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competitions dance events exhibitions & performances lessons Mercer Ballroom teaching Uncategorized USA Dance

What we’re up to this week

Oh MAN, October is flying by. It’s already been 2 weeks since we got back from the Carolina Fall Classic (I’m about to update our Competitive Highlights page; stand by) and a week since I got to take a workshop and private lesson with a new instructor for us, James. Can’t wait to work with him again tomorrow. We’re also rehearsing with Denise Froemeke for the Kay Center’s Dancing for the Stars event in November. She and Daniel have come up with a really cute routine and I have the perfect dress for her to wear! Oh–AND–we are teaching for Mercer University’s ballroom club this coming Monday as well. Busy Busy Dancers and we love it!

Okay–going to post this update now and get some other photos, videos, and posts up later today and tomorrow. Stay tuned and check back soon. Thanks!

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competitions dance events exhibitions & performances Friday Night Dance Parties Uncategorized USA Dance

What we’re up to this week

The schedule for next weekend’s Carolina Fall Classic was posted last night and I have printed out our heat lists. SO EXCITED. It’s the first time in a few years that we’ve been able to attend this competition. It has gone from fairly humble beginnings to a record number of entries this year largely through the good offices of the organizers, Wayne and Marie Crowder (who also founded the awesome Triangle Open where we got to dance several years ago–college students now run that comp themselves, which gladdens this dancing professor’s heart!). We are going to be dancing a lot next weekend, especially if we make it into some semi-finals and finals. Cross your fingers for us and watch @dldancers on Twitter for updates. Special thanks to USA Dance Greater Macon Chapter 6059 for their generous support of our entries and hotel for this competition.

We’ve also been practicing with the lovely Denise Froemke for the Kay Community Service Center’s “Dancing for the Stars” event in Fort Valley on November 15. Daniel will be Denise’s partner for this event and they are getting ready to dance a cha-cha that you will not want to miss! Lots of the performers are contemporary/urban style ballroom dancers–if you don’t know this style of dance, it is definitely worth checking out. You could be seeing the next evolution of ballroom!

Finally, we are hosting our 4th Friday dance tonight and expecting a great turnout. Daniel has been scoping out new music again. Have you ever danced a cha-cha to a song in Turkish? Tonight, you will get your chance. Join us at the Howard Community Club at 8 p.m. for just $5 per person.

See you on the dance floor!

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exhibitions & performances USA Dance

September is National Ballroom Month!

On September 12 we got to dance a little exhibition at USA Dance Greater Macon’s monthly dance in honor of National Ballroom Month. Here’s a link to the video–from Facebook but it is public so hopefully it will work for everyone.

Posted by Bob Morgan on Sunday, September 13, 2015

Our thanks to Bob for shooting and posting the video!

 

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exhibitions & performances Uncategorized

International Taste of Soul 2015

We had a great time dancing yesterday at the Tubman African-American Museum’s International Taste of Soul alongside Azmi & Isabel Kabbani, Hayiya Dance Theatre, Khicks Contemporary Ballroom, and a LOT of delicious food. The biggest challenge was waiting till after we performed to eat our way through the venue! Paul Karpinecz took video for us (thanks, Paul!). Check it out:

 

 

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exhibitions & performances Friday Night Dance Parties teaching

What we’re up to this week

Counting the days till our performance at the Tubman Museum’s International Taste of Soul on August 30! We have our dances and our music picked out, and my new Latin costume has come from Latino Dancewears. I promise they are not compensating me to say this (yet!) but I have been impressed with the quick and responsive service that this company provides. They do custom made-to-measure dresses with high quality stones but they also have more economical options including a great sale section.

This week ends our Tuesday night waltz class at Madison Studio. Starting September 8 we’ll be teaching bronze level cha-cha on Tuesday nights; we are also featuring silver level cha-cha and tango workshops on Sunday, September 20. You can email if you’d like more information or to sign up for any of our classes and workshops.

And, of course, Friday is our monthly dance at Howard Community Club! 8:00-10:30 p.m., $5 admission, casual dress, bring your song requests. Daniel has been picking out new songs from Postmodern Jukebox and I’m trying to do my part finding cool things on the radio like this or this.

Finally, I’d like to give a shout-out to my dear colleague Sydney Chalfa, whose son Matthew is getting married next weekend. Sydney and Matthew took a lesson from us last week and they are dancing the rumba for their mother-son dance! Congratulations to the happy couple and a very proud mother of the groom!

 

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dance events exhibitions & performances teaching USA Dance

What we’re up to lately

We’ll be attending the Summer’s Night Picnic & Dance at Macon City Auditorium tomorrow night. This event is a fundraiser for Pine Pointe Hospice and thus an heir (so to speak) to the Stars Over Macon Ball for which USA Dance Greater Macon was a co-sponsor. I’ve heard that the event is sold out, but they are still advertising, so tickets may still be available.

On August 30 we will be performing at the Tubman African-American Museum’s International Taste of Soul event. The only question here is whether we’ll be able to stop eating long enough to dance! Seriously though, this will be our first time performing at the Tubman so we are very excited and honored.

Next month (September 12) we’ll be dancing an exhibition at USA Dance Greater Macon’s monthly dance in honor of National Ballroom Month. We are choreographing a new rumba routine for the occasion. This is the music we are using–we love it!

We are also back to teaching group classes on Tuesday nights as well as private lessons. Tuesday night group class will continue in September and a silver level class may be added on Thursdays at 8 p.m. Would you like a silver level class? Leave a comment and let us know!

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exhibitions & performances friends & family social dancing USA Dance

A new partner???

On Saturday, September 13 I’ll be dancing a little tango exhibition with Stephen Coshatt at USA Dance Greater Macon Chapter #6059’s monthly dance. It is National Ballroom Dance Month so the chapter is presenting some exhibition dances instead of teaching a lesson. Carl Candiano and his partner Natalie Greene are dancing a rumba. Daniel and I were asked to dance but Daniel already had another commitment. I asked Stephen, who has been coming to our classes for a while now, to dance with me and he agreed! I am more excited for him than I am for myself. It’ll be his first time performing! I started choreographing our routine today and he has already learned most of it. On a quick turnaround like this we can’t do anything too elaborate, but simpler steps done well tend to look better anyway. Come see us dance next Saturday at Howard Community Club. Open dancing will start at 8:00 and the exhibitions will start at 8:30.

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Dancing Stars of Central Georgia exhibitions & performances faaaaaaaame!

Dancing Stars of Central Georgia 2014 Recap

Woo! I am still in a daze after last night’s amazing event. We set a new fundraising record of $248,013 of which Dean raised over $70,000! His total made us the People’s Choice award winners!  I am so proud of all his hard work both on and off the dance floor. He and his wife Ashley (Daniel’s partner in 2012 when they won People’s Choice) are a power couple in the best possible way: boundless positive energy, totally down to earth, always ready to “git ‘er dun.” So that’s just what we did! After the jump, a full rundown of the evening’s adventures + some pics!

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exhibitions & performances USA Dance

Professional dance instructors in action in Macon

This past Saturday, USA Dance Greater Macon once again welcomed Josh Jones down from Atlanta with his gorgeous partner Anne-Marie Edwards. They taught us some great lessons in waltz (“Throw your body!”) and foxtrot with introduction to quickstep (“Ah-one two three four five six seven eight slow, quick quick, slow). That evening at the dance they did a beautiful foxtrot exhibition:

And then we harassed them into doing a tango as an encore:

Anne-Marie is so beautiful and sweet, and Josh is just an impeccable technician. Every move he makes on the floor is a balance of control and energy. Just watching them work is so exciting and it was a privilege to learn from them again.

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exhibitions & performances Friday Night Dance Parties social dancing teaching

What’s up in 2014?

Well, DLDancers fans, we are hoping to make 2014 a BIG year that will see us back into competition after a hiatus that has gone on for too long!  Along the way, we will be

  • teaching the waltz January 5 and January 19 4:00-5:30 at Madison Studio, 1575 Forest Hill Road in Macon. The cost is $45 per person. Beginners are welcome and partners are not required.
  • continuing to teach the rumba each month at Shadows Dinner Theatre in downtown Macon starting in February. We are anticipating further collaborations with Shadows in 2014 as well and will keep you posted.
  • performing in an exhibition on February 13 at the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame, presented by Paula East.
  • continuing to host our monthly dances at Howard Community Club. Here are the dates; mark your calendars!
Jan. 17
Feb. 28
March 7
April 25
May 23
June 27
July 25
Aug. 22
Sept. 26
Oct. 24
Nov. 28
Dec. 19

These dates are all Fridays but not all fourth Fridays. The time (8:00-10:30) and admission price ($5) will stay the same. We plan to keep up our friendly dance competition as well, so if you’ve ever wanted to take home a sparkly trophy, 2014 could be your year.

See you on the dancefloor!