birmingham swing festival

Birmingham Swing Festival! I had such a great experience! I was in the balboa stream and learned a lot in class; I danced a whole bunch of lindy in the evenings and regained a tiny bit of confidence in my lindy, I made finals in the lindy mix and match and did really well (!!!), I had lovely chats and hugs with friends. All in all, it was pretty much everything I want from a dance weekender. And this is what it looks like in my notebook. (Please note: I didn't design their beautiful logo, I just drew it in my notebook because I like it so much.)

I took two photos the entire weekend. Not even joking. I was really photo tired this week, and if it's one thing I know it's to allow myself to take breaks from photography if I'm not working and I'm not feeling it. I felt like dancing! So that's what I did.


I took this one of Georgie and Liam hugging on Saturday morning. <3


And this one from a great class with Sanna and Adam.

However! Georgie was the official photographer and as always, she did some absolutely stunning work. Not only did she capture the vibe of the festival beautifully (see her blog post here), there are also plenty of photos with me in them! That is so unusual, since I'm so often the one behind the camera. I'm delighted! Also, a good way to get photos of yourself is always to enter the comps, isn't it? :)

So here's what I looked like at this festival:


This is from the balboa prelims, I had a lovely dance with Josep.


And this is how pleased and delighted I was to be paired with Max in the lindy prelims. :)



Me and Vytas in the lindy finals!!! (Several people said after that they could see my blues dancing shining through. LIFE GOALS! to have my lindy influenced by my blues dancing, and honour the roots of swing in that way. Also, the song they gave us for our spotlight was a proper, swinging 12 bar blues! What else was I to do? :)


I also look like this when I'm dancing. I actually think this photo is probably more accurate than the others. :)


Vytas and I placed second and I'm so pleased and proud! (And yes, Liam won. As usual. He always wins.)

The video from the finals is here if you want to see it and my spotlight starts at 1:42.


Also, this one, just because you can tell immediately from my RIDICULOUS FACE that I'm dancing with the love of my life.

Thanks Birmingham! See you next year. :)

Jimmy Witherspoon | Call My Baby