Swing Into Free Dance Classes At City College
By Michaela Payne
No need to commit till you fall in love. Just try out a City College dance class during National Dance Week, April 23 to 28, and it might spin you head over heels.
Like falling over your feet in a tango lesson. Or trying to spin on your head in beginning hip-hop. You might lose your balance and a little dignity, but you won’t lose any money because the whole week is free.
You can surely get enough practice in just six days to venture out to the clubs around town. Visitors from City College and the community are welcome to try out salsa, modern, tango, Lindy Hop swing, folk dance, ballet, African-Haitian and more in the Wellness Center on the Ocean Campus.
Dances by students, faculty and alumni of the City College dance department will kick off the week with the informal Low Tech Performance on Saturday, April 23 in the Performance Studio at Wellness Center 301.
Audience members like you will get some inspiration and/or onset of envy, then an opportunity to clutch strangers in sweaty embraces at the Saturday night salsa party from 8 to 10 p.m. in the same room. Cross your fingers that this will lead to some after-party at a salsa club to practice your new skills.
Love holding hands with strangers? Try the folk dance party on Sunday, April 24 from 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. Social dancing is fun, pretty easy to learn the basics and you can bring the kids and great-grandparents, too.
Our renowned City College faculty dance instructors and special guests will tolerate your clumsy presence in some of their classes all week, so pick a few to attend. This is a great way to get recognized on the first day of next semester when you sign up for your favorite one. Just try to stay on your feet and attempt everything with a smile.
There’s always ice in the sports medicine office. Wellness Center, bottom floor on the west end.
This is “a chance to dance,” for you and anyone you’d like to bring along, according to the founders of National Dance Week. You’ll be tapping into a national tradition invented in 1981, and maybe tap dancing, too.
City College’s free classes are only the tip of the iceberg here in the temperate zone, during which Bay Area Dance Week will host more than 400 free events.
Just one little class could pull you into “one of the largest, most active and thriving dance communities in the country” here in the Bay Area, the hosts at Dancers’ Group claim.
To attend, consult the Dance Week schedules posted in the third floor of the Wellness Center, the dance department pages on Facebook and the City College website. The full schedule of Bay Area Dance Week events is at http://bayareandw.org/events/.
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Send an email to: Michaela Payne