About
GOSSIP, RUMORS, AND TRUE STUFF THAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED IN THE WEST COAST SWING COMMUNITY
Reported with 347% Accuracy
Hi there! It's me, Liza!
I'm a photographer, a writer, and a West Coast Swing dancer. I'm not very good at any of these things. But I'm so enthusiastic.
This website is a collection of the articles I've been writing and the pictures I've been taking on the West Coast Swing competition circuit.
And professional photographs (weddings and other contracted photo shoots.)
In 2006 - before the advent of Live Streaming, Facebook streaming, YouTube - before any of that - I thought my friends at home would like to hear all the fun stuff going on at events, while the event was actually happening. So I started sending emails from my phone to a small group of dancer friends at home in DC.
To my surprise, I discovered my messages were being forwarded. We’d go to a competition in Texas and people would ask to be added to my "list." I’d say there's no actual “list" and I'm not a journalist - it's just hurried notes, bad grammar, bad writing.
"Add me," they'd say.
Pretty soon the “list” got too big for my phone, so I moved to Gmail.
Then it got too big for Gmail so I moved to a newsletter service.
Now thousands of people are subscribed. Thousands! That's pretty cool. I hope they're actually reading the Updates, which are longer than 140 characters. Since social-media has given the whole world ADD I'm assuming nobody reads beyond the first sentence. That's okay with me - I'm writing for myself, really, because I can't just see all that great stuff and not tell about it.
I wasn't saving the Updates. Who would want to read old news? I deleted all those first years - the ones sent out on my phone - and probably the spiciest (meaning bad language, gossip, slang, and uncensored "opinions".)
But now, to my surprise, dancers who weren’t born yet in 2006 want to read updates “from the olden days.” 2006 is the olden days omg I'm a dinosaur.
I don’t have those updates from the olden days. Do you? If you do happen to have any from 2006-2009 please send them to me at lizamay@gmail.com. They might be fun, and they'll certainly be educational.
So that’s what this website is - the misadventures of my husband Genieboy and myself sent from west coast swing competitions, between 2006 and 2016 (when I stopped sending event updates because, well, everyone seemed suddenly to be talking at once, and ... other reasons.) You'll also see a few essays on West Coast Swing community culture, our issues, our dramas, and wcs breaking news.
You can find Updates for specific events listed by "Event Name" on the right of each page.
Pictures (of dancers) are FREE to download. (This doesn't apply to public and private photography shoots on this website.) I don't charge dancers for pictures. I'm not taking pictures to make a profit, but just for the pure fun of it. You'll find a few sample pictures from each event under “Photo Samples / Event Photography”; and the complete collection of all photos from an event under the "Full Albums" tab.
Please feel free to leave comments! And corrections, please! (I make a lot of mistakes.) And your impressions of an event, gripes, thoughts about the community, your life as a wcs dancer, where to buy pizza at 4am, new events you want to publicize ... all comments are welcome.
If you’d like to receive these Updates and essays in your Inbox click here to subscribe.
Thank you for reading!
Liza