Lots of Valentine's Day Dances, Non-Judgmental Dancing, Semi-Private West Coast Swing Sessions

Published: Sat, 02/14/15

Gainesville Ocala Swing and Social Dance Newsletter 2015-02-14

Lots of Valentine's Day Dances, Non-Judgmental Dancing, Semi-Private West Coast Swing Sessions

Hello and Gainesville Ocala Social Dancers,

There are a bunch of dances going on this Valentine's Day: Clogging Festival at the Fairgrounds, Argentine Tango, Ballroom Dance, Blues Dance, and a Salsa Social with a Bachata Lesson. Check the calendar for details.

Sunday is a ballroom dance with Swing and Sway at the Senior Center. This is open to everyone. You do not have to be a senior, nor have a partner. They have a big dance floor, so this is a good place to dance.

We could probably use another guy to join a semi-private group for beginning West Coast Swing early on Monday evenings. If you would like to join us, let me know. $15 per session

Happy Dancing,
Andy

publish@gainesvilledance.com
352-327-3672

Non Judgmental Dancing

Ten years ago, when I moved back to Gainesville, I gave myself the job of building up the social dance community, because I wanted more opportunities to dance. The most important thing in building up a dance community is training dancers. There is only one necessary factor in training a new dancer, time. It takes a long time to learn to dance. Given enough time, everyone learns to dance. The most important factor in people giving you that time is not judging them.

Last week, one lady in my West Coast Swing class said, "I do not want people [other than the instructor] teaching me how to dance or telling me what I am doing wrong. I am not going out to be judged. I just want to have a good time."

If you want to judge people, or be judged, get into performance dancing. Otherwise, when you go social dancing, whether you are in class or at a dance, enjoy what you get without judging it. Leave the judging to the teacher.

Another lady wrote me, "If a leader (or follower, for that matter) thinks the teacher is wrong about something, s/he should bring it to the teacher's attention, preferably privately; but if necessary then openly during class. But do not hijack the teaching, covertly, partner by partner. ... Anyone who thinks that they know better than the teacher should offer a class, and people can decide whether to pay them or not."

Here are my rules. If something is uncomfortable, your are obligated to tell your partner so the two of you can figure out how to fix it. Your partner does not want you to suffer in silence. Otherwise, nobody should be teaching anybody, except the teacher. Followers should be following and not telling the leaders what to do. It is alright for a leader to tell a follower what to do, because the leader is leading, but this should be kept to a minimum. If you want to help someone, dance well. They will learn from your dancing.

Juliana Azoubel is the best dancer I know and as sweet of a person I know. Her resume is immense. She is a professional dancer, she has a PhD in dance, she heads a Brazilian national dance troupe. She has been dancing since she was a child. She is so fluid, she makes good salsa dancers look stiff. She is as good a teacher as I have ever seen. One day, I dropped some flyers off at the end of her Samba class. She invited me to stay and I happened to be partnered up with her. I asked her, what we were doing and she replied, "I do not know, you are leading." Let me tell you, as a leader, nothing inspires more confidence.

Gainesville and Ocala Dance Calendar

www.DanceCalendar.info/u/event.asp?idarea=19

Note: if you do not see the calendar in color, click the compatibility view in your browser. In Internet Explorer, press alt-t, then check Compatibility View.

Dance Quotes

If a man doesn't know how to dance he doesn't know how to make love, there I said it. ~ Craig Ferguson

Dance Schedule

Confirm all programs before going

  1. Saturday 2/14 - Florida Clogging Festival
  2. Saturday 2/14 - Argentine Tango Milonga El Abrazo with Live Music
  3. Saturday 2/14 - Ballroom Dance with Ray and Eileen
  4. Saturday 2/14 - Valentine's Blues Dance
  5. Saturday 2/14 - Valentine's Day Social, Bachata CLass and Fundraiser
  6. Monday 2/16 - Israeli Dancing with Andy
  7. Tuesday 2/17 - Line Dancing with Andy in Hawthorne 3 of 4
  8. Tuesday 2/17 - Square Dancing with Andy in Hawthorne 3 of 4
  9. Tuesday 2/17 - East Coast Swing with Richard
  10. Tuesday 2/17 - Salsa LA Style
  11. Wednesday 2/18 - West Coast Swing with Judi
  12. Wednesday 2/18 - UF Argentine Tango Class and Dancing
  13. Thursday 2/19 - Ballroom with Ray and Eileen - Argentine Tango
  14. Thursday 2/19 - Salsa LA Style
  15. Thursday 2/19 - Line Dancing with Andy at the Senior Center 5 of 6
  16. Thursday 2/19 - Beginning Salsa Dancing with Andy 5 of 6
  17. Friday 2/20 - UF Swing Club
  18. Friday 2/20 - West Coast Swing Dance Social with Josh
  19. Friday-Sunday 2/20-2/22 - GODS Contra Dance Weekend
  20. Saturday 2/21 - Waltz Brunch at the Thomas Center
  21. Tuesday 2/24 - Ballroom with Ray and Eileen
  22. Saturday 2/28 - Tango Y Te with David and Thuy
  23. Sunday 3/01 - Contra Dance
  24. Friday 3/06 - Argentine Tango Milonga Papirusa
  25. Saturday 3/07 - West Coast Swing Dance
  26. Friday 3/13 - Contra Dance in Melrose
  27. Saturday 3/21 - Contra Dance
  28. Sunday 3/22 - Vintage Waltz Brunch

Ongoing Dancing

Classes with Andy

To sign up for classes offered via Santa Fe College Community Education (SFC) call Jennifer 352-395-5193 or visit www.sfcollege.edu/cied/communityed

  1. Israeli Dancing at 7 pm, Israeli Partner Dancing at 8 pm, on Mondays at B'nai Israel, 3830 NW 16 Blvd, only $5, drop in, no sign up required, ongoing.
  2. Line Dancing on Tuesdays at 6 pm at Hawthorne High School, sign up via SFC. Next series starts February 3, 2015
  3. Square Dancing on Tuesdays at 7 pm at Hawthorne High School, sign up via SFC. Next series starts February 3, 2015
  4. Line Dancing on Thursdays at noon at the Senior Center, sign up via SFC, ongoing. Next series starts January 22, 2015
  5. Beginning Salsa Dancing on Thursdays at 6 pm at Gainesville High School, sign up via SFC, ongoing. Next series starts January 22, 2015
  6. Private Lessons, classes for Novice Dancers, Wedding Dances, also for Argentine Tango, Contra, Hustle, Lindy, Line, West Coast Swing, Vintage Waltz contact Andy

Thank you for subscribing to the Gainesville Dance swing and social dance newsletter. I also publish a newsletter called Internet Handholding which you can subscribe to at www.InternetHandholding.com. My other business is Internet and computer consulting. Contact me if you need help with the Internet, with anything from websites, marketing your business online, email newsletter, selling on Amazon or Ebay, publishing books, to software development and so on.

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Andrew Weitzen, publish@gainesvilledance.com, 352-327-3672, Gainesville, FL