Umeå Dance Festival 2010

It's been very quiet here for a while, but for a simple reason: Umeå Dance Festival 2010! An entire weekend of workshops, dance-introductions and shows. And not just lindy! This is a cooperation between all sorts of dance societies, from capoeira and oriental dancing to folkdance, medieval dancing, to tango, salsa, lindy etc etc. Oh, and I didn't just participate, I was in the planning-group. (Above: Swingum Lindy Hoppers, aka me and my friends, performing)

I held an introduction to medieval dancing, did two shows (one lindy and one in the medieval gear) and attended some classes. Above is me and my dancepartner, Per, warming up for the lindy show. Johannes and his darling cute daughter Alva ended up in the bottom corner as well. I think Alva stole most of the show this weekend!

And me and Per in full swing...

...and some more swinging! =) Look at the skirt, it really twirls. It's a full circle skirt my mom made for herself about 25 years ago, and has now passed on to me. The fabric is gabardine, and it has a great drape. The skirt is actually a bit much for a crowded social dancefloor, one gets in the way of other dancers. For our smaller social dance scene it works great though. And for shows, of course! =)

Both Friday and Saturday there was social dancing to live music, great bands both nights. Here's me just come home from dancing on Saturday evening. As you can see I went with the sailor dress...

...and my favorite hairdo...


...with a little bow in the center back.

For the weekend, wonderful dance teachers Hanna Zetterman and Mattias Lundmark came up to hold some classes with us. They gave us lots of really useful things, both for lindy hop and authentic jazz. The weekend ended late Sunday afternoon with a class in acrobatics (aka "air-steps"), and it was so much fun! Since I was a bit busy flying thorough the air and trying to land properly I didn't get a chance to film or take photos, but hopefully we'll master some of those "acros" soon, and incorporate them in a lindy routine I can show you.

All for now! I hope I'll get back at the latest this weekend with an update on my sewing (all the crafts has been in the background while I've been working with the festival).

Love, Erika

Snow sculptures and lindy

Past Saturday was a busy and fun day. We had a small lindy hop-show in a mall at town. It was "pay-weekend" (first weekend after pay-day, which is the 25th for most Swedes), so there was a lot of people out shopping, hence a fairly good crowd that stopped to watch us dance. Fun! Since it was indoors and we were dancing I'm afraid I don't have any pictures to share with you =(

I recentley realised I haven't really said much about the outdoors here in Umeå lately. The reason is simple: it's been dark, cold and snowy. Snow is great, but not when it's falling or when I'm riding my bike to work... I love winter, but this winter has been a bit too winter-y. Now we're starting in on the best part of winter, though. To kick off the "spring-winter": some pictures from the snowsculpture contest downtown past Saturday! It's an annual competition, where ordinary people participate. We were very happy it wasn't a week earlier, as the temperature then was -28C, and past Saturday it was only -8C and snowing. Basically spring ; )
Ok, the pictures:

It's an ogre! With a mountin on it's back! Oh, and me in front of it of course.

My sister Kajsa and the creature on the cute frog-snow-mobile.
Loved these shoes! Please excuse the old-lady style outfit, it's tricky to protect a hair-do from falling snow.
Isn't it amazing what they can do with snow? This one was called something along the line of "people in the world". I could see right through the globe!
The back of it, with Kajsa imitating the sculpture =)
The last one was a baby in a womb. That's the umbilical cord that run's up from the sleeping baby (not a very good shot, I'm afraid).
So much for Saturday at town! At the evening we had a Lindy Hop Live, with a great band playing, a good crowd of dancers and a very nice evening it was.
Here's Karolin, modeling her stylish outfit for the evening. Loved her skirt! Her mom made it about 20 years ago and now she has given it to Karolin. The pattern is a bit blurry in the small picture, but take it up and you'll se the fine checkers-print.
Kajsa was so cute for the evening. She isn't really very vintage, and since she has such a youthful look she sometimes looks a bit like someone dressing up in their granny's clothes when she's all vintage. I like this style on her, it's cute, colorful and suits her, I think. Modern and young with a just a vintage twist.
And the two of us, happy after a nice evening with lot's of dancing and almost as much cookies and tea =)
Love,
Erika