Thursday, Oct 15th

This Thursday, Blues Union will be bringing you another excellent out-of-town instructor and DJ: Andrew Smith from Portland, OR!

Andrew teaches locally in Portland, and has taught at Steel City Blues (2009), at East Meets West (2009), and will teach at San Diego Fusion Exchange (2010).  Andrew travels and competes throughout the country. Most recently, he took 1st Place in the Open Strictly Blues Competition (with partner Karissa Lightsmith) at Emerald City Blues Festival 2008, tied for 2nd Place in the Open Jack & Jill Competition at Steel City Blues 2009, and competed in the Invitational Jack & Jill Competition at BluesSHOUT! 2009. Andrew is a caring and enthusiastic teacher, who seeks to share his passion for dance and help others organically find their own joy in dance.

Andrew is also an excellent DJ, who was a finalist in the 2009 East Meets West DJ competition! This week, he will be bringing his badass tunes to Blues Union!

Watch a video of Andrew dancing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCVx2J5AMoA

Andrew will also be available for private lessons. If you are interested, please contact Julie Brown at queenofbuttons@gmail.com.

This Thursday at Blues Union, Andrew will be teaching an intermediate lesson from 7:30-8:30pm, followed by a half-hour beginner crash course from 8:30-9:00. Then he and Julie Brown will be DJing the night away from 9:00-11:00pm, for your dancing pleasure.

As always:

Lesson + dance: $10
Dance only: $5

at Dance Union
16 Bow St
Somerville, MA

See you there for an awesome evening of classes, music, and dancing!

Thursday, October 8

This week, Julie and Ogden bring you Lead/Follow Technique – What You Need:

This week, we’ll be working on some specific aspects of leading and following that we have seen lacking in the local dance scene. We have tailored this class according to what we’ve seen you do out on the dance floor, so we’ve made this class specifically for you. And this class is for everyone–both leads and follows–so no one gets off the hook 😉 If you’re ready to take your leading and following to the next level, this is your chance.

The above class startsat 7:30, with a half hour drop in class for beginners at 8:30! As always, it’s $10 for the dance and lesson, and only $5 for the dance alone.

Thursday, September 24

Shawn and Amanda are teaching this week! Their class:

Solo Geometry: Waves and Circles
Learn to warp space-time with your hips! Ever wondered how to actually do 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 isolations, then show you how to apply them to your lead/follow.

Then, we let people loose on the dance floor with DJs Rif and Tim tearing it up! Expect great things as they come to you fresh from a big old DJ listening party where we tossed around ideas and songs.

Thuesday September 17

Another fine Thursday, and another intermediate lesson to challenge dancers this week! This time it’s Julie and Ogden teaming up for Traveling Blues and Blues Maneuvers:

“It’s fun to dance in one spot, but why not move around the room and see the sights? In this class, we’ll be teaching some slick and sassy traveling moves to get you moving around the room. But traveling moves can be tough on a crowded dance floor, so we’ll also show you how to use these moves to maneuver around obstacles without interrupting the flow of the dance. At the end of class, we’ll put your new-found agility to the test with some funny, challenging drills! It should be a blast, so come on out!”

Remember to tell friends that we always have a beginner drop-in lesson after the intermediate lesson! Following that, we have DJs Ogden and Khrysti taking you through the night and showing you what’s badass.

Thursday, September 10

Gui and Jenn will be teaching a class this week on Letting Your Body Do The Work: “It turns out that your body knows how to come up with moves on its own, you just have to let it! In this class we’ll show you a progression of three solo movements that blend into each other seamlessly, and we’ll teach you how to lead and follow them in partnered form. We’ll then start you with a different solo movement (that can be lead in a partnered connection) to get going, show you how to transition to a second set of movements, and ask you to fill in the transition to a third, guiding you through the process as you go.

To wrap up the class, we’ll give you a movement to start and ask you to fill in the second and third movements. By the end of the class, you should feel like you can come up with your own strings of solo movements, and you should feel confident that you can dance them both on your own and in a partnered connection.”

Gui will be returning to the DJ table this week, joined by none other than the smooth Zac Wine! Gui is still pumped from last week’s DJ throwdown, and is more than ready to bring it again. When asked if he was also ready, Zac sounded a loud battlecry. So I think we’re all set here.