Pittsburgh Blues Weekend with Solomon Douglas

Feb 10-12, 2006

Solomon is increasingly in demand worldwide as a teacher of Lindy Hop, Balboa, Charleston, and Vernacular Jazz, and has a reputation as a Blues Dancing specialist; he has taught Blues workshops in Australia, Singapore, Korea, Chicago, Connecticut, Oakland, Ottawa, Pittsburgh, Portland, Quebec City, Rochester, San Francisco, and Seattle.

He is also well known as a musician, playing piano and leading bands at swing dance events throughout North America and worldwide in such bands as Back Pocket, the Solomon Douglas Swingtet, and Corner Pocket.

Blues is danced to slow, groovy music; it is improvasitory, playful, and fun. It has simple basics and is great for ALL levels of dancers.

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Schedule

Friday February 10 There was a typo on some of the flyers - these are the correct times.
8:30p - 10:00p	Intro to Blues This class will present the basics of Blues, starting with weight changes, turning steps, and traveling steps. We'll also introduce leading and following for some really groovy stuff, such as the fish-tail.
10:00p - midnight	DJ'ed Blues Dance

Saturday February 11
1:30p - 2:45p	Fish-Tails and Other Hip Stuff Leading and following from your center, the connection between your hips and your frame, feeling your partner's hips and center, and the flow of energy which is central to Blues dancing: all of these will be covered as we work out the details of the fish-tail (which was introduced in Friday's class).
3:00p - 4:15p	Rhythm in Blues: Using the Floor and Feeling the Pulse Musicality and mechanics intersect when we dig into the floor and dig into the rhythm.
4:30p - 5:45p	Swinging the Blues This will be a class on mixing Blues styling into your Lindy Hop, and mixing Lindy Hop vocabulary into your Blues dancing. We'll be exploring the sweet spot where Blues and Lindy Hop meet.
	Dinner	Restaurants within a 10 - 15 minute walk.
9:00p - 1a Jitterbug lesson: 8p - 9p Swing dance: 9p - midnight Blues room: 10p - 1a	DJ'ed Swing Dance	Cost: $8 (covers Jitterbug lesson, Swing Dance, and Blues room) Not part of the weekend package, pay at the door The Blues room is adjacent to the Swing Dance.

Sunday Febrary 12th
11:00a - 12:15p	One-Step Blues: Traveling Steps and Grapevines This will provide a foundation in ways to improvise movement across the floor while breaking away from the confines of 8-count thinking; this material is equally applicable to Blues and to Lindy Hop.
12:30p - 1:45p	Syncopated Movement Using the previous class on one-step movement as a foundation, this class will give a framework for busting out into syncopated territory by exploring three different tempos in the music: regular time, half time, and double time.
	Lunch	Restaurants within a 10-15 minute walk.
3:00p - 4:15p	Cool Moves in the Blues Groove Spice up your Blues dancing with some groovy and exciting movement that expresses rhythmic features of the music.
4:30p - 5:15p	Advanced Blues Dancing The title says it: this will be an advanced class, building on the material of the previous classes. This class is not for the faint of heart, but don't be intimidated, it'll be hella fun!
	Dinner
8:00p - 10:30p Jitterbug lesson: 7p - 8p Swing dance: 8p - 10:30p	Swing dance with the Solomon Douglas Trio	Cost: $8 (covers Jitterbug lesson and Swing Dance) Not part of the weekend package, pay at the door

Costs (back to top)

Weekend Package (Fri evening workshop, Fri evening Blues dance, Sat workshops, Sun workshops)	$65 (students $45)
Any 4 workshops	$35 (students $28)
Any 3 workshops	$25 (students $20)
Any 1 workshop	$10 (students $8)
Friday night workshop and Blues dance	$10 (students $8)
Just the Friday night Blues dance	$5
Saturday Evening Dance No pre-registration for this event. Pay at the door ($8)
Sunday Evening Dance No pre-registration for this event. Pay at the door ($8)