Halloween weekend in Urbana-Champaign

I attended my 2nd annual Halloween Swing Society Dance here in the land of University of Illinois. Usually, the folks down here don't swing with strangers but there were a lot of unfamiliar faces last night at the Union on campus. By strangers, I don't mean people I didn't recognize, because I don't know many people that swing. What I do mean though, is that many of the costumes made it hard to discern who some folks were or even their gender.

For example, there was one person (I figured it was a guy by the type of shoe he was wearing) who was dressed in a thin, purple, sheet-like material. On top of his head was gold-foiled decorations that looked like antlers or baby tree branches. He also had a red bike light that flashed under the sheet and around his head. Keep in mind that I could not see this person's face at all. I had danced with several gentleman in the first 1/2 hour I was there and with every dance partner, speculation on what this person's costume signified was a topic of conversation. And none of us knew.

So as I came back down the hall towards the ballroom where the dance was taking place, I encountered the strange purple creature and decided to just ask him (could it be a her?) what he was. Turns out this person wasn't just going to tell me. I had to guess.

Avoiding my initial instinct to walk away, I played the game of charades that he'd begun. After about 5 minutes of frustration I finally guessed germs. He then spoke and corrected me saying bacterium. Sheesh! Must be some science grad student or professor. A far cry from my first thought of a Sesame Street character!

Sesame Street characters were present. The Yip Yip monsters were a big hit, although they took their costumes off to dance, unlike annoying bacterium. Two guys dressed as G.I. Joe's came in green face paint, camouflage and complete with green boards and toy guns to complete their plastic toy look (the green boards were put on only for the sake of photos).

I liked the girl dressed as an upside down flower pot. The pot was on her head and she wore a flowered dress. Pretty original. A carebear was present as was a jester. A male cheerleader took the cake for scariest costume. Another original costume was the Chilean miner. 2 guys were dressed as priests. Several guys and girls were Avatars from the movie, one of the female avatars winning top costume prize.

One avatar couldn't decide what his costume should be though...he had blue face, a white, short wig, blue ears, tight blue pants and a blue Star Trek shirt. I was confused but he was a good dancer so I just my mouth shut since I didn't want to get another cryptic answer to "What are you?"

All in all, the dancing was great last night. Several new dancers which were pretty good. A few that really were not. For those that dance, you know the pain I speak of when I say a dance lead takes your and and PULLS you towards the direction he wants you to go rather than leads you there. There is a big difference and usually my shoulder and rotator cuff know it.

I've noticed that down here they teach beginners cross-hand but don't teach them that cross-hand implies to a follow that you are asking them to rock-step and then go past them as the lead does a move. I had several guys stay in cross-hand making it very awkward because my natural instinct is to travel or do a tuck turn.

The good dancer were a ton of fun. I haven't had the chance to Lindy much when I do dances at U of IL. People tend to swing most of the time. But last night was different. Tons of Lindy Hop and although my moves are a bit rusty, I loved every one of those Lindy dances.

I'll leave you with one final image from last night. Someone had either choreographed or is obsessed with Michael Jackson's Thriller. As soon as it came on (right after the costume winners were announced), several folks came out to the floor and laid down. Now, I have never seen the entire Thriller video dance done live nor do I remember the whole video but about 12 people did the entire dance from start to finish. I'm not sure if it was cool or weird but I think my mind is still processing it. Perhaps it was the fact that Superman, a witch, Lucille Ball and assorted other costumes were the ones doing the dance. I think the verdict is still out.

I'm looking forward to more dances coming soon. And especially to dancing in Chicago during the holiday break. I encourage you to check out swing dancing. It is fantastic exercise and the crowd of people are usually really, really friendly. It's been a great outlet for me and so glad I took the leap!

Now to go plan the rest of my Halloween festivities...
Kristen