AIW – Class Descriptions
FRIDAY
7:30 – 8:30 COOKING SESSION
- Basic Aerials – Julia & Eric
This class is not included in the regular AIW workshop registration. The cost is $5 at the door. Intermediate dancers only, partners are recommended.
We will be teaching a frog jump, jump for joy, L-train (C-train) and if time the start of a fancier aerial. There won’t be any big dangers or lifting, flipping etc. Bring your jumpin’ shoes!
SATURDAY
10:00 – REGISTRATION
10:30 – 11:30 GREY CELL WAKE UP
- Lindy Basics – Krystal & Gary
- Mixin’ It Up – Heidi & Dave Hall
Just like you start your day right with a nutritious breakfast, kick off this workshop with delicious Lindy fundamentals! Wake up to scrumptiousness with core moves & concepts, fun exercises, and food for thought.
Dust off some of those fun old familiar 6 and 8 count moves, and learn some funky new ones. Try some cool combos and learn how to
combine 6, 8 and other count patterns on the social dance floor. You should have a vocabulary of: basic 6 count patterns including passes and turns, 8 count moves including turns, swing-out variations, and side-by-side Charleston.
11:45 – 12:45 LE PETIT PULSE
- Balboa Basics 101 – Julie & Krystal
- Balboa Advanced – Birkley & Nicole
Dust off those heels, shine your best cap-toes, and “Shuffle-step” your way down to Balboa Basics for some up-tempo, fun dancing! Julie and Krystal will guide you through the basic footwork patterns and body connection, with a few fun moves thrown in along the way! Beginners welcome!
Calgary joins Edmonton for an all-out Balboa exclusive event! Nicole (Calgary) and Birkley (Edmonton) will deliver an advanced Bal-Swing class that is intended to be both challenging and rewarding. Look forward to alternative endings of the bal send-out, rolls and catches, cross-overs, and other dynamic moves. Note: you must be quite comfortable leading/following the bal send-out.
1:00 – 2:00 FREE PIZZA LUNCH & LEARN
- More Than Just A Beat – Greg
Break out of auto-pilot and spice up your dancing by taking cues from the music. Learn to anticipate the music so you can dance every song as if you already knew it by heart. All skill levels welcome, but be prepared to improvise a bit and learn about song structure during this lunch-time lesson. Pizza lunch will be provided free of charge for attendees of AIW.
2:15 – 3:15 RAWK YOUR BODY
- Basics of Blues – Curtis & Sierra
- Fun times – Carolyn
We’re taking blues back to the basics. Come and get an introduction to blues dancing or review what you have learned in the past. We will be covering posture, frame, pulse and learning some blues movements.
How do we take what we already know and make it feel more like art and less like aerobics? By infusing a healthy dose of fun times! Come with an open mind and be ready to use both your mind and your body as we explore ideas of space, emotion and creativity. We will also definitely do some dancing.
3:30 – 4:30
- Jack & Jill Prelims – Hosted by Leah
Leah has provided me with a most amazing description for the J&J. In order to read the full thing, please scroll to the bottom of this page.
SUNDAY
10:30 – HALL OPENS
11:00 – 12:00 – MAKE YOUR BODY SMILE
- How to look creative and fun on the dance floor – Kalina & Matthew
- Show’n'em How It’s Fun – Eric & Julia
Matthew Isenor and Kalina Malowany will be teaching a class on how to enjoy yourselves while dancing and how to change things up so that you aren’t doing the same thing over and over. This will be a fun and innovative class that will make you think about how you dance and the infinite possibilities there are within Lindy Hop. Matthew has been dancing since he was 9 years old and has been teaching for the past 4 years. Kalina, even though she is new to Lindy Hop, has been dancing for over 18 years with a background in Ballet, Tap and Jazz. They both teach for Toe Tappin’ Swing in Calgary and really enjoy dancing up a storm!
This class will be high energy and open to all levels. We will be teaching crazy ways to have fun and make your partner want to pay attention. All the moves have been collected from our travels and workshops we’ve enjoyed.
12:15 – 1:15 LE GROS PULSE
- Kickin’ it Old School – Julie & Ashley
- Learn how to fly – Dave & Tracy
Let’s boogie like it’s 1933! Dust off your Apron, Shine your Shoes, and Pimp Walk on down to our kickin’ solo jazz class! We’re gonna Mess Around with those Crazy Legs and Spank that Baby until you Fall Off the Log, Apple Jack. You’ll be Truckin’ like Shorty George and Suzy Q in no time!
Okay, no aerials in this class, but partnered Charleston is best when it feels like you’re flying. That’s what we want you to experience.
1:15 – 2:15 LUNCH
2:15 – 3:15 FANCY FEET
- The Tango Dancer Within You – Luis
- Happy Feet – Heather I
Believe it or not, you were born a Tango dancer. Your body knows more about Tango than you could ever imagine. This class has been designed to save you hundreds of hours trying to figure out what this beautiful dance is about. The first thing you have to do is forgetting everything you think you know and the second is coming to this class.
An opportunity for all levels of dancers to add some rhythm to their feet, be it with a shuffle ball change or a syncopated beat. This will be a two-tiered tap class, so all are welcome. Come learn a cramp roll or two to spice up your swing dancing!
3:30 – 4:30 STRUT YOUR STUFF
- Burlesque |bərˈlesk| – Heather R
- A derisive art form that mocks by imitation; a parody
- A variety adult entertainment show, usually including titillation such as striptease, most common from the 1880s to the 1930s. [as adj.] burlesque clubs.
- Al Minns Shim Sham – Rob & Glenn
Description:
Noun
burlesque (plural) burlesques
ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: from French, from Italian burlesco, from burla ‘mockery‘, of unknown origin
Burlesque history(s) certainly are confusing – but how it makes you feel sure isn’t. Come learn some burlesque basics, get a taste of a couple different styles and find out why so many girls (and boys) are embracing burlesque.
BYOH (bring your own heels* – and what ever else makes you feel good!)
*heels not required
A different take on the classic shake!
AIW – Jack and Jill
This fun contest is a traditional Jack and Jill event. The contest is free to enter for every dancer who is registered for the AIW weekend, if you aren’t able to attend the weekend classes but still want to participate in the Jack and Jill you can pay $5 and join the fun. This event is open to dancers of all skill levels – our one request is that if you have been swing dancing for more than 3 years, OR if you are an instructor, OR if you are on a performance team that you enter as the “opposite” role. This means that if you are traditionally a lead, you can enter as a follow (and vise versa)! Jack and Jill’s are fun to participate in and very inspiring to watch, so please join us for this wonderful event and show off all the wonderful things you learned this weekend.
Preliminaries will be held on Saturday afternoon at 3:30 pm at MidSun Community Centre – 50 Midpark Rise SE.
Dancers will dance to a maximum of four songs switching partners in between each song, it will be random pairing. Songs will vary in tempo. Although you dance with a partner for the preliminaries you will be judged on your skills as a follow or a lead.
Finals will be held Saturday night to live music by Johnny Summers. The dancers chosen for the finals will be partnered-up and will dance jam style.
Dancers will be judged by a panel of judges and they will be judged on how much fun they have with their partner, how well they connect and how musical they are when they dance together. One of the most inspiring things you can bring to the prelims and to the finals is your joy and love of this wonderful dance, and how much inspiration you get from dancing with your partner.
First prize will be awarded to the top couple from the finals. And the prize is………….free entrance to PLEX! A wonderful tradition held in the prairies, called the Prairie Lindy Exchange – it is a roving lindy exchange and this will be the 11th PLEX. This year’s theme is PLEXi Gras, and it will be held in Edmonton March 11th to 13th.
For a bit more background on Jack and Jill competition check out this link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_and_Jill_competition
