A Weekend of Learning and Dance
The best dancer in the room is you.
The best partner is the one you're dancing with.
The best music is the song that's playing right now.
Dance to anything, with anyone, anywhere. Learn fundamental skills for expressing the music you love to share with friends and strangers alike. Choose from a variety of dance styles taught by fantastic instructors from the West and East coasts. Learn to connect with others around you and be as much a part of the experience as the musicians themselves. Walk away knowing that you can find common ground and enjoy the unique style and rhythm of any partner.
We are here to spread dance and music.
To empower people in safety and expression.
To encourage the discovery of dance styles that better capture an individuals spirit.
To enable people to use movement as a way of telling their own story.
Class descriptions and instructor biographies are below the schedule
FRIDAY
January 16, 2015
8:30pm-9:15pm
Intro classes will be offered before the night dance for
- Blues with Erin
- Argentine Tango with Mike
- West Coast Swing with Brick
SATURDAY
January 17, 2015
12:20pm-12:50pm
Tai Chi
with Mario
1:00pm-2:15pm
Blues Fundamentals or Capoeira Introduction
with Mary with Capoeira Brasil
2:25pm-3:40pm
Tango Fundamentals or Belly Dancing
with Moti with Sabrina
3:50pm-5:05pm
West Coast Swing Fundamentals
with Shaheed
or Solo Blues Dancing
with Dexter
5:15pm-6:30pm
But I don't dance like Him/Her
with Jamie-Lynn
SUNDAY
January 18, 2015
12:20pm-12:50pm
Tai Chi
with Mario
1:00pm-2:15pm
Blues Progressive or Tai Chi Push Hands
with Mary with Mario
2:25pm-3:40pm
Tango Progressive or Fusion Connection
with Moti with Jamie-Lynn and Will
3:50pm-5:05pm
West Coast Swing Progressive
with Will
or Moves Like Dexter
with Dexter
5:15pm-6:30pm
Make it your own
with Mary
Class Descriptions
In alphabetical order (mouse over photos to view biographies)
Blues Intro
Erin Kelly
You've heard of the blues, and now there's this thing called blues dancing?!?! How do you dance to the Blues? Do you need a partner? Do you do it alone? Where and when did this start? This basics class will help jump-start your weekend in familiarizing yourself with terms, movement, and a great fun way to meet your fellow dancers!
Erin Kelly
Erin has been haunting the dance floor since the early 2000's. With a huge variety of dances from blues and swing to Ballroom and belly dancing, you will find her feet moving to any beat.
Having a deep belief that anyone can dance if their willing to put in the effort, Erin skillfully breaks down dance movements to what people do in everyday life. Furthermore, she believes that dancing is a joyful physical expression and that reflects in her teaching.
She teaches both locally and nation-wide, is a frequent competitor, and part of the all-star women's blues troupe, Mojo Aristocracy. She's frequently dressed to the nines, so be on the lookout for her and ask her for a dance!
Mary Christensen has been swing and blues dancing since 2000, and is the founder of the ground-breaking dance community at Yale University, where every dancer both leads and follows. She lives and works in New York City, where she teaches for Dance Manhattan and coordinates the weekly dance Gotham City Blues.
Passionate about great teaching, Mary is always looking for the best way to make material clear and memorable and to make classes fun and comfortable. She has taught dance and trained dance teachers all over the world, from California to Copenhagen, Oberlin to Ireland. Mary has also been invited to speak on her teaching and community organizing at academic and activist conferences, including the Congress for Research on Dance, the Dance Research Forum Ireland, and Creating Change.
Mary focuses on energy and interactivity in the dance classroom, and creativity and community-building on the dance floor. She'd love to dance with you...just ask her!
Blues Fundamentals and Progressive
Mary Christensen
Blues Fundamentals
Blues is the partner dance that is easy to start doing, and hard to stop! This class will cover the fundamental elements you need to start blues dancing socially: connecting with your partner, responding to the rhythms in the music, and simple movements that you can combine into a whole night of great dances. Best of all, you can use these fundamentals of blues dancing no matter what kind of music you’re dancing to, whether traditional blues, modern electronica, tango, pop, or whatever the DJ is spinning. Come get your blues on.
Blues Progressive
When you want to add greater range and diversity to your blues dancing, there are so many great directions you can go in. Add subtlety and stillness. Amp up power and momentum. Create new lines and shapes. In this class we’ll work through combinations to show you how each direction can spice up your blues dancing, and how you can combine them in the same song. Never be bored with your dancing again.
But I don't dance like Him/Her
Jamie-Lynn Figure
We will explore scenarios where partners dance in different styles. Each dance presupposes different elements that must be adapted to suit the balance of the partnership. How do we find common ground? Follow when unfamiliar with the lead's style? Adapt leading when our partner is not fluent in our primary form of dance? Combine elements of different dances? This class will teach you techniques to help you love dancing with EVERYBODY during your dance experience.
Jamie-Lynn FIgure
Jamie-Lynn first experienced partner dance in 1994 in the form of ice dancing. While progressing through competitive circles, she cross-trained with ballet, jazz, modern, and cardio dance classes. In 2005 she put on her first pair of ballroom shoes; in 2006 she fell in love with swing and blues. Addicted to new dancing experiences, she added Argentine tango to her repertoire in 2007. Basically, she loves to dance any way she can. Students of her weekly blues, swing, and connection lessons feel that their creativity, expressivity, and knowledge of fundamental concepts are challenged and expanded during each of her lessons. She's happy to have been a part of The Las Vegas Fusion Exchange and The Denver Fusion Exchange.
Capoeira INTRODUCTION
Capoeira Brasil San Diego
Description coming soon
Moves Like Dexter
Dexter Santos
Part of dancing involves moving to a rhythm + where and how we place our steps. In this exclusive one-off class, we'll explore various ways to step to dance rhythms starting with simple steps to more fancy stylings, including some of Dexter's favorite moves! We'll apply these steps to Blues, Soul, Electronic/Dance music and see how well these steps translate from one genre of music to another. Get ready for an hour of fancy feet rhythms that you can do solo or with a partner!
Solo Blues Dancing
Dexter Santos
Add some vocabulary and aesthetic to your solo Blues dancing while by adding intention, utilizing your kinesphere, and creating polyrhythms in your movement. We'll learn about the many different dances such as the Slow Drag, Mooche, Grind, Fishtail, Shake n' Bake, Messaround, Funky Butt, and more. No partner necessary but the movements can be applied to partner dancing.
Dexter Santos
With a background in Ballroom dancing and Lindy Hop, Dexter has studied and collaborated with the best Blues dance teachers and dancers making him one of the most sought-after and admired teachers in the national and international scene. As a teacher, Dexter loves spreading his passion and joy for Blues dancing and aims to inspire dancers of all levels with the possibilities that this dance has to offer while preserving its roots, identity, and art form . Having taught in four continents, Dexter's classes are known to be inspiring and fun, and are favorites at nationally and internationally renowned exchanges and workshops such as bluesSHOUT, Austin Blues Party (Austin, TX), Blues Quake (San Francisco, CA), Rain City Blues (Seattle, WA), Mile High Blues Festival (Denver, CO), Fallin' In Blues (Grenoble, France), Bluesweet (Seoul, Korea), and Drag The Blues (Barcelona, Spain) among many others.
Dexter has won first place in numerous Blues dancing competitions around the country and has won the title of Ballroomin' Blues champion at bluesSHOUT 3 times (2007, 2008, and 2010). At bluesSHOUT 2010 in Austin, Dexter won all four partnered competitions: Open Jack & Jill, Strictly Jook Joint, Strictly Ballroomin', and Champions Division. For more information about Dexter, visit his website at dextersantos.com.
Sifu Mario Mayorga, Co-owner of 5 Elements Martial Arts & Wellness Center, has trained in various forms of martial arts, including: Taekwondo, Aikido, Kung Fu, Tai Chi, and Chi Gong, since 1993. He earned his black belt in Kung Fu in 1999 and specializes in teaching Northern Shaolin Kung Fu, Zhaobao and Yang-style Tai Chi Chuan. Since then, he’s been teaching kung fu at martial arts studios, public schools, and in private lessons all over San Diego. His passion for teaching is driven by showing his students to find a deep and expressive connection within themselves.
In 2000 Sifu Mario met Master Zhao Weidong, a 13th generation Zhaobao Tai Chi Master. Sifu Mario feels that Master Zhao was the most influential teacher in his martial arts training, and helped him to uncover the many internal secrets hidden in tai chi. In 2010 Sifu Mario became certified as a massage therapist, and opened 5 Elements with Instructor Keith, with the main focus of combining the Northern Shaolin and Wing Chun Kung Fu. 5 Elements also provides many other healing bodywork practices such as yoga, tai chi, chi gong, and massage therapy. In 2012 Sifu Mario finished his Holistic Health Practitioner’s training at the Internal Professional School of Bodywork (IPSB), with over 1200 hours. In 2014 he completed a special teacher-training course at IPSB, and has been continuing his mentorship with many great healers. Sifu Mario feels that continued self develop leads to becoming a better practitioner of your craft.
He is currently spending much of his time refining his martial arts skills and exploring different martial art styles such as Brazilian Jui Jitsu, and training with ICE Urban Combat Martial Arts. In addition to his martial arts training, he has spent extra time exploring activities such as yoga, gymnastics, ballroom dancing, hiking, and bike riding.
Tai Chi
Mario Mayorga
Tai chi chuan (taijiquan) is a soft internal style of Chinese martial arts. The movements in tai chi develop mindfulness, using conscious breathing with soft graceful movements that are low impact and easy on the joints. Tai chi movements linked with breathing encourages a natural state of mind and body that is calm, relaxed, and present, which improves the quality of someone’s life. Movements improve strength, balance, coordination, lowering stress hormones, and enhances cardiovascular health. When movements and principals of tai chi are practiced, a person will start to unify the body, mind, and spirit, by balancing the energy in the body. This training is seen as an efficient health system that increases the health and longevity by bringing harmony to the emotions, and opens the spirit.
In this class we will explore shifting states of mind and reconnecting with our body in the present moment. We will do this by playing with breathing exercises linked with movements, which are connected with various styles of chi gong. Students will also experience a flow through of the first 3rd of the Yang-style tai chi chuan short form. Students will see how this is a meditative dance, playing with natural rhythms of the body as we listen closely to the flow of movement, breathing, heart tempo, and clarity of mind.
Push hands is a two-person drill that helps a student to understand the principals of tai chi and movements found in the form. One person applies linear force to their training partner, and the other person yields the force in a circular motion and redirects. This can be used as a catalyst towards understanding the physics of motion, energy, and force. Students learn to maintain their strength and balance by responding to force using sensitivity, coordination, timing, leverage, and body alignment.
In this class we will learn how to respond to external stimuli using ideas and movements practiced in the form. By training with another person, we develop sensitivity to feel the direction of movement, so that we can build a sense of defensive, and offensive movement found in tai chi. We will discuss maintaining a postural advantage, spatial awareness, and how to use incoming force to feed or redirect. Students will practice slow movements, breathing, and a calm state of mind during push hands to help promote a fun and safe environment to learn.
Mike Eblen [site]
has been dancing since he was in diapers, music and movement are two things that just make sense to him. As an adolescent he was exposed to a vast spectrum of movement styles ranging from modern dance to martial arts as well as rock climbing. At the tender age of 21, Mike came across an argentine tango class in Asheville, NC, and that was when his life changed. Tango became his primary focus, his raison d’etre, if you will. Wanting to involve more and more people in the tango scene, the choice to become a teacher was the obvious one.
Mike has taught, performed and DJ’ed across the country and is one of the most desired personalities of the new generation of young tango professionals. He has studied with an extensive list of masters from all over the globe, the list includes but is not limited to Alex Krebs, Kara Wenham, Tomas Howlin, Brigitta Winkler, Daniela Pucci, Luis Bianchi, Yanick Wyler, Felipe Martinez, Jenna Rohrbacher, Jaimes Friedgen, Yvonne Meissner, Horacio Godoy, Gustavo Naviera, Homer Ladas, Cristina Ladas, Eric Lindgren, Rebecca Rorick Smith and Lizelot de Stigter.
Patricia Becker [site]
is an actress, dancer and choreographer from Argentina. She has studied ballet, Israeli folk dance, jazz, Latin rhythms and contemporary dance. Patricia worked as a dancer for the Ballet oficial de Danzas Israelíes and for the Ballet Oficial de Danza Contemporánea del Teatro San Martín. When Patricia moved to New York in 2006, she studied with Alejandra Orozco, Robert Castle, Michael Beckett (HB Studio) and Carol Goodheart (HB Studio). She appeared in the musical Gardel at the Spanish Repertory Theatre, where she also worked in the production of Bloodwedding by Garcia Lorca. Other credits in New York Theater include: The black continent, Pandora’s Box, The guest and the void, La Celestina, Life is a dream, Inverosimil and Dawn in a brown suit, among others. Patricia has worked for some of the most renowned Spanish companies in the United States, such as: IATI theater, Circulo Theater and Repertorio Espanol and worked with directors Rene Buch, and Jorge Merced, among others. In NY, she was nominated for two ACE awards as best dramatic actress. In 2009, the spark of love that Patricia has for dancing was renewed when she rediscovered tango. And since then, she shares her artistic passion amongst the realms of acting, dancing, and tango teaching.
Moti Buchboot & Ayona Weaver [site]
Moti informally started his tango training over twenty years ago when he began to study martial arts. His interest in body movement brought him into contact with a variety of styles led him to dance and mainly to Argentine tango. A dance he has been teaching and performing for over a decade and a half. His dancing style is dynamic, experimental, and innovative. It abounds with creativity and continually evolves to explore new forms of expression, while simultaneously striving to be mindful and respectful of tradition
A highly trained musician, tap and jazz dancer Ayona discovered tango few years ago allowing her to apply her modern jazz background, long lines, flexibility and natural grace. These elements alone made her stand out, and under Moti’s tutelage she quickly excelled. Recognizing her potential for growth after a few short months, Moti took her under his wing as his protégé and soon thereafter his dance partner. Currently, they teach in Santa Monica where they have several projects in the works.
Tango Fundamentals and Progressive
Moti Buchboot & Ayona Weaver
Argentine Tango Fundamentals
This class avoids the rote memorization of patterns and steps, which often leaves novice dancers fumbling on the dance floor. It instead emphasizes basic concepts of leading and following and the relationship among partners, the music, and other dancers to prepare students to bring Argentine tango to any social dance experience. Moti's and Ayona’s teaching style, couched in a highly-energized, yet casual and relaxed environment, allows students to learn simply, quickly, and confidently.
Argentine Tango Progressive
This class will build on the previous class, and will present an in-depth study of Argentine tango mechanics and the complex concepts that allow students to master intricate movement with ease. Also in this class we will add the elements of styling and embellishment to the basics learned in previous class and how to incorporate the esthetics and awareness of movement to your dancing. With integrative approach, which combines both modern innovation and a firm respect for tradition, Moti and Ayona give students the tools to create their own dynamic and inventive styles.
West Coast Swing Intro
Brick Robbins
You are already and experienced partner dancer and want to try out West Coast Swing? We will present the deceptively simple structure of West Coast Swing, based 2 beat rhythm patters and only 6 elements, and show you how to use these to create more complex structures and a connected experience with your partner using your natural everyday movement. After this class you should be able to go out on the floor and have fun.
Brick Robbins
After studying martial arts as a youth, Brick discovered dancing in a Country Bar. He then explored the partner dances through West Coast Swing, Ballroom, Argentine Tango, and Contact Improv and in quest of better technique studied Ballet, Jazz and Tap.
After several years of dancing, he finally settled on two connection based improvisational partner dances, West Coast Swing and Argentine Tango. As a competitive WCS dancer, he competed in the NASDE Showcase (choreography) division, and rose to Advanced in the WSDC Jack and Jill (improv) competitions. While on and extended stay in Buenos Aires studying tango, a local Argentine dancer seeking a partner met Brick, and they competed in the Tango World Championships.
He has taught locally in San Diego for many years and currently organizes several WCS and Tango social dances in the area. Always eager to get new dancers hooked on his two favorite addictions, he focuses on giving fun and entertaining classes with emphasis musicality and connection, showing how technique and patterns are merely tools used to create emotion with a partner, to express the music. Brick's teaching technique interchanges teaching methods learned from tango in Buenos Aires and West Coast Swing in SoCal creating a more rich and robust approach to teaching both dances.
Shaheed Qaasim a trained jazz and hip-hop dancer, in the mid 2000’s was introduced to partner dancing and he has never looked back. Shaheed is known for his musical creativity and innovative style. His joy for dance is as infectious as his teaching style. Specializing in bringing out the best in an individual dancers style and presence. His high energy teaching style makes his classes fun and provides easier access for that “Aha!” moment that his students love. Having extensive training in Westcoast Swing, Lindy Hop and Blues, Shaheed is one of the few leaders in the country who is proficient in all three of these styles giving him a unique and diverse knowledge that evident in his dancing, teaching and choreography.
Will Shaver has been social dancing for more than 15 years, exploring ballroom, west coast swing, blues, and lately fusing it all together. Of all the awards he's won for dancing, the one he's most proud of is the SwingDiego Social Dance Award given to the friendliest dancer who best embodies the spirit of social dancing. His classes often focus on how to create the most enjoyable dance with each partner, connecting with the music and each other to build something beautiful together.
West Coast Swing
SHAHEED QAASIM
West Coast Swing Fundamentals
Rhythm and Style.
You already have experience in partner dancing and now you want to give West Coast a try!! Come get your groove on! We’ll cover the 6 and 8 count rhythms that provide the foundation for this dance, add in some classic basic WCS patterns to get you dancing. We might even give you something cool that you can add into your Tango or Blues.
WILL SHAVER
West Coast Swing Progressive
Most WCS classes are focused on patterns, and we’ll explore several in this class including a redirection whip, the push tuck turn, and lead’s behind the back arm catch. Then we’ll break out of the WCS frame and discuss how to take these movements into the more free-form style of fusion dancing.
