Herräng 2008 Week 1

I've spent the last week at the Herräng Dance Camp, and because of the international character of that camp these random impressions from the camp are in English.

Last year I brought a pedometer, but I forgot to do that this year so it's hard to compare, but I think that I've been dancing more in the night than previous years. The last three nights before classes I slept four, four and three hours, respectively, before a particularly exhausting last day of classes, including a fast routine with Hanna & Mattias with lots of jumps which left me lying panting on the grass.

In spite of that I didn't sleep at all the night after that, but kept up during all the Friday party, dancing until the breakfast opened at eight o'clock. Even then I left the dance floor more because of hunger and leader/follower imbalance than because of being tired. I still find it amazing how much energy you get from dancing.

I was happy with my group, IA1, which contained some of my favourite followers to dance with, both some that I already knew of, and some new.

Wikipedia says that C Jam Blues (aka Duke's Place) by Duke Ellington has been performed by countless other musicians. At one time eleven different versions were being played back-to-back in the library! I happened to be dancing when the dj started this crazyness, so I thought I should outlast the whole set, even though I didn't know many songs there would be. After dancing a couple of songs each with different partners I had run out of followers after nine songs, and the dj kept on. I ran around looking for someone to dance with and had to go to the couple in the sofa who looked like they would prefer to sit together and not dance at all, least of all with anyone else than each other. It's an emergency! You have to dance with me! I pleaded, and I'm happy to say she obliged.

But Herräng is not only dancing. I've also won a Petanque competition, been thrown out of a casino, juggled and eaten lots of brownies. Now after some sleeping and laundry I long to get back again!

I've taken some pictures that are available at Orkut and at Facebook.