Damon and Heidi Workshop Weekend

Saturday November 19th to Sunday, November 20, the top blues dance instructors in the world come to Toronto, Canada!

WORKSHOP INFO

WHEN?: Saturday November 19th to Sunday, November 20.

HOW?: REGISTER ONLINE at http://guestlistapp.com/events/62967

WHERE?: Dovercourt House, 805 Dovercourt Rd. Toronto, ON.

Damon & Heidi share a love for Blues dance and for promoting the dance as a living tradition, with a rich history and an exciting future. Their classes are inspiring and challenging, but their focus on the underlying principles and a clear explanation of the fundamentals allows them to break down the most difficult concepts and moves so they are easy to understand and incorporate. Damon & Heidi are able to communicate and instill in their students a love of dance and a dedication to the learning process. More important, their classes will kick your butt and put some serious bad-ass in your dancing.

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SATURDAY SCHEDULE

TIME	CLASS DESCRIPTION
10:00 – 10:25am	Registration and Warm Up. Dovercourt House, 805 Dovercourt Rd. Toronto, ON.
10:30am – 11:30am	Blues Aesthetic – The dancin’ starts here. Learn what makes Blues Dancing the art of the people.
11:45am – 12:45pm	Blues Rhythms – Learn to feel the rhythm or “pulse” inherent in Blues music and to use your body to emphasize this rhythm by adding variations to your basic steps.
12:45pm – 1:45pm	LUNCH BREAK NOMNOMNOM
1:45pm – 3:00pm	Blues Style: Ballroomin’ – Learn one of the original partnered Blues dances created by Lindy hoppers at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, which was their groovier, bluesier impression of ballroom dance characterized by large relaxed and flashy movements, in typical Savoy fashion.
3:15pm – 4:30pm	Blues to the Extreme: Flash – Not all blues dances are in closed or in one spot! You’ll learn how to apply this idea of maximum movement to your dancing by making movements more noticeable with large, sweeping motions, traveling and some cool tricks.

TIME	DANCE INFO
8:30pm-9:45pm	DRINKING and chillin’ at the Imperial Pub. 54 Dundas Street East
10:00pm – 3:30am	Barrelhouse BloOooz! at HABEEBAS DANCE STUDIO (179 Dundas St E). Price: $12 entrance ($8 for workshop attendees!)
10:30pm – 1:00am	PATRICK TEVLIN and his NEW ORLEANS BLUES RHYTHM BAND. DJ John Wong and Jukin’ Jules during the band breaks.
1:15am – 1:45m	DJ Jukin’ Jules
1:45am – 2:30am	DJ John Wong
2:30am – 3:30am	DJ Jukin’ Jules and John Wong

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SUNDAY SCHEDULE

TIME	CLASS DESCRIPTION
10:00 – 10:25am	Registration/Warm Up. Dovercourt House, 805 Dovercourt Rd. Toronto, ON.
10:30am – 11:45pm	Blues Style: Jookin’ – Blues dancing at its heart is about authenticity and passion. In this class, we’ll learn the closed position dances done in jook joints and rent parties. We’ll cover all the fundamental skills and rhythms needed to dance with skill, but more importantly you’ll learn how to feel the music and express it through these dances. It’s all about the attitude.
11:45am – 12:15pm	SHORT LUNCH BREAK NOMNOMNOM
12:15pm – 1:15pm	Blues to the Extreme: Fast – Blues is not just for slow songs! You’ll also learn how to use the Blues movements and Blues aesthetic so that you can Blues dance to faster songs (up to 200 bpm!).
1:30pm – 2:30pm	Blues to the Extreme: Subtleties – This class teaches you to hear the differences within a song and between different songs that should influence the way you dance. You’ll learn how to apply this idea of minimum movement to your dancing by making movements more subtle, yet clear and purposeful.
2:45pm – 3:45pm	Blues Challenge: Riffin’ and Cuttin’ – African-American dances are characterized by many things but two of the most important are improvisation and attitude. These come to play in Blues through riffin’, the ability to improvise not just on the music but on the steps and movement of your partner, and cuttin’ the art of challenge dancing and one ups-manship.

TIME	DANCE INFO
8:45pm-10:30pm	DRINKING and chillin’ at the Imperial Pub. 54 Dundas Street East
10:30pm – 1:30am	Sunday night dance at the Imperial Pub (FREE!). An up and coming toronto dance landmark, the sunday night dance is in the “back room of the pub” and it’s free free free!

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MORE ABOUT DAMON AND HEIDI

Heidi Fite (San Francisco, CA): Heidi began dancing and teaching the Blues in St. Louis in 1999 and has been dancing, teaching and performing ever since. An early promoter of Blues dancing, she began the first national Blues dance workshop (Cheap Thrills), which has since transformed into the nation’s largest Blues dance workshop and competition weekend (bluesSHOUT!). She now lives in San Francisco and travels the world teaching Blues dancing. From private lessons and local classes to international workshops and historical research and documentation of the dance, she is dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Blues dancing. Heidi is able to communicate and instill in her students a love of dance and a dedication to the learning process. More important, her classes will put some serious “boom boom boom” and “aw haw haw haw” in your dancing.

Damon Stone (Minneapolis, MN): Damon has been dancing his entire life, starting with vernacular Jazz/Blues first taught to him by his gradmother. After nearly a decade of learning at the heels of his elders, went on to study well over a dozen different dance forms until coming full circle in 1995 to focus primarily on the historical and contemporary styles of Swing and Blues as his family danced them, with a special focus on the Southtern styles from the Mississippi Delta region. He has taught dance extensively around the world, and studied the development of vernacular Jazz/Blues dance, learning from a number of the original dancers. Largely regarded as one of the foremost authorities on Blues dance, Damon has been interviewed as a Black dance historian in documentary and for radio as well as performed on stage with the Lincoln Center, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie Orchestras.

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