Saturday Workshops: Studio 1
If musicality is how each choice in the moment maps to the music, composition is how those moments come together to form something larger. Just as we can examine composition in music or prose or photography, we can examine composition in our social dancing. And, we think, you *should* examine it, if you want to craft your dances with the same care and intention that any other artist would use.
This limited size class requires pre-registration here
Dancing in close embrace can be intimidating, but it can be so very rewarding! We'll help you get past the pitfalls, and having dreamy, fun, dynamic dances in no time! We'll also talk about how you can get into and out of close embrace, and how you and your partner can use non-verbal communication to navigate those transitions.
In this class, we’ll focus on blues that’s about letting loose and having a good time! Learn some of Julie & Mike's favorite moves to dance to funky party blues. We'll explore a few different options for dancing solo and with a partner. Be proud of your butt and learn to shake that thing!
Pre-reqs: Having a butt (flat butt, round butt, any butt!)
Saturday Workshops: Studio 6
Have you been dancing close embrace for years and want to diversify the way you connect to unlock more possibilities? This class is for you. Are you looking for ways to make close embrace comfortable for yourself and your partner, both physically and mentally? This is the class for you. Want to connect well with more partners of different heights, shapes, and experience levels? See you in class.
Many of the blues dances make use of momentum. Come take your technique to the next level in this class. We will also explore creativity and developing individual style within momentum.
Explore how the mood of different jazz-blues songs can influence your movement as a follower or as a leader. The broad range of moods, feelings, shapes, and textures we can dance within the umbrella of Ballroomin’ will enrich and develop your individual style and offer inspiration to your partners. We will also use concrete examples to discuss how freestyle ballroomin’ can evolve into a specific idiom.
Pre-requisites- people should be comfortable walking with a partner in close embrace.
This limited size class requires pre-registration here
Saturday Workshops: Studio 7
Whether you’re experienced with cuttin’ or need an introduction to it, this class will sharpen your skills! This class will work through the overall structures & etiquette of cuttin’, as well as working on your cuttin’ content. You’ll get to choose your own adventure for getting an intro to cuttin’ content, working on cuttin’ composition, or building power moves. Then we’ll bring it all together and get hype in a circle!
Pre-req: Must be comfortable dancing solo blues
Only a Blues Sith deals in absolutes - always dancing big or small is the path of the Dark Side. We'll work on crafting moments that slice like light sabers, using minimalism to make memorable social dances.
Sunday Workshops: Studio 1
Sometimes worrying about getting things right can get in the way of dancing. Come find out what Ruth & Julie care about in a partner dance and what they think you should toss right out of the garden.
Pre-reqs: Comfort dancing lead and/or follow in blues in multiple contexts and connections. Students will have put some thought into following or leading technique, musicality, & partnership already, and are prepared to challenge their expectations and think more deeply about their dance. Intermediate- to masters-level students will find this class comfortable and challenging.
Dancing satisfying rhythms by one-self feels good. When you add rhythmic interplay with partner and music, you have a recipe for next-level dancing. Explore this with Dan and Mike G, both of whom are musicians as well as dancers.
Soul train lines are a great way to feel group togetherness and also have your moment in the spotlight. Get ready to have fun and bring the party!
Sunday Workshops:Studio 7
Connect with your partner and feel the music together. This class will give you the skills you need to have good dances to some essential styles of blues music.
Curious how to make your dancing a reflection of who you are inside? We will contemplate what movements we each enjoy, and go on a journey to discover how to make other movements feel like they belong in your body. We will also examine how each of us leads and follows. How do you lead in ways that create a dance that is uniquely you? How does the way you follow influence the choices your partner makes while leading you?
Sunday Workshops: Studio 2
The choices we make as dancers about moves, aesthetic, rhythm, etc. are, unsurprisingly, really important to making good art. As such, it's easy to focus on the 'what' and 'how' of dancing, and forget to put as much time into the 'why'. This class will focus on exploring the impact of different choices one can make as a leader as well as what inspires you to make different choices.
Play with your partnered patterns for jazz, expanding your vocabulary and finding building blocks for creativity.
This class is going to be challenging. We're going being "when" and "where", and playing with acceleration and deceleration, with balance, with precision. This class will help you find your flow-related weaknesses, and find ways to improve them. Come prepared to work hard, and to fail... and then to practice, and then to get better.
Pre-reqs: Students in this class should already be very familiar with stretch and momentum, able to comfortably lead and follow complex passes and turns, and to have a strong sense of their own balance. If you're on the border for these pre-reqs but don't quite meet them, please bring a partner (or partners) rather than joining in rotation.