Wade in the Wear in full swing!
In June however, we had our biggest event of the year. Summer Swing returned for its biggest and best ever year! This time round we had our Saturday night social in the beautiful Durham City Hall, with live music from the wonderful House of the Black Gardenia. The *cough* Blues *cough* Boat turned into a swing dancers’ Klute for the night, while we drank the night away. The new competitions and Shag stream taught by Ben and Toni were a hit, and it was the perfect end to a year of organising DUSS, even if Bryony Jones wasn’t there.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times….. but mainly the best of times. Right at the start of the year we had to say a fond farewell to Chris and Lucy. The society owes them a huge debt of thanks as organisers and teachers, and we wish them the best of luck abroad. Despite this, the society went from strength to strength. A last minute German coup of the presidency lead to never before seen efficiency, and swing dancing in Durham became more organised than ever before.​
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Over the course of the year recap continued in much the same fashion, except instead of Jack’s awkward teaching moments everyone had to witness mine! On top of weekly recaps, we did tasters in Jam Circles, Steals, Swivels, and all the DUSS Strolls. We ran our first ‘Wade in the Wear’ beginners workshop, taught by Rob and Tina, and Ben and Jo early in November. The weekend away as always was a huge success (it also broke even which for some reason is significant) with many new friends made from York and Leeds as well as Durham. After Christmas Marisa gave us one of the biggest treats of the year, teaching us all the Big Apple routine from Keep on Punching. After stumbling through it for a couple of hours and after only forgetting half the routine we went to Easington for a social dance.
by J.R.R Tapp & S. Karbe
2016 - 2017: The Dream Exec
The many generations of DUSS presidents, coming soon on playing cards near you.
This was far and away the most successful year for DUSS silverware, as dancers we travelled further and more frequently than ever before, and came back with some nice additions to our trophy cabinet. Emma, Nifemi, Jack, Tom, Owen, Immy and Keturah all managed to place in weekend comps from Policoro to Edinburgh. The best addition to our victory haul however, was a colouring book of magical farting animals and a unicorn headband I won for being the most fun dancer at University of Swing (woo!). Congratulations to everyone who competed for DUSS, and represented us so overwhelmingly positively over the year!
Intrepid Dussers scale a waterfall
The last dancers standing (mostly) of Summer Swing 2017!
Andrews Aeroholics Anonymous stealing the show!
Along the same lines, DUSS gave some very well received performances. A thirty second routine choreographed by myself and Antonia was performed at Swing Revolutions and Whip ma Whop ma hop, while Andrews Aerioholics Anonymous managed to blow everyone away at Summer Swing.
Among my favourite moments of helping lead DUSS, were anytime I saw people pecking on the dance floor, watching everyone who came to lessons learn how to dance, and travelling to so many new places and meeting new people along the way. Thank you to Emma, Susanne, Marisa and Antonia for teaching with me. And of course thank you to Tom and Susanne for being the brains behind the whole operation. I can only hope the Swing Society goes on for many more years to come!
A small contribution from Susanne –
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