It’s incredible to me that the last time I went to the International Lindy Hop Championships it its inaugural year, 2008. It was pre-back injury. It was pre-surgery. It was only one of the most memorable competition moments I’ve had in my lindy hop life – making the solo Charleston semi finals surrounded by professional lindy hoppers doing the Big Apple around Marty Kempler in a red zoot suit truckin’ (if you need a definition or visual for truckin’ look here).

For a variety of reasons, moving to London has had the most profound impact on my dancing and personal philosophy towards the dance. I decided in April 2014 that I wanted to push my dancing further and after years of being relatively complacent with my dance ability – started working, pushing, training and facing fears. This really gained steam in September 2014 and I am really excited to share, to be inspired and to celebrate with my London peers at ILHC August 27-31. I feel like such a different dancer – hell, person!

I love competing because I love challenging myself to perform and share what I love. To get to a level of proficiency where I can interact with an audience and offer something I’m proud of. That’s what I’m hoping for anyway. But like all things, I get nerves. I get nervous that I am not good enough. Or that my body doesn’t know what to do or where to go. I like to think of this as the essential artistic existential crisis. The internal monologue that pushes me (with time to make a difference) to take some extra time and care.

To those competing, I can’t wait to see what you’ve all been creating in your home-town practice rooms and living rooms. To those watching from home, thank you for gracing global dance floors – let’s get inspired together. What do you say?

There is a live stream here if you want to watch from home. See you in DC! http://www.yehoodi.com/ilhc