Bolero – Spanish or Cuban? Part 2 Steve Holdener Last month I wrote that Bolero is a very slow and deliberate romantic Latin dance originating in Spain in the late eighteenth century. The music at that time was sung and accompanied by castanets and guitars. The Cuban Bolero tradition originated in Santiago de Cuba in…
Tag: SaddleBrooke Ballroom Dance Club
Clubs & Classes, July 2015
Let’s Dance & SaddleBrooke Ballroom Dance Clubs
Steve Holdener Ravel’s Boléro is one of his most famous works, originally written as a ballet score for his patron Blanche Lapin or commissioned by Ida Rubinstein, but now usually played as a concert piece. It was originally called Fandango but has rhythmic similarities with the Spanish dance form. Some versions of Ravel’s Boléro are nearly 17 minutes…
Clubs & Classes, May 2015
Let’s Dance Ballroom Club
A crowded dance floor of eager wanna be Night Club Two Steppers awaited instruction under the expert tutelage of Tom and Ann Kurtz. Night Club Two Step is often called the cruise ship dance because of the small dance floors on most cruise ships. NCTS can be danced beautifully with grace and stylish movement in…
Clubs & Classes, April 2015
All aboard the Cha Cha Choo Choo train
Little did the thirty dancers who attended the Let’s Dance Club’s Cha Cha beginning level class, taught by Linda and Barry Moore, know that they would be hopping aboard the Cha Cha Choo-Choo Train for four weeks of fabulous fun and instruction. Yes, the students actually moved into a single line holding on to each…
Clubs & Classes, April 2015
Let’s Dance and SaddleBrooke Ballroom Dance Clubs: Quickstep – a very “quick” trip around the dance floor
Steve Holdener Quickstep has been described as “a light-hearted member of the standard ballroom dances.” It’s fast and powerful, but contains subtle syncopations. The first time I saw a couple dancing a Quickstep I thought it was a very fast foxtrot and I was able to dance somewhat of a quickstep foxtrot even though it…
Clubs & Classes, November 2014
Ballroom Dance Club – Swing to the beat! One more time!
Steve Holdener A little bit more on East Coast Swing (ECS) continuing from last month’s column. ECS is a Rhythm Dance that has both six and eight beat patterns. The name East Coast Swing was coined initially to distinguish the dance from the street form and the new variant used in the competitive ballroom arena…
Clubs & Classes, September 2014
SaddleBrooke Ballroom Dance Club – I love cha cha
Steve Holdener When you hear a great cha-cha (which is also known as cha-cha-cha) your blood gets going and your body starts flowing to the beat of a dance of Cuban origin. According to Wikipedia the cha-cha was “danced to the music of the same name introduced by Cuban composer and violinist Enrique Jorrín in…