Weekend Contra Dances &
Workshops in Ashford
(Kent)
Funky
American Style Barn Dancing for the 21st Century with fantastic, live music
from the USA and
the UK. There is
a free introductory
workshop to
get you started, and then the caller walks through the figures before each
dance, so that anyone can join in easily.
Come and
join the fun!
Saturday
Schedule:
2:00pm to
5:00pm: Workshops with John
& Karen
Sweeney - Contra styling,
swinging, contra waltz - details
below.
7:30pm to
8:00pm: Free introductory contra dance
workshop for beginners
8:00pm to
11:00pm: Contra
dance
Saturday April 17
2010
Chesapeake from
the UK,
with Henry
Morgenstein,
from Michigan, USA
Saturday May 22
2010
Stick
Shift, from the UK, with
Wendy Graham, from Colorado, USA
Want to
make a weekend of it?
Sunday May 23rd
2010
Saturday June 19
2010
Stick Shift
with Adam
Hughes, from
the UK.
Saturday July 17
2010
Skylark
with John
Meechan, from
the UK.
Saturday September 25
2010
English Contra Dance Band
with Andrew Swaine, from
the UK.
PLUS
Sunday Afternoon
Special: Sunday June 13
2010
Appalachian Storm
with Diane
Silver,
from North
Carolina, USA
1:30pm to
2:00pm: Free introductory contra dance
workshop for beginners
2:00pm to
5:00pm: Contra
dance
(Please
note: TBC - Appalachian Storm are still finalising their UK tour
plans.)
Saturday
Afternoon Workshops
Contra
Waltz:
You don't
need any previous waltz experience to join in - we will be teaching the basics
at the beginning of the workshop. Then, once everyone can walk in waltz time,
we will show you lots more variations you can add - the beginners can focus on
practicing a few that they like, and the experienced waltzers will have lots to challenge them as
well!
50
Ways to Swing Your Lovers
Most
modern contra dance choreography involves some swings - very often there will
be a swing with your neighbour and another
with your partner each time through the dance.
We will
start the workshop with some work on swing technique to make sure that
everyone is comfortable with the basic buzz-step swing, then do a dance that gives everyone a chance to
practice.
Once you
have done the first few times through a dance, and can remember most of the
sequence, it is fun to add some variety by modifying the swing. There are
countless versions: Waist Swing, Shoulder Swing, Left Handshake Swing, Galway
Swing, Sweetheart Swing, Slow Man Spin Swing, Back Swing, Basket Swing, Sway
Swing, Two Hands Swing and lots more! We will introduce some of these and then
have some more dances for you to practice your
swinging.
We will
also look at different ways of putting extra turns into the entry and exit
from a swing.
Then there
is the recent American concept of treating the 16 beats of a swing as time for
you and your partner to have some fun doing anything you want, as long as you
are facing the right way on beat one of the next move. We will show you some
of the fun variations you can do, borrowing from other dance styles and
encouraging you to experiment.
We don't
guarantee to cover 50 different ways to swing, but we do guarantee that you
will have lots of fun!
American Contra
Styling
The
Americans have added extra spins in moves such as Ladies' Chains, Heys and Allemandes. They have also added body
movement and footwork from other dance styles to make even simple moves like
Lines Forward & Back look more stylish.
We will be
demonstrating some of these and helping you to make your dancing more
stylish.
And of
course we will do some more great dances to fabulous music to allow you to
practice all these things.
Where?
All Contrafusion dances and workshops are
at:
Hothfield Village
Hall, Park
Drive, Hothfield, Ashford TN26 1EQ.
Only five
minutes from M20 J9.
Looking
forward to seeing you there! J
Happy dancing,
John