Dear friends,
Come join our brand new WALTZ Practice & Demo Group this January!
If you love social dancing, socializing, and would like to rapidly advance your dance skills and grow your repertoire in the context of a fun group of experienced dancers, I would love to invite you to join our new Waltz Practice group this Fall! The group meets on Tuesday evenings from 7-9:15pm at the China Harbor Restaurant on Lake Union. In addition, there is open practice time for group members from 6:30-7pm and 9:15-9:45pm every Tuesday.
Why a Waltz Practice &/or Demo Group?
The primary reason is simply because we love to dance Waltz It is our hope that by forming a practice & demo group that focusses on "social dance" combinations and elements, we can both increase our own skills, and raise the level of dance in general in the NW. Creating a core group of high-level waltzers who all know the same language of movement will also provide us with more opportunities to dance & practice the more technical waltz moves on the social dance floor.
While the "waltz" group is new this January, we have been doing this same thing with NC2S over the past year, and people in the NC2S group can't speak highly enough about how it has improved their dance, not to mention how fun it is to learn with a group of more advanced dancers! The innovative "rueda" format that we have developed and used in our NC2S group, and which we will continue to use in the waltz group, has allowed participants to learn and practice new material in a way that immediately translates those moves to the social dance floor.
As far as demoing goes, members are free to choose to participate or not in any performances we do. Unlike traditional "performance" teams whose main goal is performing for others, our goal is primarily to become better waltz dancers, to learn some great new waltz moves and combinations that we can immediately incorporate into our social dancing, and to encourage and excite others about learning to dance waltz, building toward our 2018 "Waltz Fest NW" weekend in Seattle! (June 8-11, 2018)
Membership Details
Membership in the Practice & Demo Group is open to dancers of all ages who have been dancing for at least a year who already know the basic cross-step waltz patterns (e.g., left & right turns, twinkles, cross-step basics). Participation cost is $90.00 per month. PLEASE NOTE: if this is more than you can afford, please let us know and we will try to work something out. (e.g., helping out at the classes and/or dances in exchange for a reduced cost).
The session is three months long. While payment can be made month by month or for the entire session, we are asking each member for a commitment of at least three months in order to maintain continuity and balance (we won't be bringing new members in again until our April enrollment)
Currently we have roughly 30 members in the group including many of the best social dancers in the area. Group membership will be regulated to try to maintain an even leads & follow balance, and we will keep an active waiting list to maintain that balance as needed. Please let us know if you are interested in joining or being put on the waiting list. As openings arise, priority will be given to couples, dance partners of current members, and dancers who have taken waltz or other classes with Ari over the past year.
Here is an example of the "rueda" technique we have developed in NC2S to rotate partners within a dance when the caller signals. We will be doing something similar in our Waltz Demo Group to help us build a fun vocabulary of moves, and then to be able to practice them with enough repetition to the point of truly owning them!
