Liberty 2014 Update #1 – WATCH LIVE ALL WEEKEND!
Grrrrreat energy here so far!
Last night’s most excellent Kickoff Dance in the downstairs ballroom – packed! When we left at 2am we passed another 50 excited dancers just heading in to start their all-nighter.
I’ve dissed this downstairs ballroom other years but you know what? Last night was SO fun I forgot to notice the ballroom. And the ballroom is actually fine. Sometimes I read what I wrote in previous years and wonder if I was smoking crack.
Anyway, who cares what room you’re in when there are SO many crazy great dancers on the floor and Louis DJing! and crowds of people laughing and horsing around in that glassy architectural hallway and on that enormous grand staircase and everywhere gangs of dancers laughing and celebrating. If I’m worrying about the room then I’m pretty stupid, is all I have to say about that subject.
And great big Lindo, the Man Who Is Everywhere At Once. Look here, look there, anywhere you look there’s Lindo laughing and hugging.
Torri and Maxime in the hall on their way in to dance, horsing around against the wall, cracking jokes. Maxime barely able to keep his eyes open, just flown in from France for a two-month stint in the States. Liberty through Desert City. Torri and Maxime get two whole months together!
How do these people make relationships work? Each in a different country every week of the year.
If they’re lucky to be hired at the same event they wave running past each other in the hall in between performing, competing, practicing, running workshops, giving privates, judging.
And all those eyes on them, so many eyes, everybody staring every little thing they do. Always gotta be “on,” charming, talking to strangers – no matter how tired, cranky, or ill they might be feeling.
How do they do relationships? Beats me.
I’d be like,
“GET AWAY! I HATE EVERYBODY! ESPECIALLY YOU! DON’T TALK TO ME I’M WARNING YOU IF YOU SAY A SINGLE WORD I’LL SCREAM AND THROW HOTEL AMENITIES!”
Maxime’s suitcase was “lost” somewhere between Lyon and JFK. And then “found.” Having been broken-into and stuff stolen. Gifts for Torri. I’d be a raving lunatic. For them it’s just Life On Airplanes.
But seriously, the cuteness quotient of these two. Are they not the cutest couple in history?
They probably hate that word.
Which by the way, speaking of Maxime, have you seen this?!?
From the French Open, couple weeks ago.
Feels like there are people here we haven’t seen for a long time, like a reunion almost. All kinds of New Yawkers here who don’t seem to travel anywhere else. This is our eighth year at Liberty (we missed 2004, 2005) so many of these folks we’ve seen every year at this time, eight years in a row.
Non-USers and Californians often come in early to Liberty to see the city, or as it’s called here, “THE City.” Times Square, Statue of Liberty, MoMA, the West Village, Grimaldi’s, Empire State Building, PS1, Bergdorf’s, Grand Central, Central Park, Chelsea, if you’re me then FIT is a must, Grant’s Tomb, Rockefeller Center, New York Public Library, the Staten Island Ferry.
New York is the city for cinephiles, foodies, theater buffs, fashionistas, art lovers … and SHOPPERS! (SoHo, Chinatown, the Lower East Side, Greenwhich Village, Nolita, Meatpacking District, Garment District. A shoppers paradise!)
I remember the year Torri and her mom Kim, dripping wet, came sloshing into the lobby and I mean they were soaked, drenched, hair plastered like drowned rats, shoes making puddles on the floor – and so HAPPY! They had just returned from a day in The City seeing as much as they could cram into a few hours in a torrential downpour.
Speaking of weather – God must have pointed down at Liberty, and with a crack of lightning decreed,
“And rains shall pour down upon thee, Liberty Swing Dance Championships, and there shalt be muggy grayness throughout the Liberty land.”
Every year it’s like this. Which doesn’t matter in the least at this event, because In New York weather is not a thing.
Or as they would say,
“What you gotta problem with the weatha? Wanna tawk about it? Come ova heeya and tawk about it. Yeah didn’t think so. I will cut you, you say somethin about the weatha. Ya motha. Fuhgeddaboutit.”
It is FRIDAY folks. That means tonight, in just a few hours, OPENING CEREMONIES here which means THE BIG SHOW!
This is Liberty’s Tenth Year Anniversary, so tonight’s show should be something special.
You can watch, free, all weekend, beginning tonight at 8pm New Yawk time.
Or buy DVD’s (with all workshops, which you need to own, right?) here.
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