It's been awhile. It's not for lack of videos. In fact I feel a little bad because a lot of good stuff has come out in the past couple of months. I've just been a little busy between my real job work and my pretend job helping with The Big Big Benefit in July and ILHC in August. In fact, expect an ILHC update this week right here on this very blog. Really. I haven't done a Random Links post in awhile too, but I did want to highlight this post by Madeline of the blog "Behind The Madness." I hope to talk about it in depth in a future post, but I just want to say that I agree wholeheartedly.
It reminded me of why I've been watching the following two videos over and over since they came out. They're honestly the most beautiful examples of Lindy Hop I've seen all year. No gimmicks (unless you count Todd in a fetal position and spotlighted by every light in that theater). Just great dancing.
The first is of Nina Gilkenson & Todd Yannacone performing a social dance at Midwest Lindy Fest a couple of months ago. They're dancing to an old warhorse of a song: "Exactly Like You" by Carmen McRae. Even though it got played out 10 years ago, I still love dancing to and dj'ing this song. I'm glad to see other people are too.
There's a lot to be mesmerized by this performance from Todd's crazy combinations to the way Nina keeps moving her feet through every variation.
The other clip is of Frida Segerdahl & Sakarias Larsson performing at an event simply called Harlem in Vilnius, Lithuania. They're dancing to a live band playing a version of "Chinatown"
I just got a brand new TV for my birthday and the first thing I did when I figured out that I could hook up my laptop to it was test it out by loading up this clip. Call me a geek, but it makes me happy to see great dancers in HD.
Everyone knows Frida, or at least they should, but I agree with the sentiment that Sakarias is probably one of the most underrated dancers in our community. This clip should make you wonder why. It's not just the moves, its the movement. The power and grace and skill and confidence and . . . everything about it. I don't know what else to say, so just go back and watch the clips again.