MIKEY PEDROZA

Five years ago, Tonya Morris had the great idea to bring together all of the talent of the dancers that came to Camp Jitterbug and put on a show for a good cause. What came was dubbed The Jump Session Show; a collection of all of the world greatest Lindy Hoppers!

This years show was held at the beautiful Benaroya Hall in downtown Seattle, WA. The hall is home to the Seattle Orchestra and has had famous act such as, my personal favorite, Dave Matthews. The venue is a professional business with actual employees that now how to put on a show. So you can imagine the great pleasure it was to have people that work that venue be there on hand and help us to have great sound and lighting this year. Still no curtains, but that’s my own personal preference. HA! Anyways, the venue was a great improvement on years before with all of the professionalism involved from the back end to all of the talent on stage. Everyone brought their “A” game this year with all of the preparation and high level of thought put into every number. This years Jump Session Show really made for quite the spectacular, spectacle for all of those who attended this year.

Speaking as a performer and just as a right out lover of dance, I can say that the Jump Session Show / Camp Jitterbug is right up there as one of THE premier dance events to attend in the nation! The JS Show starts off the Camp Jitterbug weekend with a thunderous bang! That doesn’t stop until the minute you leave Seattle. I look forward to the time I get to perform for that audience, there really is no other way to explain it other then it is a magical experience. If I can bring a small amount of joy to some one watching one of my performances then I am happy. To walk out on to that stage and see all of those people staring at you can be intimidating. But if you think of it all those people came out to be entertained, by you! They are there to root for you and want you to do the best you can! If you think of it that way and have pride in what you do then there can be no stopping you! It was my pleasure to attend Camp Jitterbug 2010 and be apart of the fabulous Jump Session Show. To share that stage with all the talent that danced their heart and soul is one the greatest honors I could ever imagine.

Those 2 cent were brought to you by Mikey Pedroza.

And below you can see most all of the pieces from the show this year, enjoy!

Every night of Camp jitterbug the have a prelim for a contest or a final. With the large numbers and great level of lindy hoppers there you could most definitely expect some great contests!

The Naval Armory located on the shores of chilly Lake Union, was the site of the first and one of the largest prelims I’ve been a part of, the Open Jack & Jill contest. The Armory ended up being the perfect place for it since the 2 heats that were called to dance lined up from one end of the large square like room to the other. And that was for each heat, good thing there were only 2 heats. But I think everyone in that room was in the damn contest! Glad I was competing and not judging. The Finals were the next night at Temple de Hirsch, 5 couples made it to the finals and yours truly was one of the finalists. I got to dance with the lovely Laura Glasse. The others were partnered up and the band, Bria Skonberg & Casey McGill, began to play and it was a hot number! Surprising but amazing! Kept the room popping and the dancers a swinging!

Sunday night was the final and big night. The last night of dancing for Camp Jitterbug brought us the Strictly Lindy Hop Finals! In order of appearance, the competitors were: Pontus Persson & Frida Borg, Jeremy Otth & Carla Heiney, Andrew Thigpen & Karen Turman, Michael “Dargoff” Darigol & Brittany Johnson, Nick Williams & Laura Keat, Juan Villafane & Sharon Davis, Mike Roberts & Laura Glaess. It was a great contest Pontus and Frida blew everyone ouyt of the water with their take on some great, classic lindy hop moves and tricks. But Nick and Laura hot on there heels with some brand new breath taking moments. In the end cleanliness won over new ideas. The entire contest was an amazing testament to our dance and showed us where we came from and where we can still go…


Thank you to Tonya and everyone that made it out this year to Camp Jitterbug 2010!

See y’all next year!

Over the years Camp jitterbug has exploded out of the now small dance floor of the Century Ballroom. To the never ending wooden floor of the The Naval Armory on the shores of Lake Union. The giant floor can be intimidating and hard to find a flow at times. But the do a great job of drawing the energy towards the band with the clever use of light and flags! (If you get that last bit there, then you get a free candy from me!) Best parts about the venue is that there is plenty of room to dance and great airflow from being so close to the water. (Though if you are me, then it doesn’t matter, I’ll find a way to hit some one… purely by accident though!)

The Friday night dance, which started right after the Jump Session Show, at the Naval armory featured Bria Skonberg & PNW All Stars. A small band with a big sound! They were the perfect band to start off the night. Played great standards as well as some hot jazz songs. The passion brought forth by the relatively young Skoberg was really felt through her trumpet. They mixed the classic sounds of hot jazz with a mix of modern musician as well which made the sound come sweet, hot and smooth! It made me dance clean and energetic just the way I like it!

Saturday night, the dance moved to the Temple de Hirsch, which was a lot closer this time to Capital Hill. This venue was added to the line up last year and has served the event well. Though even with it’s high ceilings it can still get a bit hot and stinky at times, but it still has a great dance floor. The band on stage that night was Bria Skoberg & Case McGill’s Small Band. They were mostly why the room was so HOT that night! I tell you what Jim, they played hard and we danced harder which in turn made them play harder! This group really fed off of the dancers and killed it with every song the brought up. Even play some classic songs with a bit of a musical twist which kept the dancers excited and full in tune with the music. Even if the floor was crowded at times, you could still get your swing out on!

Sunday night was the last night big night of the weekend, but surely not the end. Again, the dancers flocked back to the Temple de Hirsch for what was going to be an amazing big bash night! The stage was set for one of the best big bands I’ve heard in a while, Glen Crytzer’s Blue Rhythm Band. Crytzer, being a himself a dancer and self described “music snob”, really understands what we as lindy hoppers really want! He put together a great group of musicians from the Seattle area that play with great passion. Which in turn makes us lindy hoppers dance harder and smile greater! It seemed as though more people came out for this night then the last. The more the songs swung the more the strong smell of sweat came from the pours of every lindy hopper in the house that night, ah, smells like victory!

Next post will be about the dance contests during each evening dance, stay tuned!

Every year, towards the end of May, Lindy Hoppers from all over the world converge on to the city of Seattle for 4 days and nights of the best dancing of the year! The event is Camp Jitterbug and this was their 11 year running. I’ve had the pleasure to teach and perform at this event before but this year I went purely as a dancer. No obligations or duties. Just going to have a great time and the expectation of amazing night time dances and after hours. I wasnt let down, expectations fully met.

Tonya Morris is the brains behind the camp dedicated to Lindy Hop and all other forms of jazz dance. She begin Camp Jitterbug as workshop weekend with only 2 couples teaching at the even that only needed one venue. But over the years Camp Jitterbug expanded to include over 20 instructors from all over the world, about 6 venues for classes and 3 different evening dance venues! This expansion that takes over most of the Capital Hill area of Seattle, WA, was needed to supply the demand of students that come to learn from the best in the world.

In the next few posts I’ll be talking more about the evening dances, the contests and the Jump Session Show!

What is the Dance-a-thon?

The Dance-A-Thon is a 24 hour swing dance that takes place in Orange County, California. The mission: to raise as much money as possible to help fund cancer research and treatment at City of Hope Hospital. All of the participants, board members, bands, teachers, DJ’s, and performers are unpaid volunteers. The 2010 Dance-A-Thon will take place March 13-14 from noon to noon.

The 24 hour Cancer Dance-A-Thon features:

Live music from bands that play Swing, Big Band, and Jazz music. Dance lessons from world class instructors. DJ’d music from some of the dance community’s most popular DJ’s. Performances from local dance teams. Contests that are fun for everybody. A pasta dinner and a continental breakfast – yum!

TWENTY FOUR HOURS OF INCREDIBLE FUN AND DANCING – ALL FOR A GREAT CAUSE!!! Register or Donate Today!

(I will be in attendance for this amazing event for a great cause. I will be teaching a special class at 6 AM appropriately called “Wake Up With Mikey”. So please come out and enjoy 24 hours of dance we all love for a cause you can really ’swing’ behind!)

Hot Club Stomp performs their newest routine, “SHAKE THAT THING!”, at the 2nd annual CAMP SWING IT 2010 in Seoul, South Korea.

Hot Club Stomp is a Lindy Hop and Classic Jazz Dance team with members from all over California. The clip features Mikey Pedroza, Nikki Marvin, Jeremy Otth, Laura Keat & Shesha Marvin performing a Classic Jazz Dance routine done to a remixed version of “Shake That Thing” by Dean Mora.

If you listen close enough you may be able to hear the changes we made to the song, i thin you’ll like them. And if you listen closer you’ll hear the incredibly warm sound of the Korean “Ooooh!” You have to love the Korean dancers, I would dare say that they are the best audience in the world!

…Enjoy!