Summer Hummer - Framingham, MA
Summer Hummer is a great swing event ran by Bill Cameron. If you are traveling there you fly into the Boston airport and travel to Framingham. Fortunately, I had transportation in form of Joe Mahoney who drove Susan Kirklin, Victor Loveira and myself to the hotel.

The hotel itself is a great venue. The outside facade is like a castle and gives the hotel an old world charm and yet is modern and inviting inside. This is a very well organized event and it is attended by most of the top swing dancers in the country. Plus many of the new and out and coming talent is in the
Jack-n-Jills and the Strictly Swing contest.

We got to the hotel and checked in. Once we got our stuff to the room Susan and I headed for floor tryouts. This is the life of a Showcase dancer. The contest are almost always on Friday evening and the we are done except for judging and workshops. The floor tryouts went OK. Susan and I don't live in the same city so it takes some time to reconnect and find the right groove together. Mainly, it is a process for us and we trust the process. We will run the routine without music and try to see if the music speed is right then we try it with lifts. Always the hard part for me because it takes more physical output. Then if there are any parts that feel quirky we communicate our thought's on them. If feel up to it we will run it a third time. Later we will walk it several times before performing. Each walk through brings the routine into a better focus. Susan and I work well within our own minds preparing. Then when the night comes I have only one ritual...I hug my partner and a match my breathing to them. This helps calm me and makes me feel as though we are on the same wavelength. Then we go out and see how it works.
This weekend went pretty good and Susan and I placed 2nd in Showcase out nine couples. Not bad for an old guy:-)

Saturday was filled with early workshops and then in the afternoon they held the Jack-n-Jills and Strictly Swings. This is where you can tell that Summer Hummer has a popular following , because each of the different levels of competitions that were overflowing with competitors. I judged some of the competitions on Saturday and this is probably where things got a little sticky. There were twenty two couples in the category that I judged. They danced in two heats of eleven couples. Each heat had two songs in which to show their best and then at the end there was an all skate for everyone. The sticky part is that the judges had to place the couples 1 through 22. This meant that more time was spent doing paper work than watching couples. Although, it is easy to rank couples by a quick look, the time given to that look at each couple is divided between them and accurately marking the judging ballot. This is not my preference for judging. As couples move up the ranks they get much more time and attention from the judges. In novice categories it is extremely important that the dancers have good movement and quiet but not still movement. Musical acrobatics are mostly wasted on judges because there is little time to appreciate them, nor is it really prudent. What judges notice are good visible qualities of movement that are a coma-nation of many types of good technical applications. Simply said good technique produces a good quality and that is easy to see for an experienced judge and dancer. The other factor that sometimes enters into the mix is recognition. Do the judge know you? I have to say that this wasn't the case for me because I was in an area that had many unknown faces to me.

That afternoon there was a pool party. This is probably the best pool party that I have attended at an event. Some of the things that made it rank high is the fact that it was...well, organized. They had food, hamburgers and hot dogs available for purchase. There was also free beer and a bar for those that wanted something more. In addition to that, they had a dance floor and a DJ set up to play music. Robert Royston was the MC for the party and as usual he did a great job of keeping the energy of the crowd up and involved. They had many contest...hoola hoops, limbo and their famous Karaoke. A kind of "blind karaoke" Participants are invited or coerced to come up and have headphones put on their head. A song is then selected and played over the speakers. As they begin to sing along to the song into the microphone, the music is lowered so that everyone only hears the voice of the singers. During this time they can still hear the song through the headphone. It is kinda like singing along to the song to yourself, except there are several hundred people watching you. It has been very entertaining and great fun! Jordan Frisbee and Parker Dearborn both showed their talent with the microphone, complete with the best "Diva" attitude that rival the "Sisters Sledge"


Tessa Cunningham showing her flexibility:-)


That evening Jordan showed his obvious talent with partner Tatiana Molman in the Classic Swing Division. This competition RAWKED! There were more than twenty couples and it was a awesome show and competition.

Both, Friday and Saturday evening there was a midnight breakfast buffet and then late night dancing into the wee hours of the morning. It is small touches like this that make a competition memorable. Another delightful touch is the roses that Bill provided for the Jack-n-Jill finalist boys to give to the girls that they danced with.

There were various DJ's throughout the weekend but the standout would have to be Victor and Lou...great music!

Summer Hummer is an awesome event and is very well organized. It also has many competitors in all of the levels. I really like this event!