Welcome!

Because we are in no way done with the pandemic yet, despite appearances to the contrary, we at Boston Balboa are still taking the dance community’s safety seriously. We’re doing our best staying on top of the latest news, research, and data, and having observed several other events’ successes and failures, we believe that we can reduce the risk sufficiently to resume hosting in-person events.  We are traveling for dance ourselves again, masking up to keep ourselves and our family and friends healthy. We hope to see lots and lots of you around town, dancing Bal!

Please note: Boston Balboa events require wearing a suitable mask in the studio. Please see our COVID safety page for more detailed information.

What’s happening around Boston?

Coming up at Boston Balboa:

Level 2 Continuing Balboa in April and early May

For students who have completed Balboa Fundamentals 1A & 1B or their equivalent and are looking to develop their skills and pack their bag with more toys, we’re offering drop-in classes on Tuesdays in April and the first Tuesday of May! Pre-requisite: Students must be comfortable with Pure Balboa (both basics), toss-outs, swivels, & out-and-ins. More info and pre-registration on our Classes page.

 

  • April 1: Tossout Variations (behind the back, long arm, down the line)
  • April 8: Beach Day! (Long Beach break, pop turn vs. rolloff, beach pushes)
  • April 15: Syncopations and Subtractions
  • April 22: Pivots
  • April 29: Counterbody Movement in Pure Balboa
  • May 6: Texas Tommy (learn the safe, comfortable way to do this classic move)

 

We’ll be traveling the rest of May, so Tuesday classes will be on hiatus after May 6, but we’ll be back at it on May 27 and onward in June!

 

May 4 Balboa on a Sunday Afternoon

Our next BoaSA practice will be on Sunday May 4 from 3-5pm at Salsa y Control. Come practice your new moves, learn from each other, and have fun dances! If the weather is nice, we might hit Lulu’s patio afterward.

 

May 31 – June 1 BLT Workshop Weekend with Nelle Cherry & Adam Speen

Have a BLT with us! Balboa: Layered Together. Balboa Lollies Tossouts. Balboa Learning Time. Bacon Lettuce Tomato. It’s all good! (if you’re hungry now, go make a sandwich.)

Bacon Lettuce Tomato Sandwich cross sectionBoston Balboa presents the delicious dancing duo of Nelle Cherry and Adam Speen!

Adam Speen’s partnership with the incomparable Nelle Cherry has been rocking students’ worlds for almost two decades with technique, musicality, partnership, and a whizzing carousel of Balboa funtimes — we are thrilled to bring them to you!

NOTE: all classes require students to be familiar with the fundamental movements and figures of Pure Balboa and Bal-Swing. If you’ve never learned Balboa before, please consider taking one of our Introduction to Balboa series or crash courses rather than this workshop weekend.

LEARNERS will be newer Balboa dancers who are expected to be familiar with (but perhaps not yet fully confident in) the fundamental movements and figures of Balboa, including both Pure Balboa basics, ad libs (progressives, side scoots, paddle turns), lollies, out-and-ins, tossouts and swivels. If you have taken our Fundamentals 1A & 1B content, this is you!

REFINERS will be more intermediate/advanced dancers looking to add vocabulary, musicality, and flow to their Balboa. At a minimum, Refiners should be comfortable with the above figures at tempos in the 180-190bpm range (such as In the Groove at the Grove) or beyond.

On each day there will be 3 classes that will run 75 minutes each.
– the first class will be geared towards Learners
– the last class will be geared towards Refiners
– the middle class with be for both groups where everyone will work together, like the best BLT sandwiches

Check out our event page for more information and to pre-register!

 

May 31 Saturday Night Shuffle: Watch City Edition!

Come to our social dance, the Saturday Night Shuffle: Watch City Edition! The last 2 were really fun, and this one will be part of the BLT weekend with Nelle & Adam, so we hope to see even more dancers this month! Check out our map and list of favorite places to eat and drink here in Waltham – carpool with friends and get dinner or drinks or ice cream before the dance! No taster lesson this time due to workshop weekend, but as always fabulous DJ music for social dancing 8:30 to 11pm!

 

Keep Dancing Safely & Support Our Community

Please do pay attention to evolving recommendations for best practices, as the situation continues to change quickly and we want all of you safe and healthy. We recommend tracking the science through a trusted source such as Your Local Epidemiologist, as the CDC may not always offer the kind of information you as a dancer need to know.

We still also hope you will direct your dancing energy toward solo movement training and your dollars, if you have any to spare, toward the professional instructors and musicians who need your support to pay their bills.

Most of all, we want you to keep dancing, and we want to help support the instructors and musicians whose livelihoods are most threatened by dance cancellations. Here are some things you can do:

– schedule a private lesson, by video
– pre-purchase a private lesson for use in the future
– buy albums, t-shirts, or other swag from bands
– make a donation outright to a teacher/musician/organization
– work on your solo jazz
– do video analysis of your own dancing (you know, the thing you’ve been putting off for years?)
– really dig into some of those clips of original dancers
– strength train
– Couch to 5K (builds core strength and endurance to support your fast dancing!)

Swing Jazz is an African-American Art Form

Balboa, as a vernacular swing dance, is indebted to the African-American roots and culture of Swing Jazz and Swing dancing.  We encourage everyone to explore the history of this dance, the dancers that created it in Southern California, and the music and musicians that made it possible.

Boston Balboa stands in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and against police brutality. In support of the movement, members of the Boston Balboa team have independently donated to Black Lives Matter and to community bail bonds, and we encourage you to do the same.

Our lists are by no means exhaustive, but if you need a place to start, here we present some places you can donate, as well as educational anti-racism resources we are using ourselves to learn more about this important civil rights movement.

Donate/Support

Anti-Racism Resources

Love and Support,
Boston Balboa