Liberty 2012 Update #2
West Side Story!
The Puerto Rican Sharks – Jordan (with a moustache), Arjay, Ben, Angel … versus The very white Jets: Olivier, Kyle and Royston; and their girlfriends the Puerto Rican Chicas: Blake, Torri, Melissa, Jessie versus the blondies Tatiana, Sarah, Nicola, and Henriette. Too funny!
Grace on the mic tonight … hilarious as she often is. This weekend we get not one, not two, but all three of our greatest emcees taking turns on the mic: Grace, Mario, and Robert Royston. What a treat!
Bruce Gleason (thumbsup video) is filming: you can watch all weekend here (I can’t get the link to work but maybe you’ll have more success) http://thumbsupvideo.com/wpfiles/liberty-swing/ …
… and Brad Whelan taking more of his fantabulous photos: http://www.bradfordwhelan.com/
Three couples in Showcase:
- The Roystons (Edge of Glory) taking first place (Grace said “I think there’s stuff on the floor that needs to be picked up, and you know I don’t bend. There you go Angel, you get down there and pick it up for me like a good boy, just like you do at home.”)
- Stephen White and Sabrina Paxman taking second with their new “Somewhere With You” which looked much different than I remember it at SwingDiego in May – several very cool new tricks, this routine really flows, it’s just gorgeous. Both in bright white, bright white heads of fluffy hair – gorgeous. Sabrina is like a fluffy snowball flying through the air;
- Greg and Lemery taking third with No Diggity – looked like they messed up somehow at the beginning and took a while to recover rghghghghrghgh hate it when that happens but it does seem to happen to everybody at some point. (Grace: “I do that roll her up roll her down thing too … but only when I’m putting on my Spanx.”)
Pro Strictly
(looved the music! Our table loved every single song! DJ was either Louis or Beth – we kept craning our necks to see who was playing both seemed to be. What great songs! I’ll write them up tomorrow, in a bit of a rush right now)
- Greg and Lara Deni
- Stephen White and Lemery
- Erik and Kim Brolet
- Chuck and Sabrina
- Arjay and Torri (First Place)
- Royston and Rutz (5th place)
- Ben and Mrs. Tatiana Mollman-Bennett (3rd Place)
- Jordan and Sarah (4th place)
- Olivier and Henriette
- Kyle and Jessica (2nd Place)
… and the Dollar Dance, in which one puts money in a pot and for each dollar given gets a bit of a song to dance with one of the above pros. $400 was raised, donated to Juniors for travel and lodging.
Jen Deluca is here, walking with a cane. Knee problems which she says should be all better in six weeks.
Juniors are here: we’ve seen Anyssa and Josh, and the Clonches. And beautiful beautiful Alexis and Akil.
Pizzas brought in just before Awards, donated by Gotham Swing Club,
Fun dancing! Bit crowded though – already heard of several different injuries, feet trampled, two heads cracked together in simultaneous dips, elbowed kidneys. This is New York, after all. It’s like traffic downtown – lotta passionate drivers with maybe not always the nicest manners.
Jack and Jills tomorrow, Classic tomorrow night!