SinCity 2013 – Update #3

Should you go to SinCity?

Did you just get a boob job?

Then yes!

Definitely.

If you’re shy,

If you’re among the majority of our dance community – our Beloved Geeky Nerds,

If you are:

• an engineer
• a programmer
• analytical
• introverted
• you knit
• you like graph-paper
• you’re a non-conformist
• linear
• logical
• left-brained
• systematic
• encyclopedic
• socially awkward
• unconventional
• love cats
• love math
• bookish
• If you’re any of those …

You might think of bringing along a friend with whom you can sample Vegas — and the long stretches of open time at this event — at your own speed and in your own way.

Together you might venture out to the Strip, try the casinos, take in a strip club and be horrified/awesomeified with moral support, you’d have a buddy to hang with at the pool party, to sit with in the ballroom, to push through the crowd in the Lobby Bar, to try the restaurants.

Someone to share your weekend in the City of Sin.

Or do what more than a few did this year and bring your mother to Vegas for a family vacation and to show her what you’ve been doing at these mysterious dance weekends which have caused you to lose your job, your house, and any ambition to do anything with your life but dance till you die.

The Lobby Bar.

You’re coming down the elevator, you hear “Get Like Me” louder and louder, you turn the corner and boom! You’re in the middle of it.

In a throng of rowdy people at one end of a long, skinny, dimly-lit, very crowded bar. You weave your way through the rabble of dancers squeezed between bar stools and wall, stopping to say hi hi hi patting backs nudging people aside as you push your way down to the small, dark, crowded dance floor at the far end.

Louis in a raised booth at the back, lit only by the glow of his laptop.

It’s neon dark, loud, sweaty. It gets later and the dancing expands into the bar area, drinks are passed over heads, and the later it gets the more poetic the dancing.

It’s like a scene in a film.

People say Thursday and Sunday nights in the Lobby Bar were highlights of the weekend.

For others it was the Pool Party to end all Pool Parties – palm trees, waterfalls, multiple pools, bars, mojitos, waitresses in bikinis with trays of anything in the world you’d want (this place is a foodganza), eleven cabanas, 30 couples side by side doing basics in the pool, mojitos, water volleyball, Sarah’s bad ass music sippin on gin and juice, laaiiid back, with my mind on my money and my money on my mind.

And mojitos.

And workshops! Great workshops at this event. Jessica’s “Release Your Inner Stripper” – a highlight for many. But six more fantastic workshops by the best of the best: Jordan and Tatiana, Kyle and Sarah, Ben and Jenn, Brent and Kellese, Benji and Torri, John and Jessica.

Friday night, White Night – magic!

Wow, the energy in the ballroom.

People came with large signs on poster-board GO PHOENIX! AUSSIES RULE! And they were stoked, screaming, bouncing around punching the air waving their signs. Crazy excitement.

And what a sight it was – a ballroom filled with people dressed in white. Jordan as Elvis in glittering white and gold, sideburns and shades.

Jordan was on this weekend. He was great last year, as I wrote last year.

But this year? Whoa. Unhampered by a live video stream he was REALLY great. Relaxed, spontaneous, hilarious, sending out HUGE energy.

Running spur of the moment mini-competitions all weekend -

“Who can do 10 fouettes? Ten fouettes for a free drink ticket! Come on up!” (Kara jumped up, so did Rome – I think Rome won even though he fell into the audience on the 15th turn – here they are and here.

“15 push-ups? 15 push-ups for two free drink tickets come on up!”

Jordan wanted the Awards photo-bombed like last year. So when no one else volunteered he went charging across the room, mic in hand, took a high flying leap, diving in front of the winners and landing with a CRASH in a severely ungraceful belly flop.

“Ouch,”

he said.

Great music all weekend, as I’ve said.

Here’s more for you hometown DJs around the world …

Lindo’s great Novice Prelims Friday night:

• “Get Lucky” (Daft Punk)
• “Slow Dance (Natalie)
• “Wardrobe” (Tony Braxton)
• “Lose Control” (Keri Hilson)
• “Blow” (Ke$ha)
• “We Found Love” (Rihanna)

(See?!? Novice doesn’t always have to get the tired old stuff. In Europe Novice gets great music! Like Allstar and Champions do here in the States. And I don’t mean contemporary versus blues. I mean new versus 20-years-overplayed.)

Louis’ three AWESOME social-dance songs between Novice and Intermediate:

Jordan:

“Are you ready for Intermediate? I said ARE YOU READY?!? Lemme hear you say “OH YAY-ER“

[ballroom echoes "Oh Yay-Errrrrr!"]

“LEMME HEAR AGAIN OHHHHH YAAAY-ER!!“

[entire ballroom screaming "Oh YAY-Errrr!!"]

Intermediate Prelims Music:

Jordan:

“ROTATE!

“Hoa! Pause!

“Stop rotating.

“Just a minute – while I – take – this – shot.

“Waaaa! Mmmm, good stuff.

“What I’m doing here – this is called work? Um, no. This is NOT work.”

More awesome Louis-music between Intermediate and Advanced:

Advanced Prelims Music:

And Allstar Prelims music:

And then … CHAMPIONS ROYAL FLUSH Round I!

You’ve seen pictures from last year – no lights, pitch black ballroom, only the dimmest black-light spotlight on the ghostly dancing couples. Eerie, spine-tingling, your eyes straining to follow the black-light forms sweeping across the floor like large silent birds across a night lake.

Three heats for this first round:

Jordan and Deborah with Kyle and Sarah dancing to “Blurred Lines”

Ben and Kellese, Benji and Tatiana, and Brent and Jessica dancing to “Treasure”

And John (In a hat! Wow he looks great in a hat!) and Melissa with Kielbasa and Jen and here’s the song I wrote in my notes: ζ`∏øÐ~Θ∂ Yeah I don’t know either.

Four times over the weekend I heard,

“Hope this event stays small. I like it like this, where you see everyone and don’t feel lost. Like a party with friends. Hope it doesn’t get as big as SwingDiego.”

I don’t think it will. SwingDiego is an utterly different kind of event. It’s NASDE, international, “important,” glorious in his hugeness.

SinCity is exactly the opposite. It’s a party. Vegas. It’s “Hangover Part III” with dancing.

Think I heard Nathan mention they tripled numbers from last year. Maybe next year they’ll triple again. Maybe more. Could easily happen with their track record. Which could change the feel.

But I’m not worried. These guys (Parker, Earl, and Nathan) are psychotically obsessive about doing things right. I’m sure they’ll make it great no matter the size.

I talked with several non-dancing family members who came along and all mentioned how happy – “genuinely happy, not stiff, or politely happy” said one – we dancers looked. Genuine joy and laughter is what they noticed.

Yep. That’s it in a nutshell. Why we’re hooked.

Noticeable lack of clothing at this event, and a superfluity of underwear.

Hella lot of fun!