Saturday Classes
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
Downstairs: “See, Feel, and Shape” - Fen Lastra
This class is designed to get you ready for a weekend of dancing. We'll start off with a gentle warm up, and then explore different ways you can make your body move. This will be less about stretches or steps, and more about helping your imagination and your body's physical systems have a creative dance together.
Access Notes: This is a solo movement class, and accommodates many different backgrounds and experience levels. Movement may include partner-assisted stretching and/or sitting on the floor. Please let me know if you have a specific mobility obstacle.
Upstairs: “Connection A-Z” - Alyssa Tyler
We will explore connection types across multiple dance disciplines. Blues compression, west coast swing stretch, the strong ballroom frame vs Zouk's lighter connection. How do these allow more freedom of expression and how can we know when our partner is asking for these different paradigms?
1:40 PM - 2:40 PM
Downstairs: “The Beat is Ba Ba Ba Boss” - Ren Enby
In this class fancy technique takes a back seat and we let the beat take the lead. How? Well, most of us have an intuitive understanding of music when we listen to it, we can all feel when the big drop is coming in a song, and with practice the same can be said for the bridge, chorus, verse etc. These parts in any traditionally structured song are our musical phrases. Dance music is rhythmic and predictable on purpose. It want’s to take you on a journey. By finding and “hitting the one” in a phrase, and honing our ear as a tool to communicate timing and technique to our partner we can develop a better understanding of how to use music to inform our movements in complete phrases rather than one beat at a time.
Upstairs: “An ASL Take on Literal Lyricism” - Gracie Johnson
Dancing is more than just steps on the floor, and lyrics are more than just words in a song! Drawing on a few of the principles of ASL, we will explore the concept of literally interpreting lyrics as a way to add musicality and playfulness to our dance! We will even learn a few signs to bring some added visual vocabulary into your dance.
2:50 PM - 3:50 PM
Downstairs: “Fusion Lifts, Glides, and Weight Sharing” - Ren Enby
Wait, are you telling me that I can do a lift without scaring the hell out of my Follow? What do you mean I'm not supposed to jump on my lead? Okay I'll stop being a sarcastic butthead, but seriously, some of my favorite lifts and glides are from Kizomba, and Urban Kiz, why? Because they're so radically efficient at weight sharing. Honestly if dance were a martial art they would be Judo. I wanna share a couple of my favorite Kizomba and Urban Kiz influenced lifts with y’all. This is not a Kiz class, so expect all the Fusion wiggles you're used to with a fancy touch of gravity defiance added in.
Glides? This is a term I made up influenced by some of the less traditional Westies I've nerded over. It refers to weight sharing techniques that don't lift your partner, but instead glide them across the floor by distributing their weight off of their center of gravity and on to yours. It's not a technique you see often which is why it's so freaking cool. Unlike lifts, we don't move up, in glides we move in and around, curious? Well it's a good thing there's a class about it.
Upstairs: “Micro Isn’t Hugging” - Fen Lastra
Ok, sometimes it is… but in this class we’ll explore my own personal micro manifesto, which is all about getting into the really fine details of our movement, and connecting them to another person through highly attuned listening. We’ll play with having dances that are the same and different, and the range of things you can do in a micro connection.
Access Notes: Participants may take this class with a single partner/partner bubble, or rotate in partnerships. Participants should be willing to try connections that include areas of the back or torso.
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Downstairs: “Jazz Musicality for Fusion Dancers” - Jaesic Wade
What often makes music so inspiring to move to? In this class, we explore a bit of jazz history and dive into the joy of syncopation for fusion dancing. Access note: this class can be taken sitting down, and some of it will be fairly stationary. This class will also be louder than usual due to moments of clapping.
Upstairs: “It’s Personal: Inclusion and Accessibility Tools” - Gracie Johnson
To create dances that feel truly personal, comfortable, and enjoyable we have to assess what our needs in a dance might be, and how we can get those needs met. These needs can range from adjusting movements to make space for different sized and differently abled bodies, to recognizing and acting on preferences around touch or pressure. Explore technical advice for adjusting your dance as well as practicing self-advocacy in a dance space. When it comes to close embrace, the vulnerability of the connection is a place that personalizing our dance can make or break our experiences!
5:10 PM - 6:10 PM
Downstairs: “Defy Gravity: Balance, Turns, Rides, and Other Cool Things to Do on One Leg” - Angel Kim Spicer
Improve your balance and stability to execute holds, turns, and all manner of one-legged shenanigans. Learn how to use your own and your partner’s body to find balance in different orientations and to generate your own momentum for turns and other movements. Unlock leading and following rides and counterbalances, and discover how to independently place yourself into them while dancing in either role.
Upstairs: “Changelings Discussion” - Fen Lastra & Jaesic Wade
This session will empower people to see themselves as a part of the access and safety team by how they invest and build their community. We plan to talk about the comparison between a first aid kit and emergency service as a metaphor for how one can show up for others and oneself at events. This discussion will most likely expand into broader concepts of access and safety in building community and events. Access note: this is a discussion, you may want to bring something comfortable to sit on.
Sunday Classes
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
Downstairs: “The Art of No” - Fen Lastra
Consent is vital on the dance floor, but it’s also a space of creative possibility. When we talk to another human being, we grow through our agreements, but also our disagreements, and the same is true of fusion. In this class you’ll learn different ways to say “no,” but also think about ways to take that “no” and craft something better.
Access Notes: Participants may take this class with a single partner/partner bubble, or rotate in partnerships. Participants should be able to lead or follow directed movement, including rotational movement.
Upstairs: “The Sound of Silence” - Jaesic Wade
Explore the power of pause - where does NOT moving take us? Leave this class with the body knowledge of what dynamism can do! Access note: This class can be taken sitting down.
1:40 PM - 2:40 PM
Downstairs: “The Art of Tactful Interjections: How to Speak and Respond” - Gracie Johnson
Learn to redirect and influence movements, while understanding the role of interjections as a Follower. Explore how Leader can respond and play off these interjections, with techniques drawn from WCS for interjecting during moments of lower-tone connections. The best conversations have ebb and flow, and naturally bounce between people, without stepping on each others feet or sentences. Join us to learn how!
Upstairs: “Dancing On My Own: Solo Dance for Partner Dancers” - Angel Kim Spicer
Explore solo dancing from a partner dance background and perspective! Learn to use your existing partner dance vocabulary solo and dive into spontaneity, play, and expression with the freedom of dancing on your own.
2:50 PM - 3:50 PM
Downstairs: “Fancy Footwork” - Ren Enby
Let's play footsie! Fancy footwork is so much fun solo and partnered and we’re covering both. Expect some simple patterns that progressively get harder, then let’s do them together and with a partner. Once we get ' em down let's give them some style, and see if we can do them to different kinds of music. The big takeaway? A pattern you can customize to make you own deviations from, and create your own footwork. Consider this class a road map to creating your own fancy feet you can either communicate in your dance connection or keep to yourself for some personal embellishments.
Upstairs: “Do Cool Shit: Make the Dance You Want to Have” - Angel Kim Spicer
Incorporate solo movement and styling choices into the context of partnership! Learn how to have nuanced, two-way conversations, practice active speaking and listening while leading or following, and throw in your own movement and styling choices without disrupting the connection point or your partnership - unless you want to! Take agency and ownership over what you can control in your own dancing and have the fun, creative, and expressive dances you want - regardless of the skill, imagination, or movement choices of your partner.
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Downstairs: “Step Synthesis” - Gracie Johnson
Explore the art of walking with style in this dynamic class, where you’ll learn to blend elements from Kizomba, Blues, and WCS. Master the art of switching between different walks and isolating key style elements to seamlessly combine them into your own unique movement.
Upstairs: “Imagining New Points of Contact” - Ren Enby
Get ready to challenge yourself with new points of contact. We're going to take everything we know about your standard close, and open dance frame and apply those rules anywhere we want in our dance connection. With new points of contact lets create a more adaptable sense of movement instead of feeling limited to a traditional frame.
Examples: Using the hips, thighs, shoulders, neck, lower ribs, lower back, knees, elbows, wrist, or feet as points of contact. Can you motivate movement and maintain a good frame from any point of connection? The goal of this class is to greatly expand connection opportunities between partners by opening them up to the entire body.
5:10 PM - 6:10 PM
Downstairs: “Isolations and Body Mechanics” - Angel Kim Spicer
The ability to isolate specific parts of the body from one another will unlock a new world of movement, aesthetics, and possibilities in your dancing. Refining these body mechanics will not only teach you how to create precise patterns and movements in your own or another’s body, but will also make learning new movement styles easier, visibly improve your own quality of movement, and open new frontiers that you and your dance can play within. We’ll explore isolations throughout the whole body, leading and following these isolations, and concatenating different isolations into dynamic combinations.
Upstairs: “DJ Workshop” - Jaesic Wade
This will be an opportunity for people interested in DJing - or even those who’ve been DJing - to learn from my near-decade of experience. I plan to explore hot topics, my process, and allow space for questions for an enriching experience. Access note: please bring music or questions you’d like to dive into. This is more of a lecture style class, so bring something comfortable to sit on if needed.