Swingin Into Spring 2014 - Review and Placements

Swingin Into Spring was an exciting event! If your spending time and energy learning West Coast Swing or Hustle in the Connecticut area, you’d would have been crazy to miss this Hartford-located event.

Event director, Ken Mercik, brought together regional instructors and national champions to create a great learning environment for newcomers and serious dancers.

This event is easily the most convenient, best bang-for-your buck, highly social event for our West Coast Swing and Hustle group from Connecticut.

Swingin Into Spring 2014 - Review and Placements

Swingin Into Spring was an exciting event! If your spending time and energy learning West Coast Swing or Hustle in the Connecticut area, you’d would have been crazy to miss this Hartford-located event.

Event director, Ken Mercik, brought together regional instructors and national champions to create a great learning environment for newcomers and serious dancers.

This event is easily the most convenient, best bang-for-your buck, highly social event for our West Coast Swing and Hustle group from Connecticut.

A small portion of our 30 person group.

A Great Event Schedule

Some of the nuances that make this event special are: the 30 minutes between each workshop, where people can practice what they learned, speak with instructors, use the restroom, and still have time to make it to the next workshop; a full dinner break on Saturday night where people can go out into Hartford and connect with their friends; and the competition-free evenings which maximize everyone’s social dancing experience before the clock even strikes midnight.

Dancing with a Baby

For Anna and me, this is our last event before Anna gives birth. Anna was very excited to dance in the instructor’s demonstration on Friday night. She was concerned that she’d have enough stamina and that she’d have enough core strength to get through a Hustle dance. This video (by Don Peters) shows Anna showing some of the cleanest lines in Hustle doing Wrap Turns, Shadows, New York Walks, and a Las Vegas.

There was one thing that Anna wanted to make sure we accomplished at Swingin Into Spring, a video of us dancing West Coast Swing while full-term pregnant. We were able to have one of our students (thank you, Amy) record our Sunday afternoon dance.

Dinner With The Group

Part of the fun of being with our SwingShoes Group is that we invite everyone to our group dinner. We dined at Vito’s On The Park, a classy, Italian restaurant overlooking Bushnell Park in Hartford. We ate with 19 people of our group. Such moments are a really great way to get to know each other on a more personal level than just dancing.

Pictures of Swingin Into Spring

 Let's say you want to see all the pictures of the Jack and Jills (Prelims and Finals) or Strictly Swing divisions. See all 300 pictures of the Swingin Into Spring weekend.

Competitions

There is something so fulfilling about watching your students step on the competition dance floor for the first time. It’s something of a rite of passage - where faith in one’s dance ability overcomes all emotional insecurities.

Even better is when a dancer makes finals or even places for their first time. We had some of that this weekend: Special congratulations to Shantryce Essilfie for placing 2nd in the Newcomer Jack & Jill, and to Amy Garcia for making finals in the Newcomer Jack & Jill.

Placements

Jack & Jill - Newcomer

Shantryce Essilfie - 2nd Place
Amy Garcia - 12th Place
Maria Sanchez - 2nd Alternate

Jack & Jill - Novice

Andrew Hayden - 8th Place
Renee Charlton - 11th Place
Daren Roeder - Prelims

Jack & Jill - Intermediate

Chris Johnson - 4th Place

Strictly Swing - Novice

Daren Roeder & Renee Charlton - 6th Place

Strictly Swing - Intermediate

Chris Johnson & Kathy Tang - 6th Place