Just got back from the Canadian Swing Championships. Tons and tons of great dancing – Gordon Webster is indeed pretty amazing live – plus a metric ton of competitions. Despite the name, it is perhaps as much a national event as Lindy Bout-that is to say, primarily a regional event, but attracts some internationals (mostly as visiting judges/instructors). Emphasis is definitely weighted towards Lindy hop, but there is representation of west coast swing and rockabilly jive, and less surprisingly balboa.
There is a bit of crazy party reputation associated with it, which I’m…not so sure about – the environs are quite nice, while the event pass is a good but more expensive. The video footage is behind a pay wall – but only $5? Feels like they should have made them all free and let anyone film ($5 for a film license?) – I feel that there’s already so much video in the internet you’re actually competing for limited attention from other, higher profile events (and cat videos). On the other hand, a whole whackload of international rockstar judges included Jon Tigert, Todd Yannacone, Sylvia Sykes, Pamela Gaižutytė, Nina Gilkenson, Bobby White, Kate Hedin…
Still – luckily some people with actual camera skills have obviously paid and started posing their videos – and there is a pretty crazy fast Canadian top tier final – check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XhsNzdebo0
