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This year we're adding West African Dance!
We are excited to add a new element to our weekend with workshops taught by Diadié Bathily of the Afriky Lolo dance troupe. Diadie will be teaching a survey of African traditional dances from various ethnic groups from West Africa. Not only will you learn the dances the cultural background for each dance, you'll get to practice it and perform it in class to the accompanying rhythms of live West African drumming. At Diadie's discretion, he'll be teaching some or all of the following high-energy and exciting dances:

Temate (pronounced teh-mah-TAY), from the Ivory Coast or, in the country's official French name Côte d'Ivoire: This is a harvest dance of the Wobe people of central western Côte d'Ivoire.
Mandiani (pronounced mahn-JAH-nee), from Guinea: Mandiani is, historically, a dance that young girls from the age of six to thirteen would perform. Today, both young girls and boys perform it to celebrate a good harvest.
Diansa (pronounced jahn-SAH), from Mali: The Khassonke people of the Kayes and Kita regions of Mali perform this dance to celebrate the full moon, the end of the dry season, and good harvests.

View the workshop schedule.

Milk It. (E) - Andrew Slac (w/Amanda Gruhl)
There's more to dancing to the music than just hitting the beats and accents. This class will focus on stretching out your movement to fill the entirety of the song, all the while helping you learn how to feel and interact with the subleties of your partner's movement.

It's not mind-reading: how to say "no," how to say "yes"...and how to ask. (E) - Topher Howard
(w/Heidi Fite)
Starting with the basics of partner connection, this class will teach you the techniques necessary to begin safely leading and following lifts, dips, and slides in your Blues dancing.

Dancing With Your Partner Not At Them. (B) - Jeff & Kristen
Partner dancing requires 2 individual dancers to become 1 dancing couple. The tricks and traps of how this union occurs will be explored with emphasis on movement principles that can be applied to all of your dancing. Leaders will learn to become clearer and softer while followers learn to be lighter and more responsive. The take home message from this class is how to make your dancing feel better.

Scale of the Blues. (B) - Charlie & Melissa
This class focuses on using scale of motion to help you express the tone and intensity of various styles of Blues music. We will focus on not only the technical ability to cleanly execute and lead/follow small movements, but also on acquiring the confidence to extend and enlarge those same movements when the music calls for it. These concepts are key to improving your musicality and partner dynamic.

"Blues Dancing is like an onion.....it has layers" - Shrek. (B/I) - Jerry & Kathy
Exploring the rhythms of Blues music, from the basic rhythm to the more complex and layering them into your dance. The student will start with simple movements and explore more complex movements as the class progresses.

Opening Up Your Blues. (I) - Ogden & Amanda
There is much more to Blues than a close embrace. In this class we'll cover techniques and concepts that will increase your options when you dance in an open position, and while still keeping it as connected, musical, and bluesy as it was in closed.

T'aint Whatcha' Do. (I/A) - Kelly & Adam
It's cliché, perhaps, but really it's the way you do things that will set you apart. In this class we want to show you that for each dance, move and gesture you know, you actually know 10. This is what makes the basics so beautiful, they are limitless space for you to insert your own way of doing them. You have more tricks than you know . . . come learn.

Soul of Slow Dancing. (A) - JoJo & Chance
An advanced class focusing on rhythmic dancing that follows blues music through melody and contrasting moods. With the use of drags, ballroom styling, tangoesque movement, slow grind, and solo-dancing, we will dance the blues.

Performance Blues. (A) - Ogden & Amanda
Blues is such an internal dance, how do you take the energy between you and your partner and communicate it to people beyond the dance without losing that internal focus? Why would you want to? We'll discuss that and cover some ideas and techniques to develop and improve your dance aesthetics, your focus, your lines, and your partnering. This class is not just for someone interested in performing Blues, it's for anyone interested in improving the look and feel of their dancing.

Bread & Gravy. (A) - Kelly & Adam
This class is all about taking your dancing to the next level. We will teach you some truly challenging moves, and better yet we'll get into how to invent these on your own. We will talk about what it means to put yourself, your personality and creativity into historical dances, to escalate the way you dance and perform. We ask that you attend this class with a partner that you are comfortable working with in moves that involve trusting weight (lifts, drags, tosses etc). Step it up, and by 'it' we mean you.

Jook Joint Stylin'. (E) - Damon & Heidi
Jookin' isn't a dance so much as it is a style of dancing to the Blues. You'll learn to use syncopated rhythms, body isolations, and bring attitude to your dancing to really wow your partner and make jaws drop. Get ready to shake your ass and strut your stuff!

Ballroom Blues Styling. (E) - Damon & Heidi
Learn the styling Lindy Hoppers at the Savoy used when they danced to Big Band Blues. The raw athleticism and sense of musicality that only Harlem's best Lindy Hoppers could bring will teach you how to both whisper and shout with your dancing.You'll learn how to take the styling and steps and adapt it to suit your own form of Blues.

Cakewalk. (E) - JoJo & Chance
The Cakewalk evolved as an exaggerated parody of the white, upper-class ballroom dancers as the slaves would imitate the mannerisms (namely the promenades and processionals) of their masters. Learn about this historic dance as you have some fun with prancing, strutting, bowing, waving canes, and doffing hats, all done in a high-kicking grand promenade.

Sweet and Hot. (E) - Kelly & Adam
While many of us have danced to blues music with a partner, dancing to the blues alone is just as fun. This class will introduce you to a whole truck-load of solo movement from jazz-era 'low-down' dances and will focus on the synergy of jazz and blues improvisation. Open to all, this class is intended to build confidence in your own solo dancing and offer you a whole new repertoire of movement to use alone or with a partner. A knee-slappin' snap-tossin' good time.

View the workshop schedule.

Beginner (B) - Little to no Blues dance experience. You might have some other partner dancing experience, but the Blues is new to you. Zero to about one year's worth of Blues dancing experience puts you in this category. Note: Everyone - no matter what level - is welcome to take the Beginner level classes to brush up on your Blues fundamentals.

Intermediate (I) - You've got the basics of Blues down and you have a basic repertoire of blues moves, dips, patterns. You understand and are comfortable with the following concepts: weight changes, moving from the center, using the floor. You've been dancing Blues at least a year and you've taken some form of Beginning level Blues instruction regularly during that year, whether teaser lessons, regular classes, workshops, or private instruction.

Advanced (A) - You've probably be dancing Blues for at least 3 years (Lindy Hop or other Swing dance experience doesn't count!). You regularly participate in Blues-only workshop weekends (for example, Cheap Thrills, Red White and Blues, Down Home Blues, Emerald City Blues, etc.) or regularly attend Blues dances available in your local scene. You're good at learning routine and you enjoy tearing apart the fundamentals.

Everyone (E) - These classes are open to All Levels of dancers. While you don't have to have any Blues dance experience to get a lot from these classes, advanced dancers should expect to be challenged and inspired as well. These classes offer a wide range of subject matter and technique that can be applied at different levels by different levels of students.