Ballroom Newsletter, Siskiyou County & Northern California – March 7th 2016
Dear All,
Bolero starts tonight! We look forward to seeing all our beginning students there as well as any of our more advanced students who simply wish to brush up and strengthen their basic skills.
We have developed some of our most pertinent insights whilst re-taking beginning classes and highly recommend the practice. Your dancing definitely will improve.
Everyone will have fun with this wistfully romantic dance.
In response to repeated requests from more than one quarter, we are going to start holding our practice dance parties again. We will hold them once a month, but have not worked out all the details yet. Keep your ear cocked, your eye peeled, your nose to the wind and whatever else you want to use focused on where ever that thing gets its information.
For our beginning students, a “Practice Party” is a two to three (sometimes one and a half to two) hour session where we teach for an hour and then play music from all the different dances for “open dancing” (which means that you get to do whatever steps you want in whatever order you want with whomever has agreed to dance with you -or with whomever you have agreed to dance) for the remainder of the evening. We usually focus (play more of them) on the dances being taught that month but all dances will be played and we are open to requests.
It is the perfect place to develop your skills, learn how to navigate a dance floor with other couples who are also dancing, and it is a good place to watch others do the dances you don’t yet know to see how much fun you are going to be having in the near future.
And we will be on hand and more than happy to teach you the most basic step of a dance if you get too excited to wait so that you can start having more fun that night.
We call it a practice party to highlight that its purpose is not a place to show off or exhibit finely polished skills. It is a place to further your learning, develop your skills and have fun with others who are doing the same.
More information soon.
See you in class.
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THIS WEEKS SCHEDULE
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The Mt. Shasta Wellness Center:
633 Lassen Lane, Mt. Shasta, CA 96057
Tues. March 7: – Beginning BOLERO 6:45 – 7:45 pm
Wed. March 8: – Ballroom for Parkinson’s 12:30 – 1:30 pm
Wed. March 8: – Beg/Intermediate SAMBA 6:45 – 7:45 pm
Thur. March 9: – Int./Advanced WALTZ 6:45 – 7:45 pm
April 2017 Dances
Tues. – Beginning: Salsa
Wed. – Beg/Int./: Bolero
Thur. – Int./Adv.: Samba
You do not need to be a Wellness Center member to attend these classes.
Single Class: $7.00
Class Card (for 4 classes or more)
Non-members: $20 for 4 classes (or $5/class)
Wellness Center Members: $20 for 8 classes (or $2.50/class)
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Fort Jones Community Center:
Fort Jones Community Center in Scott Valley (15 minutes from Yreka)
11960 East Street, Fort Jones, CA
This Friday! March 10th (and again on March 31st)
Time: 7:00-8:00
$10/person
Dance: Beginning Tango
Come one come all and join us for the easiest most basic steps and then continue with the class as the month by month the steps become more advanced.
Anyone interested in scheduling a private lesson on a Friday please e-mail us or contact us at the contact information listed below.
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Saturday Morning Technique Class
Mt. Shasta City Park
Dance Hall Lodge
1315 Nixon Rd, Mt. Shasta Ca
Saturday Mornings: March 4, 11, 18, 25
9:45 – 11:45 am
This month’s dance: TANGO
9:45 – 10:45 am: Technical drills in International and American Smooth Style dances specifically designed to strengthen and improve your dancing and dancing abilities. Focusing on the elements that make Partner dancing more fluid, dynamic, powerful and fun: Lowering, Rotation, Swing, Cant and Sway. Developing these basic skills will improve your performance in not just this dance, but in all the dances by giving you more control over your balance, timing, power and expression.
And that is just too much fun to miss out on. So, what say you give it a try?
10:45 – 11:45 am: Amalgamations. Putting the drills you worked on in the first hour to work in the actual steps of the dance, allowing you to develop more control over the steps, floor craft and yourself.
COST: $15/person
$10/person youth discount
NEXT MONTH: Viennese Waltz
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PRIVATE LESSONS are AVAILABLE to anyone who would rather learn in a more private or personal environment (i.e. no witnesses) or anyone who wants to progress faster or to anyone who simply wants private lessons.
Also, if circumstance prevents you from attending any of the group classes at their respective times, private lessons are arranged in accordance to your schedule and at your convenience. Contact us by e-mail or by telephone (number below).
GROUP PRIVATES and SPECIAL EVENTS are also available. If you can’t make it to our classes and you have a number of friends and acquaintances who you think might be interested, get them together and we can find a time in which we can come to you at your collective convenience.
Also, WEDDINGS, BIRTHDAY PARTIES, ANNIVERSARIES, ETC. are all great events to include Ballroom Dancing as a group activity. Again, contact us to make arrangements or ask questions.
We are also available to lecture, demonstrate or perform at any event you would like to liven up.
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Any questions, please call or e-mail us. We love hearing from you and welcome any suggestions, comments, expressions of adoration or just to let us know what is up with you. Information regarding our Gift Certificates can be found at our website.
Website: www.mtshastadance.com
Cheers,
Rick and Peggy Nixon
Ballroom Dance Professionals
530/853-4147 (home)
415/215-2652 (cell)
McCloud CA
davisnixon@msn.com
Feel free to pass the newsletter on to anyone you think might be interested in attending our classes.
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Relevant Links:
http://socialdance.stanford.edu/syllabi/smarter.htm Research substantiating that Ballroom Dance combats Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia (with a link to the original article in the New England Journal of Medicine).
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-rosenzweig/learning-to-wait-howwest_b_4129983.html A nice take on some of the more unexpected benefits of Ballroom Dance.