so in love with balboa after this week that we immediately started looking for more balboa events to go to. :)
Nine photos from my week:
I just wish we could have stayed longer.
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