Fly Right Dance Company specialises in social dances of 20th century - performing and teaching anything from Ragtime through to Jive via Charleston and Original Ballroom. We are fascinated by dance history - particularly the roots of social dancing - and have been developing a new show over the past year called Ragtime to Rock which takes a fun and sometimes irreverent look at how social ballroom dances have evolved since their early days in the 1900s.
Whilst the company's origins lie in traditional afro-american jazz dance (that's dances like the Charleston, Lindy Hop and Jitterbug), we've broadened our scope over the years to include original ballroom dances and Ragtime dance. We've been able to do initial research into some of the Ragtime dances via the Internet and thanks to some DVDs, but there is no-one in the UK that we can find who specialises in teaching these dance styles. We discovered an expert - Richard Powers, renowned dance historian and instructor at Stanford University Dance Division - and we started to follow his writings and study his videos. Imagine our delight when we discovered that he is coming to teach a week's worth of this kind of dance in Europe this August. This is a unique opportunity for us to learn from a recognised expert without having to travel to California. We'll get to learn about dances such as American One-Step variations, the Half-and-Half hesitation waltz, 1914 Buenos Aires tango, and Fox-Blues in Paris, amongst others.
Not only will this learning experience enhance the material for our show, it will give the company a unique set of skills and the ability to pass on our accumulated knowledge through workshops that are just not available in the UK! As experienced and sought-after instructors, we know that we will learn more by teaching others what we have learned. So we're organising two days of workshops when we get back during autumn 2012 to pass on all the "stuff"! This kind of dance is different from any dance you might have indulged in before, and if you are a dancer, it will inform your dancing, whatever your "dance poison", and give you an insight into how these social dances developed.
We just need £900 to cover the tuition fees for the week for two people. All contributions would be really gratefully received, and in return we shall "reward" Angels with participation at one or both of our two days of workshops - one to be held on the East side of Scotland and one to be held in the West of Scotland. Or if you're feeling exceptionally generous, we can give you a ninety-minute private lesson! Thank you in anticipation!
Project Comments
You must be logged in to post comments.
Project Updates
There are no project updates
Pledged on: 3rd August, 2012
Pledged on: 6th August, 2012