This past weekend was the tenth anniversary of PittStop, the Pittsburgh Lindy Hop exchange. For year 10 they went all out, having a live band at every dance. Totaling at seven bands, this lineup included; The Boilermaker Jazz Band, Solomon Douglas Quartet, and the Blue Vipers of Brooklyn.

As an attendee of last year’s PittStop, one of the big improvements I was thankful of was the change to the Pittsburgh Opera as the late night venue. Last year it was in a school that due to noise laws, windows had to be sealed. In result, last year’s late night venue became a sweat lodge for those inside.  However at the Opera venue this year; there was two large separate rooms for Lindy in one and Blues in the other, nice wood floors, and decent ventilation. One thing that they continued from last year was how ample amounts of food and reasonably priced drinks were provided, so getting food in between the night and late night dances were more of a fun break and less of a desperate necessity.

As usual the Sailors and Soldiers Memorial Hall and Museum was a pleasure to dance in. Dedicated in 1910 its an amazing venue to dance in not just for the breathtaking atmosphere the ballroom provides and but also the ability to during the day tour the museum free is a blast for historical geeks like myself. Particularly fun this weekend was an orchestra was having their rehearsal during the day and a performance at night in the auditorium, nothing like a free concert. Fun fact according to wikipedia, Silence of the Lambs had the hall fill in for the “Memphis Courthouse” scenes, including the escape scene.

This year there were performances as well. Some of the performances were from the local Pittsburgh residents and others invited from Ohio. I was excited to see in person Mark and Ellen’s updated routine, that I wrote about in a post about a few weeks back.

Overall, I had a ton of fun. But talk is cheap, here’s a bunch of videos for you guys to see how the weekend went.

Videos of The Weekend

Saturday Afternoon Dance Jam Circle to Jimmy Sapienza’s Five Guys Named Moe

Sunday Afternoon Dance Shim Sham to the Boilermaker Jazz Band

Titled: Best/Worst Moment of PittStop 2010

Update: (12/7/2010)

Christina from SwingColombus wrote about PittStop as well!