A week on from Swing Revolution 2018 and I think my muscles have just about recovered! Whenever I go to a weekend away I realise just how much of a workout dancing can be! Last weekend, a group of us from UoN SwingSoc ventured up to Leeds for one of the biggest events in the UK swing calendar... Swing Revolution!
Swing Revolution (or "Swing Revs" as it is often referred to) is a three day workshop attended by over 500 people from throughout the country. During the day there are classes taught by international teachers and every evening there was a fantastic social played by an awesome band, Naomi and Her Handsome Devils played every night in the main room (if you haven't heard them before, you should definitely look them up!). It was a great trip and I danced for hours over the weekend. And then felt it once I was back!
"This is really the first time I have been involved with a dance society and attended a workshop for three days. I took the lessons delivered by amazing teachers from France, Spain, America and, of course, the UK. I had the pleasure to perform a 30-second show. I enjoyed the fun of watching the performances. And most importantly, I felt swing dancers' passion! I am lucky to get involved in Nottingham Swing Society just for my one-year postgraduate course and have a very different experience. Swing Revolution is definitely a good place to share the passion and triple the fun!" - Yanmei Tang
Throughout Saturday and Sunday we had 6 lessons each taught different internationally-renowned teachers. In our classes we learnt about things like rhythms, changing up our footwork, being in control of our own bodies and, of course, some jazzy new moves! The teachers were all brilliant, and they really went into detail about some of the technique of swing dancing, meaning that I came out of the weekend feeing a lot more confident and full of ideas about how I can improve my dancing!
"My first time at Swing Revs was nothing short of "SWINGTASTIC." I am fairly new to the swing scene and am eagerly looking for ways to improve my dancing knowledge and skills, and found the weekend to do both of those. I was happy to see Swing Revolution offering the Solo Jazz steam, in which I was a part of over the weekend. We were given 6 workshops over the weekend each taught by a different teacher from the industry. With each workshop I found myself becoming more confident and now even feel comfortable jazzing it out solo at the socials!" - Aila Khan
This year, for the first time we took a UoN SwingSoc solo jazz troupe for the 30 second showcase competition on Saturday night (and, of course, what else would we call ourselves but the Nottingjammers?). We performed the routine that some of you may have seen us practicing before and after class. We spent so long working on it and then it felt like it was over in a flash on the night (30 seconds is really not a long time!).But it was a great experience and I really enjoyed showing off what we had worked on! There were also some awesome teacher performances, a shag competition (which I didn't really understand but it certainly looked impressive!), an open mix-and-match and a newbie mix-and match (in which Catherine, our outgoing president, came second!). And of course there was loads of chance to social dance, and practice our new skills we had learnt in lessons!
Overall, it was a fantastic weekend. I had great fun learning from different teachers and dancing with new people from all over the country! I came home exhausted but I already can't wait to go again next year!
Many thanks to Cheeky Rastall Photography for the awesome photos!
