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A little about the way we workshop...(detailed class descriptions and schedule to come!)
The TraditionsOne of our favorite community building features for Mile High has been our all-together classes: at least one class over the weekend meant to have all people in attendance. In prior years we’ve had: Marquise Knox play, talk, and tell story; Rex Peoples grounding us in history, Veronika Jackson sharing her work featuring women in blues, and Grey Armstrong leading a workshop on being together in the circle; and Rev Jones with a 2-part play, talk, tell story about Blues over Time. We will continue this tradition this year with a dance focused class and a music focused class. |
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The RootsMany of the central elements of Blues music and dance are rooted in African - especially West African - rhythms, community practices, and dances. We’ll start here and have opportunities to explore this inextricable relationship between music and dance as it exists in the diaspora. The stories, migrations, and circumstances of African Americans and their ancestors have shaped, and continue to shape, the music, dance(s), and culture of Blues. We’ll have opportunities to deepen an understanding of the cultures and values that are integral to Blues - and many African diaspora music + dance forms. |
A Fresh Approach; Focused on the Rhythm
Through the lens of two Blues Dance Idioms, and with our prerequisite system, each student can chart a course through the available workshops to level up your skills in:
Saturday will revolve around Funky Butt
Sunday we’ll focus on Texas Shuffle
Along the way, you’ll have opportunities to level up many of your Blues dance skills through classes:
Our prerequisite system is being designed to support students to select classes that help you grow skills you might be missing at the stage you are in on your journey. Class descriptions will include specific prerequisite skills, rather than simply being tracked as “advanced” or by length of time dancing, and we’ll teach classes as if those skills are already in place.
To help you decide, we’ll be offering self-assessment tools before the event to help you work out which classes are the best fit for you and your dance goals, especially if you want to take classes covering more specialist material! You’ll be asked to think about where your strengths are, what’s missing from your dancing, and what skills could help you level up in different directions. Think of this as a holistic dance diagnostic test, not a levelling tool.
We’re excited about this new approach to classes, and we’re working hard to provide an experience that will genuinely support our whole community to get the classes they want and the tools they need. Watch this space for self-assessment tools, and our schedule coming soon!
- movement (dance skills),
- the elements of culture and music that call forth these dance styles, and
- honoring and celebrating what the music is allowing & asking us to do
Saturday will revolve around Funky Butt
Sunday we’ll focus on Texas Shuffle
Along the way, you’ll have opportunities to level up many of your Blues dance skills through classes:
- incorporating live music,
- led by musicians,
- examining the shared context, skills, values, and/or relationship with music of a variety of contemporary African diaspora dances
Our prerequisite system is being designed to support students to select classes that help you grow skills you might be missing at the stage you are in on your journey. Class descriptions will include specific prerequisite skills, rather than simply being tracked as “advanced” or by length of time dancing, and we’ll teach classes as if those skills are already in place.
To help you decide, we’ll be offering self-assessment tools before the event to help you work out which classes are the best fit for you and your dance goals, especially if you want to take classes covering more specialist material! You’ll be asked to think about where your strengths are, what’s missing from your dancing, and what skills could help you level up in different directions. Think of this as a holistic dance diagnostic test, not a levelling tool.
We’re excited about this new approach to classes, and we’re working hard to provide an experience that will genuinely support our whole community to get the classes they want and the tools they need. Watch this space for self-assessment tools, and our schedule coming soon!
