Description:

Self expression is cool: flailing, head banging and stochastic gyration is all good fun. But communication is hard if our self expression is not understood. This class aims to cut to the chase and help you build your own vocabulary that reflects you, while imposing as little orthodox structure on your creativity as possible. Where most dance lessons focus on the vocabulary of dance, in this class you will have the opportunity to explore the phonemes of dance. These are the small bits that can be assembled into dance moves, just like we assemble phonemes into words that can be understood by others. Understanding these concepts renders the need to distinguish between one style/vocabulary and another far less important and makes the fusion of many styles and techniques much, much easier. It's like being able to read the phonetic alphabet, or seeing the green lines of binary code behind the Matrix.

So here's how it works: We're going to start off with a half an hour or so of these kinetic phonemes (little bits) and we're going to splice in some practice dances to solidify the concepts. Then your teachers are going to to DJ a set using some of the music you've practiced with and employing a playlist designed to illustrate how the social dances can be adapted to a wide variety of cool stuff. So cool in fact, that you will probably want to write down and download when you get home. (or you will experience a rush of feel-good chemicals because you're already familiar with such cool music and that will make you feel cool even though your self-perception is an illusion of your temporal brain chemistry.) During this dance, you may ask your teachers and any other veteran social dancers who may be attending for advice and technique. There won't be any dance etiquette at play here and the next scheduled dance that follows may well be in the nude, so relax, get over yourself and let's have fun.