Watch the "NORMAlizer" Harvest Moon Ball Contest at ILHC

Nils and Bianca

We were thrilled to watch the live stream from this year’s historic International Lindy Hop Championships last weekend in Washington, DC, as I’m sure many of you were. We are anxiously awaiting the final videos and results so we can share them here. But for now, we wanted to highlight the amazing “NORMAlizer” dance contest that was a highlight of the entire event.

As you know, this year was a particularly poignant one at ILHC, since it was moved to November specifically to honor the 100th birthday of legendary lindy hopper Ms. Norma Miller. Sadly, she passed away earlier this year. But the event continued to honor her in so many ways, including a special dance contest.

Norma is known for many things, but she was also a powerful competitor at the Harvest Moon Ball competitions for many years. Here’s a video highlighting her dancing from those years:

To honor her, ILHC added a new competition in the spirit of the Harvest Moon Ball. Here’s how the ILHC organizers describe the rules to the NORMAlizer contest:

All lifts, drops, airsteps,  acrobatics are allowed. Judges will be looking for spontaneity, creativity, and connection to the music. The finals will be done with two-couple battles, NCAA bracket-style, to a live band, round by round, until the winners are crowned. That winning couple will take home $2000 in cash.

Sounds exciting! Here’s the prelims:

And here are the finals!

Whew, I’m exhausted just from watching that. Congrats to the winners Bianca and Nils and to all the competitors for throwing down!