Some know Cambridge as a center for enlightenment, an educational epicenter that produces and promotes dialogue, debate, and discourse. While this is certainly true, for me, Cambridge is also a heck of a lot of fun for a lindy hopper. This past weekend, Cambridge was the site for my third lindy exchange since I’ve hopped the pond, Cambridge Lindy Exchange, and like the others, it did not disappoint.
One of the things I’ve missed most about Texas is the daily dose of Erika-superstardom that comes with singing in the car in my everyday commutes. In a town where walking is the norm, and driving seems completely besides the point, singing at the top of my voice and banging my hand on the steering wheel of my erstwhile Jetta is a thing of the past. This weekend, though, I actually got to ride in a car for the 6 hour drive to Cambridge—I plugged my IPod into the car radio, and let me just say, it was epic. After such a great start, the weekend just got better. We got to the first dance a little late, but early enough to catch up with some friends I had made at the Munich and Edinburgh Lindy Exchanges and dance out our car-sore blues.
The next day, we started with a walking tour of Cambridge, and I felt like I was stepping into an English novel. Everything was just so green! And not the green that I’m used to in Texas, but somehow a more vibrant, brighter green that seemed to light up the old college buildings. As fun as just walking was, I was not prepared for the joy about to be unleashed—it was time for our punting tour. If you’re not familiar with what exactly a punt is, just think of those tiny boats in Venice with the men in funny hats pushing you through the river with a long pole. That’s what we did, except without the funny hats and we punted ourselves. Let me just say upfront, it is WAY harder than it looks. My attempt at the pole resulted in little more than erratic diagonal ramblings and occasional collisions into other punts or walls. I did manage to successfully blues dance on the punt, though, and I think that overshadows my inability to manage the punt itself! An American friend of mine, Vanessa, and I had too much fun on the punt pretending we were in The Little Mermaid—if you’re familiar with the film, you’ll remember the ‘Kiss the Girl’ scene where Ariel and Eric are in a small boat, surrounded by wispy branches. Well, we had the branches…so we created our own rendition of the song, complete with ducks sitting on the side of the river.
Needing a nap before the 10 hour dancing stint planned for me that evening, I headed to my host’s place to catch some shut eye. I awoke to find Graham, my host, not only in a tux, but playing blues guitar like a Louisiana native. How classy! The evening dance had a theme: come dressed as “I wish I were…” which explained Graham’s fancy attire—like so many, he wished to be Fred Astaire. My favorite costume, though, was worn by one of my favorite blues dancers in London, David Zilkha, who came as a younger version of himself. He had put on knee pads that had shoes sticking out of them, so when he was on his knees, it looked as though his legs ended at his knees…but the amazing thing was that he actually danced like this, and danced well! The night ended after some fantastic blues dancing until up to around 6 in the morning. After a delicious pub lunch and dance, where I had cottage pie for the first time, our car full of Edinburgh dancers packed up and headed north. After an equally exciting trip back home with even louder music to keep us all awake, I arrived home to the real world, where I had a paper and tutorial prep waiting for me. Even across the pond, life goes on, right?
In other dancing news, I’ve been teaching a blues class at the Counting House, a swing dance venue here in Edinburgh. It’s my first attempt at teaching what I love so much, and it’s gone very well so far. Yesterday was my second class of four, and people seemed to respond well to everything; it is so exciting to see others share the joy of learning how to express themselves through music and movement. I’ve also joined a performance troupe, and we’ll be performing at least once this semester, down in Leeds, England. I’ve got my first aerials practice on Saturday; hopefully, I’ll come out of that without too much brain damage from knocking my head around.
As you can probably tell, the dancing fever has hit hard, and I don’t think it will be going away anytime soon. So with that in mind, go move your feet, kiddos! Just go with it and see where you end up. You might be surprised.
