This week at Blues Union

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.

Last week, Gui and Jenn showed you how to dance to some hard-driving, funky blues. Yeah!

This week, Julie and Paul will show you how to dance to the hot and sultry sounds of traditional jazz (think squeezy brass, like Sidney Bechet and Louis Armstrong). We will show you some smooth and sassy moves to bust out when the music gets slinky.

After the lesson, Tim and Alex will be DJing some jazz and mixing in some harder-driving blues, so you can get your groove on to both styles.

The intermediate lesson is from 7:30 to 8:30, and the beginner lesson is from 8:30 to 9:00. The lesson and dance cost $10 combined, and just the lesson or the dance cost $5 each.

This week we kick off a month of learning how to dance to different styles of Blues and Jazz. Over the course of the month we’ll be covering hard-driving Chicago Blues, some trad jazz, and R&SB-style Blues!

We’re starting things off with a lesson by Gui and Jenn on how to dance to the hard-driving sounds (think Chicago Blues, primarily, and Blues with funk influences) that Gui is so fond of playing. We’ll be showing you movements and isolations that match the sharpness and attack of the music while keeping the connection feeling good.

Once the lesson ends, we have Gui Cavalcantii and Micki Balder throwing down some hard-driving Blues for us all night long!

The intermediate lesson is from 7:30 to 8:30, and the beginner lesson is from 8:30 to 9:00. The lesson and dance cost $10 combined, and just the lesson or the dance cost $5 each.

Alright, here we go! We’re back from our holiday hiatus and ready to rock your world.

This Thursday we’re kicking the New Year off right with a Blues Clinic with Gui Cavalcanti, Jenn Martinez, Paul Mandel, and Julie Brown. From 7:30 to 9:00, all levels of dancers from newcomer to advanced can walk in, practice in a safe environment, and get personal attention from any of our four instructors. We’re essentially offering miniature private lessons for all of $5 – you can’t get a better deal anywhere else!

Once we wrap up the Blues Clinic, we’re going to have ourselves a DJ battle. This week we have Julie Brown taking on John Brooks and Gui Cavalcanti taking on Amy Kucharik! In our battles, DJs switch off every song, guaranteeing fresh and exciting music by keeping our DJs on their toes.

Come shake off your holiday slump with some hot Blues!

Hello, hello!

Gui and Jenn will gear up this Thursday to show you some slinky, sexy and safe dips! In addition to covering follower styling, support technique and line work, we’ll focus heavily on setting up the leads to plant themselves properly, support the follow safely and cover lots of ways to get out of dips that won’t induce hernias. We’ll also talk about dip musicality, and we’ll show you where different kinds of dips fit in Blues music.

The intermediate lesson will last from 7:30 to 8:30, and a drop-in beginner lesson will run from 8:30 to 9:00.

Dancing will be from 9 to 11. Gui Cavalcanti will be DJing from 9 to 10, and Alex Abdoualev will be DJing from 10 to 11.