Classes

Teacher Training

Blues Musicality: Rhythmic Improvisation
Teaching musicality can be difficult. We all hear the music slightly different based on our background and what music we listen to the most. We discuss ways of breaking down the music, explaining how the music is layered and ways that we can tie our movement to the music. We’ll cover different exercises that can get the point across and of course take any and all questions.

Solo Movement: Choreography and Cutting 
As our community becomes more an more comfortable with the lead/follow of blues and more familiar with the music, dancers need to expand their control and awareness of their own bodies to be able to advance more quickly and express themselves more fully. We’ll cover means by which to teach solo movement as well as talk about creating and teaching choreography and improvisation exercises geared towards cutting.

Evaluation
A number of dancers have wondered how they should decide which classes would be best for them to take, what focus they should have over the weekend. This evaluation class is an opportunity for you to dance with a partner of your choice, or possibly an instructor and get a 5-10 min. evaluation about where they think your weaknesses and strengths are to help guide you in your choice of classes. Since the teachers in Immersion Classes at DHB will not call rotate, a number of people without regular partners have asked whether or not they should take these classes. The answer is yes. The evaluation class is a perfect opportunity for you to find someone to take the classes with, or to find a small group of people at your level and rotate amongst yourselves.

Dexter & Michelle

Musicality – Take The Blue Pill
Do you feel stuck in a rut with your blues dancing? Are you tired of the same old patterns? Do you leave your partner with a glazed look in their eyes? It seems like you need a good dose of musicality! Having musicality allows you to express the melodious quality of a song while adding innovative variations to your movements and steps. In this class, we’ll help you break away from the monotony and the mundane and infuse your dancing with newfound creativity. Beginners will get a fresh understanding of musicality that will improve their dancing while experienced dancers will be able to break down their walls and further push their creativity. Side effects may include sudden bouts of inspiration every time a song comes on.

Vocabulary – Fred and Ginger Get the Blues : A Ballroomin’ Blues Class
Imagine how Fred and Ginger would dance if they were feeling blue…or slightly “sauced”…or just being totally relaxed dancing to blues music. We’ll focus on that imagery as we follow their little adventure and explore the style of Ballroomin’ Blues. Those new to this style will add a new feel and look to their dancing while more experienced dancers will learn some new moves to add to their existing knowledge of Ballroomin’. We’ll travel, we’ll stride, but we’ll trade light and airy with heavy and deep with ballroomin’ flair in the spirit of Fred and Ginger!

Immersion – Class Fred and Ginger’s After Party
Can’t get enough of the “Fred and Ginger Get the Blues” class? Then come join us at the after party to learn additional Ballroomin’ moves, share some thoughts, and even go over some of the previous class material in further detail. Special focus will also go into your connection with your partner as we will be discussing the application of stretching, pulling, delaying, and absorbing movement – core qualities in Dexter and Michelle’s Ballroomin’ Blues style.

Vocabulary – Juke Joint Jambalaya
Spice up your blues with a healthy helping of saucy moves, a garnishment of styling, and a side of attitude all marinated with Down Home Blues aesthetic. We’ll be covering assorted hip isolation movements, tips on shaping the look of your dance, and styling ideas that will whet everyone’s appetite. While you’re in this class, learn how to do the “brick pig” and the “groovy boot shuffle.” You can help yourself to a few or all of the items on the menu. Just don’t forget to tip your favorite dancer.

Musicality – Blue is the Color of my Heart
It ain’t easy being sexy. Heck, it ain’t easy being sexy all the time! Give it a break…for now. We’ll stretch our acting muscles a bit and wear different shoes & hats. For at the heart of each blues song is a narrative with a setting, characters, and emotions open for interpretation waiting for you to play them. In this class, we’ll explore themes behind some songs and examine how it can inspire the musicality in your dance. Because after all, “all the technique in the world won’t do you any good if you don’t have anything to say.”

Technique – My Sweet Little Woman – A Follow Empowerment Class
Even within the lead-and-follow dynamic, follows can have a strong voice and contribution to the dance. This class will push follows to “stretch” to their fullest potential while being more assertive and encourage the lead to “ask for more.” We’ll touch on connection, rhythmic isolation, musicality, solo movement, and examine opportunities to bust sweet moves that will leave a lasting impression on your lead and anybody else who’s watching. As a follow, you’ll be empowered to move with greater confidence on the dance floor. As a lead, you’ll have a renewed appreciation for the follow that has transformed in front of your eyes. While this class is focused on follows, leads play an important and supporting part and are encouraged to participate in this class.

Shawn & Amanda

Immersion – Stealing From Tango
So what’s the deal with all those dancers trying to put tango in blues dancing? Tango has an immensely rich vocabulary, excellent for closed position dancing. Learn how to lead and follow flashy tango-inspired moves and techniques, then how to integrate them beautifully with your blues dancing and how to adapt them to the music so you never lose the feel of the Blues.

Technique – Every Which Way
We all dance face to face, but what about front to back, back to back, right side up to upside down, and more? In this class we’ll revisit connection basics and show you how to use them in different positions and orientations that will likely be new for even advanced dancers.

Vocabulary – Solo Geometry: Waves and Circles
Learn to warp space-time with your hips! Ever wondered how to actually lead and follow those crazy hip and chest movements and make them look and feel nice? We’ll teach you how to move your body with solo work and isolation, then show you how to apply them to your lead/follow. We’ll throw in movements with varying difficulty, to make sure everyone gets something challenging.

Technique – Precision Blues
Learn the differences between weight changes and steps and how to apply them. We’ll cover how to lead basic patterns like the box step, then use them as a basis for leading and following Thelonious Monk-like rhythms and level changes, so you can turn your bodies into bebop instruments!

Vocabulary – Fancy Pants
We’ll teach you some flashy moves great for performance, competition, and impressing your mom. We’ll teach you the basics of weight sharing, a few of our favorite moves, and our newest cool stuff!

Musicality – Putting on the Handcuffs
Musicality can be simple. In this class, we’ll provide constraints to help free your mind and open up your dancing. All levels of dancers will learn how to use what they have to connect creatively to the music. Beginners will find this class totally accessible, and advanced dancers will enjoy this approach to creative musicality.

Joshua & Devona

Vocabulary – Solo Blues: “Shake That Thang”
This class will explore blues movement and rhythms; moving through space with blues feeling and a ‘get-down’ quality, isolating different parts of your body, incorporating some of the basic blues “steps” such as; shake-n-bake, fish tail, belly roll, shake blues, shimmy etc., and the possibilities for stringing moves together.  Beginners will gain the basic vocabulary of solo blues, and advanced dancers will get the challenge of layering movements with different rhythms on top of those basic movements.  Overall it’s about moving, letting go, and having fun with it.

Technique  - “Seven Things”
Ever have one of those nights where you just can’t connect to your partners and you can’t figure out why? We can tell you. Here are seven things you can use to make your leading clearer and your following effortless. Check to see if you are doing them next time you are having a crappy dance night and wham-o, all better!

Musicality –  What Makes Blues, Blues?
Blues music encompasses a wide variety of styles and rhythms created over a long period of time. In this class we will discover what tools can we as dancers utilize to vary our dancing to better fit a greater variety of blues music styles. While much of the more modern blues music is of course rhythmically based, the influence of gospel on singing style and the amplification of instruments creates different possibilities for the modern blues dancer, than the acoustic delta style voice and guitar, the driving rent party rhythms of 30s and 40s, or the 1920s vaudeville diva.

Immersion – Delta Blues: “Hellhound on my trail”
These are the songs with blood, sweat, and tears. They are urgent and visceral, cool and lazy; a music which both drives and hangs back. Delta Blues is some of the most emotional and expressive of blues music. The crisp rhythm provides a framework to explore the discord and depth of complex emotions. Expect to hear a lot of delta blues as we explore these aspects and begin to reflect them in your dancing. If you have taken this class before, expect that we will push you in new ways, since it is presented as an immersion level class.

Musicality – Solo Blues and Context
Dance for the same reason the blues singer sings. Dance to express the myriads of complex emotions of humanity, often seemingly opposite emotions come out at once; sadness and lust, anger and love, remorse and confrontation. This is born of both struggle and accomplishment. There is no apathy. Dance because you must express yourself, because the music touches your insides, because the beat is inescapable. (We will use a short routine to explore how movement can be used in various ways to express the depth and breadth of solo blues dance.)

Technique – Hips: “Cant stop to turn around, Broke my sacroiliac”
As Grandmaster Flash suggests, you can’t move if you can’t move your hips. This class moves beyond leading and following from your center and focuses on how hip movement influences what you lead, and how you follow.

Ria/Heidi/Damon

Immersion – Breaking It Down and Ripping It Up
A critique class not for the week of heart or fragile of ego. We’ll dissect your dancing and give you constructive feedback based on your ability to maintain the blues aesthetic, your musicality, and creativity. This class is especially useful for competitors and those dancers looking for what it takes get into the next level at camps and workshops.

Musicality – 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. Beginners will learn how to take their dancing from just a series of random moves and styling to something with artistic intent, while advanced dancers will learn knew levels of interaction with the music, their partner, and the community.

Technique – Riffin’ and cuttin’ (joint improvisation and challenge dancing)
African-American dances are characterized by many things but two of the most important are improvisation and attitude. These come to play in Blues through riffin’, the ability to improvise not just on the music but on the steps and movement of your partner, and cuttin’ the art of challenge dancing and one ups-manship.

Immersion – Conversation
Just about everyone has heard about how a dance is a conversation, but quite frequently in classes and on the dance it seems the leader is doing all the talking. This class will explore the art of active listening as it applies to leaders (the secret to having followers line up to dance with you) and the art of guiding a conversation as it applies to followers developing her own style, and how to dance her dance without hijacking.

Vocabulary – 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. Beginners will get a firm grasp of traditional Slow Drag and what may be one of the best foundations for Blues, and advanced dancers will get to challenge themselves with the polyrhythm of this deceptively simple dance. Caution, teachers not responsible for exploding heads!

Immersion – Buck and Swagga’
Buck -adjective
1.When internal artistry meets external expression.
Swagga -verb
1.one’s own unique style or personality that sets them apart from anyone else.
This class will teach you how to take your dancing from a set of moves to your own unique artistic expression. You’ve got the moves, the technique, and the musicality. Time to make it buck and show the world your swagga’.

Dan & Kelly

Immersion – Gutbucket Adagio
Back in the 20’s, 30’s and 40’s every major ballroom had a floor show, and in that floor show was always a pair of adagio dancers performing acrobatic and graceful interpretations of orchestral blues and torch songs. It was these adagio performances that Savoy ballroomers imitated in their own way when they slow danced (some call this style ’savoy ballrooming’). We have returned to early adagio dance as a source of inspiration, as well as other early dramatic dances like Apache, reinterpreting them with a more soulful, African style, as did dancers at the major black ballrooms in New York and Chicago. In this performance-based class we will share some advanced lifts, turn and drag techniques borrowed from this cache of dances