STATurday Blues with Damon Stone
October 23-25, 2009
STAT is proud to welcome Damon Stone of Dallas, Texas and Gordon Webster of New York City for a very special, two-day STATurday event.
Blues that moves… blues with groove… dance with passion. Damon’s been a staple of the blues scene since the beginning of the blues stirrings among lindyhoppers… and he’s finally returning to Toronto! Prepare to have your mind blown, your dance boundaries challenged and your rules broken in all the best ways! You don’t want to miss these classes… you’ll be talking about them for months to come!
SPECIAL REQUESTS
Are you…
A student?!? Contact us for our very special student pricing!
Coming in from out of town?!? Let us know your housing needs and we’ll match you with a local dancer who’d be happy to host you for the weekend!
THE SCHEDULE
All you need to know for your weekend of fun!
FRIDAY NIGHT: Special Appearance at the Toronto Swing Dance Society
For more details, please visit www.dancing.org/tsds
Location:
Lithuanian House – 1573 Dundas St W
Times:
8-8:55pm Chillax with Damon Stone
9-9:55pm Swingin’ the Blues with Damon Stone
10-12:30 Dancing (DJS – Damon Stone, Julie Epplett and Brooke Filsinger)
Prices: (not included in weekend price)
$15 TSDS members
$20 non-members
$16 for those under 21 or over 65
Chillax
This class is all about partner connection and dancing in a cool, relaxed manner, making it look completely effortless. Chill. Relax. Chillax.
Swingin’ the Blues
This class will teach how to swing in closed position as well as milk the music in open like a Blues dancer, giving you some new ideas and fun variations to use in your dancing.
SATURDAY CLASSES:
Location:
585 Production Studio – 585 Yonge St
Times:
10-12:30 Classes
12:30-1:30 Lunch
1:30-4 Classes
Prices:
$85 advanced price (2 days of classes)
$100 at the door (2 days of classes)
It’s a Blue, Blue World
Blues is not a single dance but a genre of connected dances with a shared history and aesthetic. We’ll sample a number of dances fitting some of the more popular styles of blues music giving you the variety you need to dance all night long.
Got My Mojo Workin’
We’ll learn how to take the Blues aesthetic and apply it to different moves from different dances making them fit both Blues music and the aesthetic allowing you to take whatever other dances you know and steal moves from them without ever straying from the Blues. Instantly double or triple the amount of Blues moves you know!
Get Hip
Known as Congo Hip Movement the undulating, rolling, shaking, and twisting hips used in Blues dance requires an unbelievable amount of control and relaxation to get right. The principles can be taught in minutes but can take years to master. A dancer who has mastered these movements will have partners lining up to dance with them. We’ll expand the movement from hips and take the movement through the entire body while showing how it works in both solo and partnered dance.
Plus An Additional Bonus Class…
SATURDAY EVENING (in conjunction with Saturday Night Swing):
Canadian CD Release Party for Gordon Webster of New York City
Location:
Dovercourt House – 805 Dovercourt Rd
Times:
7-8pm Intermediate Lesson
8-9pm Beginner Lesson
9-late Dance plus bonus late night
Price:
$20 Dance and late night (included at early bird weekend price)
Saturday evening, former Torontonian and much in demand pianist Gordon Webster is taking his very special musical styling to the stage. Gordon has thrilled dancers the world over. Joined by vocalist Brianna Thomas, this is one dance you won’t soon forget… and neither will Gordon as he’s celebrating the Canadian release of his new cd – Happy When I’m With You! And we’ve got a few extra special surprises up our sleeves – including a special performance by Capital Dance Productions.
SUNDAY CLASSES:
Location:
585 Production Studio – 585 Yonge St
Times:
11:30-2:00 Classes
2:00-3:00 Lunch
3:00-6:30 Classes
Prices:
$85 advanced price (2 days of classes)
$100 at the door (2 days of classes)
Down Home Blues
Many people think Blues is danced in a smooth pretty fashion with lots of traveling while others think Blues is a close embrace dance with no moves at all and all about an intimate emotional connection. They are both wrong (but not entirely wrong!). Blues at its roots is about emotional expression. The Jookin’ style of blues is about putting all the intensity of a blues song into every movement no matter how small or how big. It is about valuing that raw expressiveness over polished movement. This class will teach a variety of dances as done in the Memphis area jook joints and after hours clubs, putting them together for a fun and funky routine while emphasizing the social dance aspect.
Flash and Class
A lot of people think slow dancing is all about the feeling and not about how it looks. We’ll bust open these myths and show how slow dancing can be fun and exciting with a number of dips, drops, leans, and maybe even a lift or two. Beginners will get a chance to see how diverse slow dancing can be and get a good vocabulary of fun and interesting moves to spice up their dancing with advanced dancers getting a chance to work on perfecting their lead/follow technique while learning some excellent moves for the social floor and competitions.
From Kintae to Krump: The Black Aesthetic of Cool and Hot
This class will discuss and discover through solo and partnered movement the values of the Black communities that created Swing, Blues, and Jazz dance and how it brought together technique and artistry to influence not just contemporary North American dance but our ideas of what is hot and cool.
PLUS a very special BONUS class with special guest(s)…
Register early to avoid missing out on this very special STATurday event! $85 (advanced price) gets you two days of phenomenal classes with the one and only Damon Stone! Space is limited – register today!
Damon’s Bio:
Damon has been dancing his entire life. Starting with vernacular jazz and blues he went on to Hip-Hop, and eventually studied over a dozen different dance styles until coming full circle, and has been focusing primarily on the history and styles of swing and blues since 1995.
He has taught dance extensively on both coasts, and studied the development of vernacular jazz and blues dance regionally and nationally, traveling to New York, Chicago, Memphis, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, St. Louis, and New Orleans. He has been interviewed as a jazz dance historian in documentary and for radio.
Damon has been a featured instructor at numerous swing camps and jazz festivals and workshops and camps across the U.S. and Canada. He is a member of the California Historical Jazz Dance Foundation, and a member of the Northern California Lindy Society.
Damon’s classes are relaxing and full of humor. He focuses on the underlying principles and breaks down the most difficult concepts and moves so they are easy to understand and incorporate. With an eye on musicality and improvisation, he’ll get you on the floor and dancing rather than just doing moves.