We spent Christmas with Laura’s parents out in Mount Vernon, TX. Middle of nowhere, but beautiful. Here’s a good shot in front of the Christmas tree (taken with my fancy new iPhone 3GS!).

On Boxing day we started our Journey out to Asheville, NC for Lindy Focus. This year was ridiculous! They nearly doubled the number of attendees, ~500 people! Through it all, it still maintained its standard of excellence for organization, the best learning environment, and a ton of great bands and performances.

The Lindy Focus crew raised the bar for their New Year’s Eve show this year. Evita Arce did a great job organizing the varied acts into one cohesive show. I thought it worked really well. Check out YouTube for all the acts.

Here’s the Piece that Laura and I performed to Nina Simone’s “Since I Fell For You”:

There were only a few competitions this year, the choreography showcase having one of my favorite moments of the whole camp! Karen Turman and Andrew Thigpen, had to go and out do themselves again. Last year’s Ho-down was great, but this was awesome.

You might’ve noticed a certain resemblance to another routine that may have been done by, I dunno, Mike and Laura at last year’s Lindy Focus…

I’m super proud of Andrew and Karen. They’re creativity is astounding, and Laura and I were totally flattered to have them rip our choreography =D

Again, Happy New Year everyone! I think 2010 is gonna be even more kickass than last year!

~Mike

At LotR (which always makes me thing Lord or the Rings rather than Lindy on the rocks!), Laura and I got to do the Invitational JnJ and Pro Strictly, though Laura did the Strictly with Jonathan Jow. I competed with Karen Turman. Laura and Wow-Jow (as he’s becoming known), totally killed it in the Strictly, nailing 1st place, sending them directly to the Champions Strictly finals at ILHC. I didn’t do so Hot, got all nervous, again… The JnJ was fun too, but we couldn’t hold a candle to the likes of Peter and Nina! (can’t find Jow & Laura video, but we’ll keep you posted)

ILHC was crazy cool adventure this year. Laura and I basically tried to do everything possible! We competed with our new Lindy Showcase piece and our Blues cabaret piece. We took 2nd place in Cabaret, somehow beating the Killer Dillers’ amazing Berry Brothers recreation. We’re hoping that the cabaret videos eventually make it on to Youtube, but sadly, not yet.

Laura also did a girls jazz piece with Karen Turman in Cabaret, and a ProAm routine with Ben Luhrman from SA. The jazz piece was awesome because it wasn’t just the usual charleston routine you see all the time. It got them 4th place. I’ll post the video if it shows up on youtube. Ben and Laura took 3rd in ProAm.

Laura graduated to the cool people’s divisions this year, doing the Champions Strictly we Jow and the Invitational JnJ with Kevin St. Laurent! I did the Advanced JnJ and took 3rd with Claudia from Montreal. So many French-Canadians this year! Constantly heard French in the elevators

I did the Open Strictly with Sarah Pritchett, one of our Bam Dynamite kids. It was a great experience for me. I got to teach Sarah a bunch of my moves, and in the process, really learn how to be in control while competing. In Comps, I’ve found that I tend to rely too heavily on my follow for inspiration because I freak out and forget everything. Forcing myself to bring out the cool moves at the right time, was tough but I think it totally helped me get that 3rd place in the Advanced JnJ. I feel totally ready to tackle the Showdown division at ULHS. Laura and I will be training our butts off over the next month!

Bam Dynamite 2.0 performed right before the ProAm Division, and as expected, everyone freaking loved them. Quite a few people told me how jealous they were of how young they started, and how quickly they’ve progressed. Scott, Laura and I are ridiculously proud of them.