6:00-midnight
Hustle Lessons taught by Sarah Calhoun:
Advanced Lesson: 6:00 PM
Beginner Lesson: 7:00 PM

Check the UWMBDA website for details.

Dress for UWMBDA dances is casual–jeans and a T-shirt are normal. Please bring non-street shoes to dance in!

6:00 - 7:00 PM: Open practice
7:00 - 8:30 PM: Tango Dojo

$3-5. No partner required. All levels.

Darrell and Sarah will be performing one of their pro routines at 9:30! Other local dancers will be performing throughout the evening. Come enjoy and evening of fun dancing!

This Group Class will meet each Sunday from 5:45 - 7:00 pm, beginning 4 May 2008 and running until 25 May 2008, for a total of four sessions. It is a continuation of Finding a Connection, Part I: West Coast Swing. You can register for one or both sessions. While each Part deals with a different dance, the underlying principles will flow from session to session and inform each other.

In these two 75-minute classes meeting for a total of four sessions each (eight in total), we will discover how to produce a solid lead/follow connection. Do you ever walk out on the dance floor and discover that you’re actually dancing in front of and not with your partner? A strong connection will take new the Rumba moves that we will be learning (including spins, passes, and breaks) and make them look great!

These same principles are portable to all other dances. Discovering how you hold your own body and how it interacts with a partner will change the way you dance forever!

The class will emphasize creating a solid constant connection between the lead and follow and how to use that connection throughout the entire dance and in every move that we create! In addition to new Rumba moves and technique, we will be learning how two bodies create motion together.

Improve your own balance and learn to recognize how each partner influences the balance of the other. Develop an understanding of how you move your own body and how those movements are felt and interpreted by your partner. (Applies to leads and follows alike.) Build the fundamentals for creating good partner connections and for leading and following well. Exercise those fundamentals to invent your own moves!

This class is intended for people with some experience with partner dancing or Rumba and will move at an appropriate pace. Experienced dancers, enroll to improve your sense of partner connection and to refine your body action and basics!

You do not need to enroll with a partner. Expect frequent partner changes and numerous group activities and exercises.

Pre-registration is required. Contact the Instructor to reserve space in this class.

This Group Class will meet each Sunday from 5:45 - 7:00 pm, beginning 30 March 2008 and running until 27 April 2008, for a total of four sessions. There will be no class on Sunday, 20 April. It is continued by Finding a Connection, Part II: Rumba. You can register for one or both sessions. While each Part deals with a different dance, the underlying principles will flow from session to session and inform each other.

In these two 75-minute classes meeting for a total of four sessions each (eight in total), we will discover how to produce a solid lead/follow connection. Do you ever walk out on the dance floor and discover that you’re actually dancing in front of and not with your partner? A strong connection will take new the West Coast Swing moves that we will be learning (including whips, passes, and checks) and make them look great!

These same principles are portable to all other dances. Discovering how you hold your own body and how it interacts with a partner will change the way you dance forever!

The class will emphasize creating a solid constant connection between the lead and follow and how to use that connection throughout the entire dance and in every move that we create! In addition to new West Coast Swing moves and technique, we will be learning how two bodies create motion together.

Improve your own balance and learn to recognize how each partner influences the balance of the other. Develop an understanding of how you move your own body and how those movements are felt and interpreted by your partner. (Applies to leads and follows alike.) Build the fundamentals for creating good partner connections and for leading and following well. Exercise those fundamentals to invent your own moves!

This class is intended for people with some experience with partner dancing or West Coast Swing and will move at an appropriate pace. Experienced dancers, enroll to improve your sense of partner connection and to refine your body action and basics!

You do not need to enroll with a partner. Expect frequent partner changes and numerous group activities and exercises.

Pre-registration is required. Contact the Instructor to reserve space in this class.

This Group Class will meet each Sunday from 7:00-8:15 pm, beginning 30 March 2008 and running until 25 May 2008, for a total of eight sessions. There will be no class on Sunday, 20 April.

In this 75-minute class meeting for a total of eight sessions, we will discover how to produce many of the common dance moves you see at nightclubs where people dance Salsa. Many people begin going to Salsa clubs and using their new skills after only two or three sessions! Yes, it is possible to learn enough about Salsa dancing to have a lot of fun very quickly.

We will cover the Miami or Cubano style of Salsa, featuring many turns and spins for both the leads and the follows. We will use a simple set of common moves to explore good lead and follow connections, inventiveness, and fluidity in Salsa dancing.

The class will emphasize creating a solid constant connection between the lead and follow and how to use that connection throughout the entire dance and in every move that we create! We will use a simple set of common moves to explore good lead and follow connections, inventiveness, and fluidity in Salsa dancing.

Improve your own balance and learn to recognize how each partner influences the balance of the other. Develop an understanding of how you move your own body and how those movements are felt and interpreted by your partner. (Applies to leads and follows alike.) Build the fundamentals for creating good partner connections and for leading and following well. Exercise those fundamentals to invent your own moves!

This class is intended for people new to partner dancing or new to Salsa dancing and will move at an appropriate pace. Experienced dancers, enroll to improve your sense of partner connection and to refine your body action and basics!

You do not need to enroll with a partner. Expect frequent partner changes and numerous group activities and exercises.

Pre-registration is required. Contact the Instructor to reserve space in this class.

Each spring, the people at the Valley Social Dance Studio in Appleton, WI organize a competition and showcase, inviting a number of dance schools from around WI. Schools from Green Bay, Appleton, Wausau, Eau Claire, Madison, and even Rockford, IL attend this fun and uplifting dance competition.

In years past, the Art of Dance has trained dancers to participate in this competition. Since the date is fast approaching, this year we will not have a delegation to participate in this comp. However, if you will be in the Appleton area the weekend of the competition, I encourage you to attend as a spectator if only to experience the atmosphere at a competition.

The evening of Friday, 28 March 2008 will have various “solo” (choreographed) partner dancing entries.
The entire day of Saturday, 29 March 2008 will have all of the “freestyle” (non-choreographed) entries.

In years past, I have attended the adult camps and had a fantastic time. Not only is the access to quality instruction superb, but the instructors are the very people who often judge at the competitions Sarah and I attend.

The adult camps offer a full week of dance classes, social dances, performance, and full immersion into ballroom dancing. The organizers limit enrollment to ~250 participants. In the years I have attended, there have been about 30-40 participants under age 30, with most of the participants ages 40 and above.

It is mostly amateur dancers who attend the camp, most of whom do not compete in dancing, but rather enjoy dancing as a great hobby. Classes are offered in beginner through advanced levels and are taught by skillful nationally (and internationally) prominent dancers and dance teachers.

Private lessons are available with any of the instructors. (Look at the website links, above in the white box, to see who is teaching. The current Rhythm champions are teaching at the first adult camp, if that gives you some idea of the caliber of instruction available.)

I have never attended the youth camps - intended for HS students - so I do not know first-person details about them. I suspect they are quite similar to the adult camps in quality. HS students may attend the adult camps, and each year I was there several HS students were participants.

I have no relationship with the camp or with the organizers. I am posting it here so that you may consider planning to add a dance camp to your summer plans.

If you know the basic West Coast Swing “sugar-push” and a “side-pass”, or you attended the UWMBDA beginning pre-dance lesson on Feb 9th, come to Sarah’s Intermediate lesson to add more flashy moves to your West Coast Swing repertoire. We will be changing partners frequently throughout the lesson, so it is never necessary to bring a partner with you.

You should be a UWMBDA member to attend a Thursday lesson series. However, if you are not a member yet, please feel welcome to attend the first lesson and you can join the club at a weekend dance.