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Partner Dance Instruction in Waltz, Swing, and Blues in Seattle | Workshops

Workshop

Dance for Joy! presents

A Collaborative Cross-step Waltz Weekend!

September 13, 14 and 15, 2024

Join us for an extraordinary weekend of learning where the instructors will not only teach but collaborate with each other developing your Cross-step Waltz repertoire while creating and developing the genre.

With Richard Powers, Stanford University, Nick and Melissa Enge, UT at Austin, and your friends Lilli Ann and Claire Carey. Richard will be partnered by Melissa, Lilli Ann or Claire.

With 12 hours of instruction, catered Saturday lunch and three dances! Cost $175 until April 15th, then $185.

Workshop is at Om Culture, 2210 N Pacific Street, Seattle, and is limited to 80 participants. Register at our Registration page!

Tentative Schedule — subject to change

Friday night

6–8pm
Building Moves from Cross-step Basics

Each partner team will offer a different move based on the chosen Cross-step Waltz basic and then each partner team can jump on to any offered variation with adaptations if they wish.

8-10:30pm
Nick Enge will be your DJ for the Dance

Saturday

10-1pm
Adapting Moves With a 20-minute Break — All Instructors

Adapting moves from other dances to Cross-step Waltz — WCS, Salsa, NC2-step…

1-2:15pm
Catered Lunch — Lunch talk with all instructors

Gluten-free and vegan options available

How move creators/instructors think about creating moves- i.e. Direction, momentum, preps, what’s possible given what feet are available, what’s socially lead and followable...

We will also draw a name previously submitted by one of the workshop participants and adapt a move offered from them as the group of instructors discusses what we consider.

2:30–5pm
Instructors Recent Favorite Social Moves — Show Them, Teach Them

These will be from anywhere including from far afield places these instructors have taught.)

2:30-3:15pm
Richard
3:15-4pm
Nick and Melissa
4–4:15pm
Short break
4:15-5pm
Lilli Ann and Claire
5–7pm
Dinner on your own.

The hall will be open if you’d like to stay during this time.

Pre-dance Lesson Short Bites — A Line Dance, a Cross-step Move. Instructors Choice.
7pm
Pre-dance lesson by Nick and Melissa
7:30pm
Pre-dance lesson by Richard
8–11pm
Richard Powers will be your DJ for the Dance

Sunday Review — Instructors Choice, Favs From the Weekend

11:30am-12:45pm
Nick and Melissa Favs from the weekend
1–2:15pm
Richard Favs
2:30–3:45pm
Lilli Ann and Claire's favs
4-6pm
Lilli Ann will be your DJ for the Dance

Instructors

Waltz instructor Richard Powers
Richard Powers

Richard Powers

richardpowers.com

Full-time instructor in dance history and contemporary social dance forms, Stanford University Dance Division, Department of Theater and Performance Studies.

His principal focus since 1975 has been social dance forms, from the Renaissance to today. Specializations include 19th century American and European social dance, dances of the Ragtime Era and Jazz Ages, and currently evolving vernacular dance forms.

Dance instructors Melissa & Nick Enge
Dance Instructors Melissa & Nick Enge

Nick & Melissa Enge

libraryofdance.org/about/

Nick and Melissa Enge are social dance instructors and historians at the University of Texas at Austin. Before teaching at UT, they studied and taught with Richard Powers at Stanford University. In collaboration with Richard, they have written three books on social dance, Waltzing: A Manual for Dancing and Living, Cross-Step Waltz: A Dancer’s Guide, and The Book of Mixers: 100 Easy-Teach Dances for Getting Acquainted.

In addition to teaching and writing about dance, Nick and Melissa are co-founders of the Library of Dance (a website that features an annotated bibliography of over 6,700 primary sources relating to social dance from the 15th century to present as well as over 2,400 videos demonstrating selected dance steps), and the University of Dance (a website featuring full-length teaching videos of selected dances).

In 2023, they won the Undergraduate Teaching Award in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education at UT.

Dance instructors Lilli Ann and Claire Carey
Dance Instructors Lilli Ann and Claire Carey

Lilli Ann Carey / Owner-Instructor, Dance for Joy!

Lilli Ann Carey began partner dancing with Living Traditions in the 1990’s and then went on to teach for them for several years before leaving to start her own company, Dance for Joy! Lilli Ann loves to dance almost anything, but focuses her teaching on Waltz, East Coast Swing, Foxtrot, One-Step, Blues, Fusion and a few vintage dance forms.

Lilli Ann promotes dance through classes, workshops and events through her company, Dance for Joy! She is known for producing larger scale events including the An Evening in Vienna Viennese Balls, The Cornucopia Balls and Christmas Balls and also as the co-ordinator of the highly successful Dancing 'til Dusk program for Seattle Parks and Recreation for 16 years. Lilli Ann has taught for over 20 years including in St. Petersburg, Russia; Vancouver, BC; Juneau, Fairbanks and Anchorage Alaska; Washington, D.C.; Baltimore, Atlanta, the Bay area and in Portland, Oregon.

Her creativity, love of the connected and playful dance and innovation has brought her national recognition and an ongoing and excited student base. You’ll often find her teaching with her daughter Claire. You may find her through her website at www.danceforjoy.biz and her Youtube channel @dancelilli

Claire Carey / Instructor, Dance for Joy!

Claire began learning swing dance at the age of seven in 1998, and began teaching partner dance in 2008. She discovered her passion for West Coast Swing in 2010, where she has achieved multiple first placements, and competed in the All Star division. She has loved teaching Cross Step Waltz, East Coast Swing, Blues, Foxtrot, Nightclub Two Step, and other vintage waltz forms in Seattle for Dance For Joy! Claire and her mom, Lilli Ann, have taught together both nationally and internationally, and are known for their fun, innovative, and technically-minded teaching. In class, Claire specializes in empowering follows to have strong skills in connection, intuition, and self expression.

Class Videos

 

You might note that this is a one-shot class review video. You can subscribe to Lilli Ann's YouTube channel and receive all of our new videos in your inbox!

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Testimonials

“Everything about the beginning ‘Bridge’ Waltz Class was excellent: the coherent and well-planned approach, more attention to follows than we are used to, and having both instructors watch and analyze what was happening and then step in to help. I liked that there was time for repetition, so things could settle into body memory — that’s hard to find as part of dance classes. I was so glad you didn’t try to teach more than a few moves, but instead focused on how to lead, follow, and connect — things that help in any dance. After all, connecting is the reason to dance with someone else, otherwise I’d just go dance alone!” —Amy H.

“Dear Lilli Ann, we are both enjoying the classes. We have taken a few other dance classes in past years, and we appreciate the things we have received in our other classes, but there is no doubt in our minds that your classes are the best organized, best taught and most enjoyable we have experienced. Thanks.” —Scott Henrickson

“Lilli Ann and Claire are an enthusiastic and professional team. Their workshops have something for everybody — a clear introduction to the basics for the beginners, while at the same time challenging the more advanced dancers. Cross-step Waltz is a gorgeous dance, and they do a fabulous job of teaching it.” —Marion Newvelant, Random Waltz, Portland, OR

More testimonials... | DFJ reviews on Yelp