My Own Biggest Fan

Is camp hollywood worth it?

I heard it’s really follow-heavy.  Has anyone been to Camp Hollywood, taken classes, gone to dances, etc? What did you think? Especially if I can’t bring-my-own-partner (because I don’t have one!). 

Better than Flawless. Follows’ Stuff!

I want to take some time to write about this video:

Mikey Pedroza & Frida Segerdahl, ILHC Invitational J&J 2009

Mostly from a follower’s point of view.

Frida brings SO MUCH to this dance.  If you just watch Mikey and imagine him with the most feature-less follow you can create in your mind, the dance (though Mikey is really good) would not be even close to how amazing it is.  You could even say the featureless follow isflawless, but Frida is more than flawless. 

I know there’s another aspect here where Mikey is deliberately leaving space to let Frida’s dancing come through, and if he were dancing with someone else he would no doubt dance to their strengths as well.  But even so, Frida’s dancing is what allows this 1 minute 30 seconds to come to life the way it does here.

I think it’s important to strive not only to become a good follow, but also a dancer.  Why would you want to be just a flawless, but featureless, follow?

Anyway, here is a specific thing I got from this video.

Ever wondered what to do when the lead leaves you behind his back while he’s doing cool things? See 0:38, 0:48, 1:01, 1:12. You’re not constrained to swiveling in place. Or standing there with a :o look on your face.  You can do flying splits if you want to, like Frida does.  I mean, you’re a dancer, not just a “follow”.

And back to rambling:

If you watch the video with an eye to just Frida’s footwork, you can see that it is really clean and simple, and then occasionally she goes extra-micro-musical and she NAILS it and everyone cheers.  And I cheer in my heart too.

For some reason I also love her smile at the beginning, right before their first rock step.  It’s like an “Oh you!” kind of smile.

I just think Frida is inspirational with regards to the personality and everything she brings when she dances.

edit: I have a sneaking suspicion that I stole this video/idea from somewhere else. Let me know if you know..