A Change In Format!

Hey everyone! I wanted to let everyone know of a few slight changes in the Blues Union format going forward that we hope you’ll like.

We’re going to be shortening the intermediate lesson and increasing the length of the beginner lesson, so that they’re both 45 minutes. We’ll also be assigning a theme and a track to our beginner lessons, like we do with our intermediate lessons, in an attempt to get our beginners to the point where they’re comfortable participating in our intermediate lesson after a month or two! This means that you’ll now see beginner class descriptions in addition to intermediate class descriptions. It also means that the intermediate class runs from 7:30 to 8:15, and the beginner lesson runs from 8:15 to 9:00.

Starting this week, we’ll also be publishing a one-page brief description of Blues music and dancing opportunities in the Boston area! We’re trying to consolidate information to make everyone more aware of local events like drinking nights, house parties, workshop weekends and exchanges within driving distance (which we consider 6-7 hours max). Handouts will be available with the rest of our fliers at the counter. Feel free to submit events to the newsletter by using this internet form:

http://www.beantownbluesdance.com/submit-your-event-to-the-bluesletter/

In an effort to keep announcements short, we will be restricting speaking time during announcements at Blues Union to events which have either been submitted to the newsletter or have fliers on the counter. The deadline for submitting to the newsletter is 11:59 PM every Wednesday. Thanks go to Paul Mandel for getting this together!

And that’s enough talking out of me. Hope to see you all out on the dance floor soon!

-Gui

Thursday, February 4th

Once again, my friends, it’s the first Thursday of the month. It’s time to do battle!

To get things started right, we have our monthly Blues Clinic where all of the local Blues instructors are invited to wander around the venue giving personalized feedback and instruction to everyone who attends. Students can come to the lesson with anything between no prior experience and an advanced proficiency at the dance, and will come away with individual things to work on in their dancing.

This week, we’ll be throwing something new into the mix! Each person who attends the Blues Clinic will be automatically entered into a raffle that will be drawn at the end of the clinic. The person chosen will then get a free private lesson with the instructor pair of their choice!

After all that excitement, we’re going to take it up ANOTHER NOTCH with our monthly DJ battle! This month we have Gui Cavalcanti taking on John Brooks in the first set, and Julie Brown taking on Tim Lewandowski in the second set! In case you’re unfamiliar, our battles have our DJs switch off every song – for instance, John will play a good song, and then Gui will play a better one. And then John will try again, and then Gui will play an even better one. And so on, and so forth. Our DJ battles bring out our best music and the most energy – you don’t want to miss it!

As always, the Blues Clinic is from 7:30 to 9:00, and the dance is from 9:00 to 11:00. The Clinic costs $5, and the dance costs $5.

See you all out on the floor!

Thursday, January 28th

We’ve had a full month of awesome musicality classes. We started with Gui and Jenn goin’ to Chicago to pick up some sharp movements to hard-driving music, we swung by New Orleans to check out Julie and Paul showing off some slinky and sexy moves to growling trumpets, and this week we’re off to Georgia with Shawn and Amanda to pick up some silky smooth moves to the R&B stylings of Ray Charles, Aretha and the gang. They’ll round out our musicality at the tail end of the month, and with any luck you’ll be able to mix and match from all three lessons to show off to whatever kind of music we play at Blues Union!

After the dance we have a special treat! Julie Brown will be teaming up with Leslie Stevenson, a kickass DJ from Albany, to throw down some mighty fine grooves all night long. We’re going to be trying to get more out-of-town DJ sounds and teaching talent into the dance over the next few months, and Leslie’s DJing is a hell of a way to start!

The intermediate lesson runs from 7:30 to 8:30, the beginner lesson runs from 8:30 to 9:00, and the dance runs from 9:00 to 11:00. The dance and the lesson combined are $10, and the dance alone is $5.

Thursday, December 10

This week, Julie Brown and Ogden Sawyer bring you a new class:  Hey! Nice Lines! Lately, we’ve been working a lot on connection and how to feel really good, so now let’s spend some time on lookin‘ good.  Oh yeeeah :)  Learn how to make nice lines when you dance, and come out looking better, stronger, and sexier.  And guess what: we’ll show how looking good can actually help you (and your partner) feel better too!

Following the lesson, Ogden  and Micki will play the right kind of grooves to stretch your body and your soul.

Thursday, December 3

We’re back this week!  And we’re back with a vengeance: first, everyone is welcome to come to the drop-in Blues Clinic, where some of your favorite instructors are prepared to help you work on whatever you want to work on!  As always, no partner is required- just come in ready to play around and stretch yourself.

Next up, we’ve got an earth-shaking DJ Battle.   Julie Brown goes up against Gui Cavalcanti (with his new and improved battle station), and then John Brooks and Amy Kucharik sound the war drums!  Blues Union’s going to have to get down.

Lesson and Dance: $10
Dance alone: $5