Author: lauraet

Categories
lessons teaching USA Dance

Ballroom workshops & lessons coming up

As members of USA Dance Greater Macon chapter 6059, we are very excited that the chapter is bringing professional instructor Josh Jones to Macon for two hours of workshops on Saturday, October 12 at the Howard Community Club. Josh is a National Dance Council of America (NDCA) certified instructor who holds Highly Commended Licentiate and Associate qualifications in International (Standard) Ballroom, as well as a Highly Commended Associate qualification in American Smooth Ballroom from the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD). He will teach American Smooth Tango at 10:00 a.m. and American Rhythm Cha-cha at 11:00 a.m.  Each workshop is $20 or you can attend both for $35. Plus if you attend both workshops you can also attend the chapter’s monthly dance that evening for free! It doesn’t get much better than that.  I will be there for sure!

Meanwhile we’ve been working with our group class at Madison Studio on the rumba and it’s going great. It turns out that martial artists make excellent dancers (did you know?). This winter we’ll be scheduling our group classes around the studio’s rehearsals for Alice, a version of the Alice in Wonderland story. So if you are interested in joining a group class please let us know so we can verify dates and times. Private lessons are also available and remember: no partner needed.

Stay tuned for more dance, music, and fun coming up soon!

Categories
playlists

Swing Playlist time

Everybody check out my latest playlist, East Coast Swing. The overlap between ECS and classic 80s videos is oddly significant!

Categories
dance events teaching USA Dance

Back to School, 2013 edition

Je dois commencer par dire un bonjour à nos amis français qui ont reçu une carte de visite de moi ou de Daniel pendant notre séjour à Paris. Merci de visiter notre site web!

After a big summer–lots of work, a little dancing, and a big trip to Paris–we are looking forward to getting back to dance in the next few weeks. We will be continuing our group classes at Madison Studio of Dance Education in Macon on Sunday afternoons starting September 8. Please contact us ASAP if you’d like to join the class! Meanwhile we are working with some new wedding couples and have been asked to perform at a wedding reception for one of Daniel’s co-workers. Bible Belt Burlesque celebrated their first birthday the day we came back from Paris so we missed dancing in that show, but hopefully we’ll be invited for the next one.

Next weekend we’ll be attending the Summer’s Night Picnic and Dance benefiting Pine Pointe Hospice. USA Dance Greater Macon has been a long-time supporter of Pine Pointe via the Stars Over Macon Ball. It’s not too late to get a ticket and join the party.

More updates coming soon as this school year/dance year gets rolling. Thanks for all your support!

Categories
Linktastic short takes

This is priceless!

Via the comprehensively excellent “Questionable Advice” Tumblr, questionableadvice.tumblr.com

Categories
playlists

Here comes a foxtrot playlist!

For those who have asked, first of all, thanks for asking!  Here’s a playlist of some foxtrot music.  Foxtrot tunes can be easy to pick out based on instrumentation and even certain singers even more than by rhythm.  Michael Bublé has lots of foxtrots, as does Frank Sinatra.  A lot of big band-type music is foxtrottable* but there are also some recent ballad singers like Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat who have made songs that work for the foxtrot.  Take a listen and take a turn around the dance floor!

*Real word.

 

Categories
playlists

New Playlist: Rumba!

Just finished pulling together this rumba playlist.  I tried to put some more traditional rumba rhythms that are easier to dance to, but I kept noticing that a lot of the top pros’ exhibition routines are danced to very romantic, slow, minimally rhythmic tunes.  So a rumba does not have to have a strong Latin feel.  If you can hear “quick-quick-slow” in it, give it a try.  Dancing a slow rumba is a good way to work on weight placement and hip motion.  I hope you enjoy this playlist!

 

Categories
playlists

Dance Music Playlists! Today: Tango

Our new dance friends Steve & Sam were asking us about tango music and I suggested that I could post a playlist for them and anyone else who’s interested.  This “Tango Music” playlist is very unscientific; I spent a half-hour or so  clicking around on YouTube and just compiling what I liked.  Hopefully I can create and post these regularly as the groups learn different dances.

Incidentally, I’ve noticed that ballroom music is often very inexpensive on iTunes.  I just found an album called Strictly Tango (from their Strictly Ballroom series) by New 101 Strings Orchestra that is just $3.99 for 14 tracks.  That type of music will be very traditional and maybe not the most exciting to listen to, but it is made for ballroom practice and is “strict tempo” (i.e. falls within the tempo range prescribed by syllabus for each dance) so it can be useful.  There are lots of other similar groups and albums; let us know if you want a second opinion on any particular album or song.

And . . . enjoy the playlist!  I put in some traditional ballroom tango, some Argentine, some neo-tango, and a couple of pop covers in tango style.  Let me know what you think!

Categories
friends & family in other news

My mom has great taste in videos

On the rare occasion that my mother sends me a forward or a link, you know it’s gonna be good. Check it:

Click through to the “About” to see a rundown of all the dancers/movie clips.  So cool!  And I’ll just be over here buying that song from iTunes.

Categories
exhibitions & performances

Santa arrives in a Boogie-Woogie Choo-Choo Train!

I am so excited to see this video!  Last Thursday we danced at the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame’s “Holidays at the Hall” event alongside our friends David Leathers and Mitzi Matthews.  The ending pose of their swing routine is the coolest!  Daniel and I have both been so busy with work this fall that we have not had many chances to dance.  This event was really lovely and we had a great time.  Joey Stuckey, a great jazz musician, played live (we were just the intermission act, and happy to have the honor) so we also got to meet him. And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that we met Em Fergusson, Joey’s publicist, whom I just missed knowing when she was a student at Macon State College.  Plus it turns out she is French-Canadian.  Such a small world.  Okay, here comes the video.  Our part starts at around 1:20 with Mitzi and David, then we come in at 3:20.  But you should definitely watch the whole thing.

Categories
behind the curtain in other news Linktastic

Dresses in; dresses out

“Laura,” I hear readers asking, “how can I be more like you?  I’ve already signed up for dance lessons and gotten a rockin’ haircut, but how do I take it to the next level?”

Well, young padawan, for the next 7 days you have a rare opportunity to own a piece of DLDancers history.  I am selling two of my performance/competition dresses on Ye Olde Ebay.  Check ’em out!

It is a truth universally acknowledged that you have to sell the old dresses before buying new ones.  (Circle of life?)  So please take a look and enable my shopping habits as well as your own!