Summer Hummer 2010 Update #2
Showcase was next on Friday night. Judges were Pussycat Dolls with the addition of two very happy men: Jess, Jen, Rutz, Donna Roesel, Stephanie Batista, and Deborah Szekely … and Doug Rousar and Cordoba. (Chief Judge Maira Pineda).
- Cody and Tracy Melin – same beautiful routine we’ve now seen for six months or so. Keeps getting better and better – smoother and more elegant. Tracy tells me this time they missed the first lift – frustrating for her (Cody is much more easy-going about mistakes – for him it’s about the process – performing, getting better and better over time.)
- Greg and Lemery – same adorable “Westie High School” (to John Mellencamp’s “Jack and Diane”) – but now much harder, harder lifts, more complex.
- Myles and Tessa – I *love* the song (“Black Crowes “She Talks To Angels”), and I love Tessa’s head and neck – so flexible! – flinging and swirling her gorgeous head of hair at exactly the right moments. I love Tessa’s lines.
- Robert and Nicola – And OH MAN they are looking good! This routine changed dramatically as of two weeks ago at Swing Fling – so much that we almost didn’t recognize it, or them. They’re dancing it hard and fierce, with accelerations and decelerations that gave me goose bumps. No conservative easing into lifts or drops – Nicola flies into Robert’s arms – the trust (and skill) is scary and exciting. Love the beginning – Nicola posed like a goddess up on his shoulders. She’s gorgeous.
And the winners were:
- Robert and Nicola
- Myles and Tessa
- Greg and Lemery
- Cody and Tracy
Last comp of the night, Friday night: Champions Strictly! Tote-allll-lllyyyy FUNNNNNNNN, of course.
- Tessa and Robert Royston – Trouble
- Chuck and Rutz – One Tribe
- Deborah and Brennar – Dynamite
- Robert Cordoba and Jill Demarco – Beautiful
- Myles and Taletha – In My Head
- Arjay and Jessica – Strobe Lights
- Kyle and Tat – DJ Got Us Falling In Love
- Jordan and Sarah – Club Can’t Handle Me
- Maxence and Jen – Baby Get Down
- Torri and Ben – Bad Romance
- Malia and Nick – California Gurls
So these guys (just the guys – not the girls) judged themselves, each one putting himself and his partner in last place. And the winners were:
- Jordan and Sarah (Oh my GAWD were they funny. Jordan especially – his faces! His faces are ridiculous. I was falling off my chair laughing and I was sitting on the floor! The whole dance was a series of jokes. So witty – almost like Charlie Chaplin west-coast-swing style. And Sarah – wow, I don’t know if I’m just imagining it or what, but Sarah’s dancing this year has seemed to me to have some new magical quality to it. She just seems *on* in some new way. Crazy creative. So between the two of them you can imagine this dance. Funny and amazing.
- Kyle and Tat
- Arjay and Jess
- Maxence and Jen
- Brennar and Deborah
- Chuck and Melissa
- Royston and Tessa
- Cordoba and Jill
- Nick and Malia
- Ben and Torri
- Myles and Taletha
Buffet Friday night (and Saturday, too) and since it’s been two years since we were at this hotel (last year the event was temporarily moved to a moldy mildewed run-down facility in Siberia) I’d forgotten about the LINE to the buffet. You don’t want to know. We paid for it so we were gonna get our food daggnabit all no matter if it took two days to get it – but really, come on Sheraton Framingham. You can do better. Next year no buffet – if we’re hungry the restaurant right down the hall from the ballroom will be not only cheaper, and better (dry scrambled eggs, rawther disgusting sausage patties, bacon, muffins, and orange juice) but also waaay faster fer sure.
And then! Late-nite dancing and it was GRRRREAT! Great Friday night, great Saturday night, great THURSDAY NIGHT (yes that’s right! Thursday night! Everybody said one of the best Thursday nights of any comp in recent memory. I kinda thought Swing Diego and MadJam had great Thursday nights but everyone was saying nope this was the best Thursday in a long while. Not on a small floor, either – Thursday was in the main ballroom and was packed until we left at 6am). And – a great Sunday night too! We danced every one of those four nights till 6am. And for four nights the floor at 6am was packed and jumpin. We always hear about people who stay up until 7, and some crazies who stay up until 8am. But Rob stayed up Friday until 9AM!!! Nine o’clock in the morning! AUGHGHGHGH okay now that puts me in a sweaty panick – 9am is definitely tomorrow! It’s bright out! Rush-hour has died down! Birds aren’t chirping anymore, they’ve gone *back* to sleep. Eeeeewww!
But 6am – that’s reasonable. You can close the drapes, put your head under the covers, and pretend it’s still sort of the night time of yesterday. So that is exactly what we did, four nights in a row, getting up a couple hours later to start all over again. Total total funness! Total tiredness but total worth-it-ness. Awesome dancing every night at Summah Hummah.
More tomorrow – Rising Star, Classic, and JJ’s!
Love Liza