Thank you

As many of you know this blog has been a project for my social media class at UGA, as the class is over all of my required posts and hits are through as well. I will probably keep this blog open as a channel for people to talk about ballroom dance and ballroom dance here at UGA, but there will be hiatus in post until after finals, Dec 12.

Thank you to everyone who has been reading, and if you have any comments about what you'd like to ses from this blog in the future please let me know.

Dance Events in Athens

Weekly Events - Nov. 29 - Dec 7


Apprentice Audition Info and Practice Session - Thursday, November 29
7 p.m.
Carver studio in the Dance Building
It Free - just come out to get tips and help before auditions

There is no Sunday Night lesson or Rueda this week - We hope to see you all next semester!!

Apprentice Auditions - Tuesday, December 4
If you wan to try out for the Ballroom Performance group, please come out and audition.
6:45 pm - 9:45 pm
New Dance Theatre
*Semi Formal/Sunday Day dress appropriate

"Swing & Ladies" - Tuesday, December 4
Lesson: east coast, west coast, Lindy or Charleston
Doors open at 8:30 p.m. - Lesson at 9 p.m.
The Ritz, downtown Athens
$3 cover

Casino Salsa (aka Rueda Salsa)- Tuesday, December 4
Lessons are available
Dancing is from 8-10 p.m.
The Upstairs bar at Transmetropolitan, downtown Athens
$10 cover

"Salsa @ The Ritz" Wednesday, December 5
Lesson: Salsa by Spicy Salsa
Doors open at 8:30 - Lesson 9 p.m.
The Ritz, downtown Athens
$4 Cover

Snow Ball - Friday Night Dance - December 7
The Ballroom Performance Group will be hosting its final friday night dance party of the year. Come and help make this Snowball a blast.
Lesson: Tango
Free Lesson at 7 p.m.
Dance Party from 8 p.m. - 10:30 p.m.
New Dance Theatre
$3 for students $5 for non students
---The dance is holiday themed, so feel free to break out in those holiday colors and Santa hats.

**There will be a special performance by the Ballroom Performance Group

Apprentice Auditions - The Scoop

UGA's Ballroom Performance Group will host its semesterly audition on Tuesday, December 4 from 7 to 9 p.m. in the New Dance Theatre in the Dance Building on campus.

These auditions will place you in the Apprentice group, which serves as kind of prep school for BPG. While in the Apprentice group you will have lessons every Tuesday with the director of BPG, Eddie Bonnell and the option of a special lesson on Thursdays. These lessons are a part of your training as a dancer, and will become more frequent after you have graduated into BPG. This is not to scare you off, but you should be aware that there is a significant time commitment in joining these groups. You must have at least 3 semesters remaining here at UGA, to consider auditioning.

If you are interested in auditioning there is an information and practice session tomorrow, Thursday, November 29 at 7 p.m. in the Carver studio of the Dance Building.

Preparing for the audition -

• Be early - You should arrive at the New Dance Theatre at about 6:45 so that you will have time to sign in and get settled.
  
• You should dress nicely.
• Men: button up shirts with a tie and a nice pair of slacks
• Ladies: dresses or skirts and nice tops
• NO JEANS
• Keep in mind that you will be dancing so that super short skirt may not be appropriate for dips and spins
  
• Remember to smile and exude confidence - BPG is a performance group so it is important that you can look relaxed and confidant even though your partner just stepped on your foot.

What you can except in the audition

There are two parts in the audition process: social dancing and choreography

In the choreography section everyone will be taught a simple series of moves. These will not be advanced moves but merely intermediate to basic moves strung together in sequences with some flare. Everyone, in groups, will then be asked to perform those moves. They are looking for how accurately the moves are performed, how closely you stay on beat and sequence, as well as your overall performance of the move ie did it look fun, did it look sexy, ect.

In the dance portion of the audition you will dance three dances with members from BPG as your partners.
Ladies: BPG men should not/will not lead into to anything but basic and intermediate moves.
Men: You are allow to lead anything you know, or think you can pull off -

The three dances are Cha Cha, East Coast Swing and Waltz

Recommended Moves

Cha Cha

• Basic
  
• Cross over breaks
  
• Outside(right) turns aka pivot turns
  
• Cross body lead
  
• The Chase
• Men:
  

Waltz

• Rotating American Style Basic (There will not be international waltz- if you don't know what that means, no worries)
• Walk around turn (outside turn - 6 counts turns)
  
• Progressives
  
• Arch and loop turns (3 count turns)
  
• maybe Twinkles,
  

East Coast Swing

• Triple step basic
  
• Open and Closed positions
  
• Cuddle
  
• American Spins
  
• Arch and Loop turns

Other recommendation

If might be helpful to know a few other moves, just in case they came up. In East Coast Swing,: twisties and Back walks with kicks. In Waltz: right turning boxes. In Cha Cha Mens turn, and loop turns .

West Coast Moves

West Coast Swing is a cool dance that is filled with slick and sliding moves. You might remember the example of West coast styling from previous post that demonstrated the cool attitude of the dance.

West Coast is know as a slot dance, which means that is does not move around the floor like waltz does but instead the dancers stay in position with each other as if they were in slots. Many West Coast moves involve passing by the partner to exchange places with in the slot.

In the following videos Micheal Mitchell and Meghann Niesen teach Neck Pulls, Whips, and some West Coast spins. This lesson was taught at a Friday Night Dance, so the dynamic is a little different than it might be in some of the more personal videos.

On a fun note, Micheal can never remember the name of the moves he is teaching so just to translate "neck thing-y" is he new "technical" name for he neck pull :)

Neck Pulls and Whip


West Coast Spins

Great article

Richard Davis sent me this heart warming article about dancing through the aging. Its a great article for an age.