Mickey Fortanasce and Kelly Arsenault are coming to Boston July 19-20 and will be teaching a series of awesome classes on fast and slow Balboa.
Check out the event page for updated information on schedule and pricing.
Registration opens on May 1 with ridiculous discounts!
Just wanted to give you the heads up before the long weekend — September is right around the corner and that means that we’ve got a bunch of things coming down the pipe!
Sep 6 (Thu) 9pm-11pm — Balboa at the Stomp
We’ve been at a bunch of Lindy events, it’s time for some Balboa! Come join us in Arlington for our monthly FREE Balboa dance at the Episcopal Church of our Savior at 21 Marathon St, Arlington, MA.
(for those interested, we usually swing by Chilly Cow down the street for some tasty frozen custard before the dance.)
Sep 8 (Sat) 1pm-5pm — Balboa Crash Course
Fast on the heels of the Stomp is our Balboa Crash Course on Saturday, September 8. In 4 hours we’ll cover all the basics you’ll need to know to go out and dance Balboa socially. Tell your friends that you’ve always wanted as Bal dance partners or come yourself for a quick refresher! Pre-register online by September 7 for a $5 discount!)
Sep 16 (Sun) 3:30pm-7pm — Balboa on a Sunday Afternoon
As you all should know by now, BoaSA is our monthly Balboa practice/dance at the Crosby Whistle Stop (24 Roland St, Charlestown, MA) This month we’re having guest instructors Sandra Aguiar and Alex Fernandes from Providence Swings teaching the introductory lesson at 3:30pm. The regular practice will start at 4:30pm as usual with music picking up sometime around 5pm.
Sep 22 (Sat) NY — Nick Williams and Laura Keat Balboa Workshops!
For those in, near or interested in travelling to New York, Nick Williams and Laura Keat will be teaching a series of Balboa workshops at Dance Manhattan! (Lindy workshops are offered on Sunday, Sep 23). They are limiting registration to 24 leaders and 24 followers and are offering a discount for those registering by September 7 so register soon!
Do note that this is the same weekend as the Dirty Water Lindy & Blues Exchange. Don’t let the name fool you — Gordon Webster and Meschiya Lake and the Little Big Horns will be in the house and there should be plenty of hot tunes to get yer Balboa on.
Sep 21-23 — Dirty Water Lindy & Blues Exchange
And just so you know, October is coming up pretty quickly and with it comes TinkerBal with amazing instructors Kate Hedin, Teni Lopez-Cardenas, David Rehm, and Bobby White, ready to give you personalized Balboa understanding and wisdom. Follower registrations are already at capacity but we’re waiting for a few more leaders to register so we can pull the last few followers off the waiting list. Leaders, don’t leave them hanging! Register now!
Oh, speaking of Nick Williams and Kate Hedin, here’s their winning dance in the open strictly Balboa final at this year’s ILHC:
That’s it for now. Hope to see you soon, dancing Bal!
Just a few things:
TODAY, August 19 is our monthly Balboa on a Sunday Afternoon. We’re having our introductory Balboa lesson at 3:30pm with the regular practice starting at 4:30pm.
Coming in September, in case you have friends who have wanted to learn Balboa but haven’t had the chance and missed the recent Balboa series at New School Swing, we’re offering another Balboa Crash Course on Saturday, September 8 from 1-5pm. Tell your non-Balboa-dancing friends so you can finally dance dance Bal with them!
Also, for those in, near or interested in travelling to New York: Nick Williams and Laura Keat will be teaching a series of Balboa workshops at Dance Manhattan! The weekend is September 22-23 and the Balboa series is being taught on Saturday the 22nd (Lindy workshops are offered on Sunday). They are limiting registration to 24 leaders and 24 followers and are offering a discount for those registering by September 7 so register soon!
Finally, TinkerBal registrations are filling up. Followers are at capacity, meaning that if you haven’t registered or already gotten yourself on the waitlist, the only thing you can do is get into the waitlist queue — if people do have to cancel, we’ll be filling from the waitlist. We still have a few leader spots open, and it would behoove you tentative leader types to register soon so we can get followers off the pre-capacity waitlist. They can’t dance Bal without leaders!
Hope to see you soon, dancing Bal!
Quick summary of what’s coming up in the near and slightly less near future, see below for more detail on each:
Friday, May 18th — Baby Soda plays at Boston Swing Central!
We kinda love this band from NY — they sometimes have a more charlston-y feel, but it’s still great music for Balboa, especially when they start cookin’. Hope to see you there!
Sunday, May 20th — Balboa on a Sunday Afternoon!
This Sunday! We’ll once again have a beginner lesson starting at 3:30pm with open practice time starting at 4:30pm and DJ’d music kicking in around 5.
June 7-11 — All Balboa Weekend group discount
We still need just 2 more people to commit to attending ABW to get another discount. If you haven’t already registered or you already registered and haven’t told me you want to be part of the group, shoot me an email and we’ll get this thing done! You’ll save a bit more than $20 each for you and 8 other people!
Thursday, July 26th — The Hot Club of Cowtown at Boston Swing Central
In recent years, we’ve only been able to catch the Hot Club of Cowtown in venues without much of a dance floor and we’ve had to make do in small corners or on concrete. Well, the folks at Boston Swing Central have managed to catch them on the northeast leg of their upcoming summer tour for a special Thursday night dance. (Props to our own David Fisher for getting the ball rolling on this!) Let’s try to help pack the joint so we can get more of these special treats! Tell all your friends, even the ones who might not dance but love the music. They sound like a cross between Django Reinhardt and Bob Wills – hot!
October 13-14 — TinkerBal!
Save the date!
TinkerBal is a small-group Balboa workshop designed to support personalized learning. This weekend is a chance to really delve into the details of your Balboa. Note that we will be capping registration to keep groups small and to maintain lead-follow balance.
Our instructors are four of the world’s best: David Rehm, Teni Lopez-Cardenas, Bobby White, and Kate Hedin. Class content will be tailored by the instructors to the needs of each group.
Registration should open sometime in mid-June. Check out the website for more details!
Hope to see you soon, dancing Bal!
Here’s the low-down for May:
Thursday, May 3rd (TOMORROW!) — Balboa at the Stomp!
Saturday, May 12th — Balboa Crash Course!
We’re having another Balboa Crash Course where we’ll cover the basic figures and connection of Balboa in one afternoon. It’ll be a great opportunity to get your friends who keep saying they don’t know how to dance Balboa to learn the basics so they can social dance when that great Bal song comes on. MAKE THEM COME!
Sunday, May 20th — Balboa on a Sunday Afternoon!
We’ll once again have a beginner lesson starting at 3:30pm with open practice time starting at 4:30pm and DJ’d music kicking in around 5.
Other points of interest:
Hope to see you soon, dancing Bal!