This past Saturday, November 6th was the California Swing Dance Hall of Fame Annual Awards. Held at the DoubleTree Disneyland, it was an elegant evening of dining, dancing and awards. Congratulations to all of the Nominees and Winners for being recognized by your peers and contemporaries; among some of the Nominees & Winners were:

Organizations / Contributor Nominees
Top of Beardsley’s – Winner
Valley Swing Dance Club
San Diego Swing Dance Club
Los Angeles Swing Dance Club – Winner
Lindy In The Park – Winner
Ken Watanabe – Winner
Naomi Walenta – Winner
Jennifer Holland – Winner

Nova Star WCS – Men
Josh Clark
Johnny Dessel – Winner
Christopher Dumond
Connor Goodmanson
Pete Green – Winner
Daniel Guido
Steven Guido
Nicholas King
Ben McHenry
Sean McKeever
Michael O’Conner
Rome Slater

Nova Star WCS – Women
Courtney Adair
SiMone Andrade
Samantha Buckwalter
Rachele Nicole Basaez
Hannah Clonch
Nicole Clonch
Alyssa Glanville
Mackenzie Goodmanson
Janelle Guido
Sossy Hyatt
Chevy Slater
Torri Smith – Winner
Tara Trafzer – Winner

Rising Star WCS – Men
Rick Andrade
Chuck Brown
Ronnie De Benedetta
Parker Dearborn
Arjay Centeno
Jordan Frisbee – Winner
Chips Hough
Stan Jaquish
Michael Kielbasa – Winner
Alfred Lee
Edwin Li
Ben Morris
Jason Wayne

Rising Star WCS – Women
Stephanie Batista
Heidi Groskreutz Burns
Jessica Cox
Tatiana Mollmann – Winner
Melina Ramirez
Melissa Rutz
Malia San Nicholas
Lacey Schwimmer – Winner
Brandi Tobias
Sara Van Drake
Patty Vo
Yvonne Wayne

Shining Star WCS – Men
Phil Adams – Winner
Jonathan Bixby – Winner
Bill Dakin
Jerry Dawson
Gary Eisert
Larry Espinoza
Chris Jones
Louie Juarez
Pat Locantore
Carlito Rofoli
Steve Salazar
Mark Scheuffele – Winner
Jumpin Jack Smith
Avner Uzan

Shining Star WCS – Women
Michele Adams – Winner
Carol Arviso
Shirley Estep
Bess Feuerstein
Michele French Bower
Carolyn Frey
Kris Hagerty
Terra Hannah
Patricia Lovell
Carrie Lucas – Winner
Diane Lynn – Winner
Sandra Meyer
Cynthia Ann Richards
Abra Slater
Erin Stevens
Tami Stevens
Audrey Wilson

Golden Star WCS – Men
Bert Anderson
Adrian Barger
Wright Benson
Richard Bonura
Richard Boucher
Don Burnett
Ed Cirio
Ray Cunningham
Gary Dubbs
Don Estep
Ron Ford
James Jackson
Bill Parker
Martin Parker
Leon Raper – Winner
Frank Rodriguez – Winner
Buddy Schwimmer – Winner
George Shepard
Mark Slater

Golden Star – WCS – Women
Linda Cooke
Jackie Ford – Winner
Carmen Garcia-Kiehm
Diana Gillis
Shirley Hartman – Winner
Dixie Hutton – Winner
Cathy Levesque
Paula McHam
Sheryl Ruggiero
Donna Russell
Jeannie Sullivan
Virginia Vela
Nives Williams
Sheryl Zazzi

For all of the Nominees & Winners, including Lindy Dancers go here.

Barry Durand’s 18th Annual Swing Fling was held August 6-9th at the Hilton Dulles in Herndon, VA. It was a weekend full of competitions, workshops, and plenty of social dancing. There was great staff of dance pros and top DJ’s in attendance that helped to make it a great party! Check out RLTV’s video and photos to get a glimpse into this fun event!

Pro – Fabulous, energetic, late night social dancing with great vibes, that lasted into the wee hours of the morning.

Con – Competitions ran rather late as did the awards on Sunday.

[Editor's note: Photos and more vid's coming soon, or subscribe to our youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/rhythmloungetv]

In Memoriam~

Life is a constant battle of fighting the Dark to search for the Light, Good and Evil. The Universe is constantly evolving and changing everyday, every hour and every minute, trying to keep up with our paths are ever changing but, we are still driven to find the path of Light where we are able to shine our brightest and lose all fear! – Jason Colacino

Leave sympathies, well wishes and memories below in Comments section, to suggest more videos or photos to add to this post, please use the Contact page. The Memoriam permalink is http://rhythmlounge.tv/jason-colacino-rest-in-peace/

Industry Icon Barry Durand is hosting his 18th Annual Swing Fling this August 6th-9th at the Hilton Washington Dulles in Herndon, Virginia. This year they’ll be featuring ‘Salsa Fling’ also, which is the Salsa Room starting August 7th.

Over 1000 Dancers will be in attendance plus Pro Am Triple Threat & Adv/Pro Triple Threat, West Coast Swing, Hustle, & Salsa! Plus new Sophisticated Pro Am for Age group 35 years old and up! And dance in your level and up one level for pro am!

I’m upset that I can’t go (but our Managing Editor, Angela will) because I really want to be in one of Barry’s Line Dance vid-jo’s; as a matter of fact, I happen to know down low that a bunch of the ladies of RLTV (and some fellas) want to be in the vid-jo with him…Barry are you reading this? [hint-hint see below videos] Check him out below, I really love this one…great job Barry, I watch this everyday and it puts a big giant smile on my face!

Questions & Answers

Asia B, RLTV – Barry, what made you start videotaping yourself doing your line dances?

Barry Durand – I teach Line Dancing all over the World and when they get to see it they can learn it right, rather than just off the step sheets.

Asia B, RLTV – Obviously you get a lot of support and comments from folks you don’t know on youtube, how do you respond to the attention?

Barry Durand – It always nice to hear the good ones…. but sometimes people can be brutal I just go with the flow.

Asia B, RLTV – The Ladies of The Rhythm Lounge want to join you in one of your choreographed line dance vid-jos preferably a new creation, would that be possible?

Barry Durand – No problem. My latest video had some ladies in a workshop I taught recently to the song “Fire Burning” by Sean Kingston….its called ” Call 911″ you can find it on youtube. I would love to do a new one with your ladies!

Asia B, RLTV – Thank you so much Barry, you are so much fun, I’m sure all your events take on that fun character too!

Barry Durand – Thank you Asia, hope to see everybody this weekend!

Welcome to the Rhythm Lounge, the new home of The Hustle Lounge, and a place where we’ll express our passion for Dance Culture as well as the lifestyle.

If you followed us here from The Hustle Lounge, and are looking for an older post they’re here at the original url; eventually we’ll migrate all the older posts to our new home here at Rhythm Lounge TV.

Thanks everyone and Welcome!