Return to Camp Hollywood

On Wednesday, July 29th, I returned to Los Angeles, one of my favorite cities in the United States. I've had many people ask me why is this one of my favorite destinations? Surely the cough inducing smog, cluttered freeways and endless miles of sprawl would turn anyone off. But that's not the LA I see. It's not the LA that I fell in love with on my first visit and continued my love-affair with this time around. You see, to me LA is a combination of everything I want in a city.

As you'll see in these photos I shot, LA is photogenic. It's a city that has it all. It has an amazing skyline with fabulous architecture, historic buildings, art-deco influences and modern impulses. It's a city that has grit and glamour. It has walkable neighborhoods with cute boutiques, wonderful coffee shops, and awesome restaurants only natives know about. It has energy, excitement and a spice of chill with the nearby beaches. It's warm. It has palm trees. And the population is made of up virtually any walk of life you could imagine. Trash, sprawl, traffic...they go hand-in-hand with any major city. But try finding the same type of glamorous sun-drenched energy of Hollywood on the streets of Chicago.





But the other reason I'm drawn to LA is for Camp Hollywood and the amazing dancing found in this part of the country. Last year I came to Camp Hollywood only knowing what I saw in pictures and YouTube clips. This year I returned knowing exactly what the event was all about and why I enjoy it so much. We spent 5 days in the California sun enjoying the city, shopping, eating great food, relaxing at the pool and then dancing the night away, sometimes until sunrise.

This year I competed in the Amateur Strictly Lindy and the Amateur Jack and Jill competition. The strictly was a completely last minute decision with my good friend Lora Abe from Las Vegas. We didn't expect to make finals or place because we hadn't danced together in almost a year. But we had so much fun getting out there and winging it just for the hell of it. The Jack and Jill however, was something I had looked forward to since placing 10th last year. After some pretty stiff competition, I ended up placing 5th. On one hand you want to win these things. But on the other hand, I'm honored to have placed at a competition that hosts so many amazing dancers.

I think the highlight of the weekend for me was the Underground Jitterbug Championships. The UJC was started last year by Nick Peterson of Las Vegas and was a huge success because of the no holds barred approach to dancing and air steps. It's an unsanctioned jam format competition that starts at 2 a.m. and is literally anything goes. You'll see kips, waterfalls, pancakes and even people doing the worm. If you can get the crowd fired up, you move on. Lora and I considered entering and just throwing whatever aerials we knew. But starting a comp at 2:30 a.m. has us rethinking the idea and so we figured it was better to just watch and enjoy. The final two couples ended up being Tiffany Wine and Kenny Nelson from Denver matched up against Dax Hock and Max Pitruzzella. It was a full scale battle on the dance floor with Tiffany and Kenny getting the victory. I personally enjoyed seeing Dax toss Max in a lamp post and pancake, but you gotta hand it to those Denver folks throwing tricks right up until the final measure of music. The video is below...



Overall LA and Camp Hollywood was exactly what I expected it to be. It was great dancing, great people and a great city wrapped up into a mini-vacation. Stay tuned for my full Los Angeles photo gallery to be produced sometime in the next week...

Labels: Dancing, Jazz, Lindy Hop, Music, Photography, Swing, Urban

posted by DVS @ 11:50 AM