Feb 16th - Exciting News!

Upskill your West Coast with a 2 couple private lesson

Classes continue to have a great edge with all our new patrons doing exceptionally well.  Everyone is enjoying class.   We just wish we could dedicate more than just a song dancing with each of you after class.  Having time with an experienced lead or follow can really upskill your levels very quickly.  With that factor in mind, we want to offer our new and existing students a private lesson format that we know will really help consolidate what you have been learning.  It will also put you in great form for our upcoming Dinner Dance and Workshops with international guests Eric and Ani on the 12th April.  (More on that news later!)

Our offer - pick a time on Saturday the 2nd March between 11am and 5pm.  We will offer a two couple private lesson for an hour.  Two teachers will work and drill you in the concepts and techniques of West Coast Swing for $20 per person.  You will be amazed at how much you can learn when the teachers can spend one on one time with you as a lead, follow or couple. 

Monthly Dance Party on Friday 1st March 2013

We have booked the Southern Cross Turner Bowling Club from 7:30pm - 11pm on Friday 1st March.  Cost is $10 and includes some nibblies and we might teach you a smick move or two.  Why not get there around 7pm and have a meal from the great Burmese restaurant at the club.  Good food, great value (most meals under $15) and an entertaining night out. 

New Zealand West Coast Swing stars coming to Canberra

We are really excited that our friends Eric Grey and Ani Fuller are coming to Canberra.  They will run workshops on the 13th April during the day and we will have a Dinner Dance that night.  I will be creating a web site soon with all the booking details.  I am still working on the finer details but I expect two workshops and a Dinner Dance to be between $140 and $150 - including a few drinkies :-).  The Dinner Dance on its own will be around $75 and single workshops around $40.

Our next term of 10 week lessons starts 29th April 2013

We would like your help promoting our next Intro to WCS course starting just after the school holidays.  We'd like your input on keeping classes fresh and fun.  We would also like to offer you $30 cashback for every new starter to WCS that signs up thanks to your efforts.  Talk to us at class and we will sign you up as a WCS Ambassador!

Welcome to our first term 2013

A warm welcome to our 2013 Semester 1 class.  Thanks for choosing Audacity Dance as your partner in learning West Coast Swing.  We aim to provide you with fun classes and a most enjoyable Tuesday evening.  Once a month we have socials on a Friday night at the Turner Southern Cross Bowling Club.  There is a great Burmese restaurant there and the chance to enjoy a beverage or two together.  So book the 1^st March in your diary.  The week before that date we will consolidate our first four weeks of lessons with a fun revision class.  You will be surprised how much you have learnt over four or five weeks!

I highly recommend that you consider writing a few notes each week about what we cover in class.  You might also like to arrive 15 minutes before class and get in some warm up practice.

In this post, I plan to summarise some of the things we have covered over the first two weeks:

Handhold: we aim to make our Follows comfortable, around hip height or handshake height is what the Leader aims for.

Options: so far we have covered the Normal Handhold and the Handshake handhold when leading the dance

Lead: the Leader moves the Follow two steps forward every time – it is one of the few ‘rules’ of the dance

The Slot: Follows define the slot.  They own it and it is up to the Lead to get out of the way in a Left Side Pass or a Right Side Pass.  If the lead doesn’t get out of the way, it is a blocking move.  We call that move a Push.  We will teach you two Push variations next week.

Footwork patterns: We have been concentrating on the 6 beat pattens to date.  We call out – ‘Walk, Walk, Tri_ple_Step, Tri_ple_Step’.  The Lead walks BL (back left), BR (back right), LRL, RLR which is 8 steps in 6 peats.  Follows walk FR (forward right), FL, RLR, LRL.

Our dance is a conversation: The lead is offered and the follow accepts the lead.  The conversation is the interplay between partners and the music.  The top instructors refer to dancers as being the human instrument in the song.

International Guests, Dinner Dance and Workshops

We have other exciting news.  I have been negotiating with two international WCS champions to come to Canberra in April.  We are close to finalising the deal and if it comes off, they will teach workshops and we will have a dinner dance on the weekend of the 12th April.  More on this soon.