Seattle Salsa Congress 2016 + Compression Leggings

In the Dance world, congresses are basically a convention where you take dance classes all day and evening, then watch performances by the pros, and finally social dance all night into the wee morning hours (like until 4-7AM). It's a wild time and there are lots of great classes and dancers.

In the Latin Dancing world, there tends to be the LA Style salsa congresses and the Cuban/Timba congresses. There are also some specialized ones for Bachata and Kizomba that appear when more dancers of or studios teaching those styles reside in the region.

I recently attended the Seattle Salsa Congress which is a mash up of LA Salsa, Cuban Salsa, Bachata and Kizomba. There were so many great classes and I had a blast social dancing with all my friends. I love the dance community.

Ran into my talented friend James.

Tony Pirataa's Afro House class was outstanding. Take his class whenever you get a chance!

Juan Matos Pachanga class was crazy intense. I was totally exhausted. Love his style.

Below we were in Juan Matos class.

Below taking Sergio and Marichu's Bachata class as Daniel and Deseree sadly were denied entry by customs! But Sergio and Marichu were amazing too! We learned a crazy wild dip!

The dance floor at 4 AM in the Bachata room. Still going strong!

Maykel Fonts below left taught some really fun Rumba routines (Cuban Style) and I adored Mouaze Konate from Paris and his Mambo class. Have you ever taken a class from someone and felt you instantly understood whatever they taught, no matter what language they spoke? That's how I felt meeting Mouaze (said like the sound you make for a kiss -- mwa sa). 

Below is one of Maykel's classes at SSC2016

Below is Mouaze's classe at SSC2016

It was my friend Cam's birthday. You know suitable party photos ensue. 

There were some great shoes! I wish I'd taken the time to try some on, but I found these gorgeous compression leggings from Brazil that went home with me instead. You know they must be good if I purchased ready to wear clothing! ;) 

The day congress started, I gave myself a couple hours at home to sew up a pair of compression leggings. I used some lovely compression fabric from Sportek (love them & their customer service!). This is the 2nd time I've used it. The first time, I made a pair of black leggings. Loved them so much that I wanted another color.  I squeezed these out of 1 yard and had some left over for bits of a sports bra. Yay!  They work out to be around mid shin length, sort of a pedal pusher. Which I love. Next time, I'll order a yard and a half or yard and a quarter and make them full leggings. 

The only challenge I have is the rippling that still occurs when feeding through the walking foot and topstitching the seams. Maybe I'll try washaway stabilizer tape next time. Any suggestions?

I really like every fabric I've purchased from Sportek. I found them when seeking compression fabrics. I have one other one to try and then I'll be posting a 3 fabric comparison in my standard legging pattern (the one below) which is a pull on pant at zero (0) ease that I've folded out 2" negative ease per piece (2" from front leg, 2" from back leg) to create a negative ease in the garment. The folding was a "let's see what happens when I do this" experiment that has served me quite well! 

I even used my self-drafted leg gusset pattern. You'll note, it's not a traditional gusset because I kept the crotch curve. But it works really well!   

You'll also notice the satin stitch on the center back. That's my own way of differentiating front from back. Sure, my front crotch curve is super short compared to my back crotch curve. But you know what? I get dressed in semi-dark lighting a lot of times or in a hurry. So if I have something that I can sense by feel and not have to look, then it makes dressing easier and I don't have to add a label! I just mark evenly on both sides of the center back seam. :) 

Do you attend conferences? What's your favorite subject?
Have you used any great compression fabrics? Love to know some other sources and athlete favorites!