Jumpin at Istanbul, The start, and class wit Nils and Bianca.

Jumpin at Istanbul 2024. This was the real purpose I decided to come to Turkey, that and I have always wanted to see Istanbul.

Yesterday, I got to the hotel on the Asia side of Istanbul. I checked-in,  took a little nap and headed over to the welcome classes.  The Lindy hop theme class/ welcome  dance was fun. It was a nice way to meet other dancers.  The class was large enough that there was only one rotation of dancers.   I met Sabine and her friend Yvon from Berlin.  I had met Sabine at Herräng dance camp last summer.  I also saw Nissa from Ankara who I also met last year in Herräng. It was fun seeing them again.  After the classes I saw the Seattle dancers sitting  at a table.  Five people from our home scene.  That is nice.

The class from Nils and Bianca covered some exercises to make a better connection between partners.  It starts off with a dance.  Then we dance again with the idea that there is a table between the partners.  It can be a big table or a small table, but the idea is to try to maintain that connecting that you have when eating together.  The next part of the exercise was to dance so that you feel the floor. The dance responds to the floor.  Then we did a move that the follower initiates.  At the 4 & 5 of the swing out the follower 

can over rotate and then jump back to the lead replacing the triple step with a jump.  The last move for the follows to take the lead in the dance.  The follow will  change hands different than what the lead expects.  This causes the lead to do something else than perhaps what was planned.  That night,  I had several follows do those things in the social dance.  It is nice to learn something new and then get to use it.