Groovin' On a Sunday Afternoon

1-2pm Down Home Blues

The oldest traced "Blues Dance" is the Slow Drag. This versatile one-step was done across the country to every form of Blues music, but really developed into a gritty, down-home favorite of isolations and improvisation in the deep South. Learn the rare Delta-style that started it all. Less experienced dancers will get a firm grasp of traditional Slow Drag and what may be one of the best foundations for Blues, and experienced dancers will get to challenge themselves with the polyrhythms of this deceptively simple dance. Caution, teachers not responsible for exploding heads!

2:10-3:10pm Slow Dancing: to the EXTREME!

Dancing at the medium tempos is easy, dancing at the extremes is hard. Everyone recognizes the skill and endurance it takes to dance fast but dancing slow is often thought to be easy, simple, what you do when you can't dance fast. This class will focus on tempos and movements that will test your balance, rely on a killer sense of rhythm, and all the while staying under 100 bpm. Expect to sweat.

3:30-4:30pm Flash and Class

A lot of people think of slow dancing as what you do to get close with someone and is all about the feeling and not about how it looks. We'll bust open these myths and show how slow dancing can be fun and exciting with a number of dips, drops, leans, and maybe even a lift or two. Less experienced dancers will get a chance to see how diverse slow dancing can be and get a good vocabulary of fun and interesting moves to spice up their dancing with experienced dancers getting a chance to work on perfecting their lead/follow technique while learning some excellent moves for the social floor and competitions.

4:40-5:40pm Music in 3D

Musicality... a word often used as a catch all term for everything from being on the beat to hitting breaks, and used to justify dancing fast, slow, moving all over the place or barely at all... all to the same song. Musicality is about putting what you hear in the music out into the world to be enjoyed by as many senses as possible. We'll break down the most common elements in blues music and how they correspond to movement and partner dynamic. Less experienced dancers will learn how to take their dancing from just a series of random moves and styling to something with artistic intent, while experienced dancers will learn new levels of interaction with the music, their partner, and the community.