the blues gardeners outtakes

I love group photos. And my favorite thing to do (as anyone who's been photographed by me will know) is to ask people to change places. People can't hold their chosen, stiff poses when you only have five seconds to find a completely new spot and pose, so it makes for some very ... alive photos. :)

When I took the photo above, a group photo of the Blues Gardeners in the week leading up to Dig Deeper, obviously there were a lot more of them than just that one. And I thought it would be fun to take this opportunity to show the outtakes, just because they are all weird and lovely.










These people have been so close to me for five years, we've been on so many adventures together while creating the Blues Garden, and I can't even look at these photos without smiling out of sheer gratitude.

Heather Small | Proud

dig deeper part II: sunday

Sunday at Dig Deeper! (First part here.)


Elin drew this beautiful welcome sign. <3


Johanna, in charge of the brunch, in her brand new rainbow tighs.



Chillin' with brunch.



Two of today's classes: 8 blues styles in an hour with Annette, and How to choreograph with Adamo.





And then, one of the things I had been looking forward to the most: The Afternoon Soul Party. I've wanted to have one since I was a teenager, and now I could finally make it happen, with two DJs as fabulous as Dan and Annette playing back to back. Gah, it was such a wonderful magical hour of total joy in dancing.


After classes were over for the day, the organisers and teachers gathered in the small room for the traditional Sunday dinner. It's nice to have some time to just hang out with your friends and chat about life, on top of all the work you've been doing all weekend, you know?








Dinner was mainly silliness and shenanigans, just as you would expect. :)



And then, social dancing and hanging out.


(Photo by Joel Höglund)
The choreo battle was such a success! Another one of my crazy ideas, and it became one of my absolute favourite parts of the weekend, even though I didn't have time to join myself. I asked all our teachers to create a short choreo each, one that they could teach in only 2x45 minutes. At the start of the first class, each of the teachers played a few bars of the song they had chosen, and described their choreo with words - no one got to see any of the actual choreo - and the participants chose which choreo they wanted to learn.

During the Sunday social night, the three teams showed what they had been working on. It was SO GOOD. All three teams created magic. And while I couldn't be in one of the teams myself (because event organising is, as you know, a lot), I got to revel in the satisfaction of seeing one of my wild ideas come to fruition. It was ever better than I imagined, and it would never have worked without all the participants being willing to give it their all. I loved it.


And then we danced to the beautiful music of Christoffer Johansson.


When it was near closing time, Mattias and I performed a few goodnight songs, just to wrap the event up, and then the rest of the organisers joined us on stage for a rather heartfelt goodnight and goodbye and until next time we meet. All the participants showered us with love. We've read the surveys now, too, and it makes me a little teary to think about the kind of support we have had from our community. Organising an event like this is a labour of love, and I'm glad our work doesn't go unnoticed. (Photo by Joel Höglund)


(Photo by Joel Höglund)
Quite a few survivors at 2 AM. <3

dig deeper part I: friday + saturday

This year, the Blues Gardeners wanted to create something different. We wanted to fill a weekend will all kinds of classes and happenings that you don't normally get at a dance weekender - or that you might get one or two of, but not sixteen. A dance event for the true blues nerds, if you will, the curious people who just can't get enough of the blues. We had blues history lessons, teacher training, DJ workshops, music lectures, feedback sessions, discussions and much more ...

And I think we did it. I think we created something new. I am so proud.


I played with the Sky is Crying on the Friday night, so that took most of my energy and focus for that evening, and I didn't take any photos at all. But Michael (<3) took these:




I had a complete blast on stage. I feel both confident that I have earned this place on stage and deserve it, and humble and grateful to be where I am today as a singer. I have so much more to learn, and so much knowledge and feeling already in me. And I am so honoured to have the fantastic musicians that I have.



Here's one of our Saturday classes: What is blues? with Dan Repsch.


This cosy atmosphere during lectures was exactly what I had hoped for!


One of Vicci's classes, Values of African American social dances. I'm quite sure this is when she talks about her own feelings about blues dancing. Needless to say, I share them.


Event organising with Mattias


Choreo battle training with Dan


All the evening fika




Helene working on the collaborative painting.


This is becoming something of a recurring event. :)


Liam was there. Of course, Liam was there. His support is like nothing else; I don't doubt for a second that he puts my happiness and comfort over his own (the same way I do with him). In stressful times like these - organising an event and performing with my band at the same time - it's magical to have someone who always seems to know exactly what I need, physically or emotionally, before I even know it myself; and makes sure I have it long before I've even gathered energy to move.


I also taught a class on Saturday - an hour of choir singing, where we sang neighbours of the blues (since blues music mostly didn't have harmonies as far as I know, but singing with harmonies is the most fun :)). I was delighted that so many chose my class, and even more so that my class seemed to make people so happy. This (photo by Joel Höglund) is from when we performed the songs on Saturday night. I was so proud my heart burst a little.


And then, dancing!




Leigh was one of our fabulous DJ:s.


I'll just leave this here. :)