Ballroom Dance Club of Fairbanks, Alaska

LATEST NEWS

Spring Swing Thing Takes Shape, May 2 - 4

A dance workshop with four of Alaska’s top instructors!
West Coast Swing • Hustle • Night Club Two-Step
Country Western Two-Step • Swing Dance at UAF!
$10 per class, or $8 per class for four or more classes. No advance registration.

Learn basic—and beyond—patterns in West Coast Swing, Hustle, Night Club Two-Step, and Country Western Two-Step with classes taught by four of Alaska’s premier social dance instructors. Back by popular demand will be Liv Froholm and Van Rauch from Anchorage. Liv and Van have taught together since 2001 and have won West Coast Swing, Hustle, Night Club Two-Step, and Country Two-Step dance competitions in the Lower 48. These stellar dancers will be joined by Fairbanks’ own Judy Kreith and Stefani Brown for a full weekend of fantastic dance lessons!

And on Saturday night, May 3, the six-piece Fairbanks Swing Cats band will perform for the big Spring Swing Thing Dance at the UAF Wood Center Ballroom! The Ballroom Dance Club is teaming up with the Swing Club for this dance; it will take the place of our usual social for May 3. For more info, contact Kurt Byers at bluefox@acsalaska.net.

Get the workshop schedule and the Country Two-Step Advanced Class

Social Dance, May 16, Music from Girls With Guitars

End of Season Dance. Since it clearly needs some help warming up around here, we will be having another social dance with live music on Friday, May 16. Girls With Guitars will be playing lots of great music. This will be a potluck event--bring a dish and two get in for the price of one. Admission will be $8. Stay tuned for details.

There will be dance practice on May 3. All of our instructors say that practice is very important, that it is key to learning your dance moves well. Even if you are not taking classes you are invited to come by to practice your steps; you can help our beginners a lot by showing them how more experienced dancers move around the floor and if you are a beginner there are experienced dancers there who can help you figure out the steps you are practicing. The practice is free of charge.

COLD WEATHER POLICY--Classes will be canceled if the temperature at the airport is -35 F or colder at noon; the airport weather phone number to call is 458-3745, after connecting press 1-1-1-3. In the event that classes are canceled, make-up classes will be scheduled at at a later date.

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SOCIAL DANCES are held twice a month on the first Saturday and third Friday of each month.

FREE DANCE CLASSES FOR COMMUNITY CLUBS AND ORGANIZATIONS
We invite all local clubs and community organizations to have a free dance lesson from one of our excellent teachers at your next dance event. Click Here for info

SATURDAY NIGHTS - SWING/BALLROOM/LATIN DANCING AT THE SILVER SPUR: Join Kurt Byers and his great recorded music at the Silver Spur saturdays from 6-8:30, before the country dancers arrive. Lotsa swing and all your other favorite dances -- Argentine Tango too! Must be 21. Don't be shy to come out to the Spur if you're a beginner. You'll find plenty of friendly, experienced dancers there who will be glad to take you out for a spin, maybe even show ya a cool move or two. Dancing with several different partners can really help your dancing. Ladies-- you will be AMAZED at how different the lead can be from different guys! Click this link for the latest Swing Club E-newsletter: Newsletter

SUNDAY EVENING DANCING AT CHATANIKA LODGE: Teresa Bauer, our Chatanika Nightingale performs every Sunday evening, 4 pm to 8 pm, at Chatanika Lodge. If you haven't heard her truly wonderful voice, you owe it to yourself to make the scenic drive to Chatanika and check it out. It's a great way to wind down your weekend! Nice dance floor and good food, too.

BIMONTHLY CONTRA DANCES: Have you tried contra dancing? If not, you're missing one of the most fun dance happenings in Fairbanks! It's a bit like square dancing, but done in long lines, dancing with a different person each time the music repeats. This dance form was designed for flirting! Quote: "Contra dance is a form of dance that thrusts a different person of the opposite sex into your arms every 30 seconds". Always live music and a great mix of friendly folks of all ages. Waltzes too! Details: www.acsalaska.net/~jadams47/

DANCE INSTRUCTION/REVIEW DVD'S & VIDEOTAPES

Our latest production: SWING DANCE FOR BEGINNERS with Judy Kreith and J.J. Laserna will get you off on the right foot. It covers all the essentials of partnering dynamics in swing, eg: dancing on the beat and doing those pretzel moves without sending your partner to the E.R. Contents

DANCE INSTRUCTION DVD'S by JERRY BLEMKE -- bio
(Produced by our Club and available for only $10 each at our classes or dances).

Advanced East Coast Swing
Amaze your friends!---Learn the Boogie Walk, Jump Step, Camel Walk, and 20 more cool moves on this very fun dvd. Contents

Intermediate/Advanced West Coast Swing
Face Loops Tuck and Spin, Toe-Heel Swivels, Hammerlock to Neck Wrap ........more than 20 totally slinky WCS moves are yours on this dvd. Contents

NIGHT CLUB 2-STEP DVD by LIV and VAN

Liv Froholm and Van Rauch, from Anchorage, are national-competition-class dancers and excellent instructors who taught a superb workshop for us in Night Club 2-Step in December, '06. Our dvd of their workshop features detailed, step-by-step instruction in this wonderful dance which is done to slow, romantic music. This is a totally different dance from Country 2-Step. Their instruction is especially clear and easy to follow. You can easily learn this dance from scratch using this dvd. Cost is only $10. Contents

BALLROOM DANCE REVIEW DVD

Where can you find the following practice moves: Waltz(22), Foxtrot(17), East Coast Swing(29), Cha Cha (10) and Rumba (10)?

Answer: On our locally-produced DVD available to our students for only $25. This DVD is only available locally, and is not available by mail order. Take a look at the extensive Table of Contents! click here

ZIMMERMAN 4-COUNT SWING VHS TAPE

Contact Kurt Byers at fnkmb1@uaf.edu to get your copy! Download a sample video (.wmv) of Greg and Susie Zimmerman doing a few of their cool 4-count moves at their retirement party in Nov, 2002. NOTE: file is 7.2mb and takes about 5 min to download on DSL, Since it is not a streaming video, you will need to right click this link and choose "save target as".... right click here

TIPS FOR NEW DANCERS

Tip #6) MOVING AROUND THE DANCE FLOOR (OR NOT) KURT BYERS:

As the winter dance season swings into high gear, and our local dance floors get crowded at the Silver Spur, Big Daddy's, and other venues, and with the Harvest Moon Ball fast approaching, it's a good time remind everyone that there are some basic tenets for taking up real estate on the dance floor. Different kinds of dances can often be done to a single song. For example, many Big Band swing numbers are great for both East Coast/Lindy swing and Foxtrot. ECS and Lindy are considered "spot" dances, done more-or-less in one spot on the dance floor. Foxtrot is a "traveling dance," moving counterclockwise as if on a track around the perimeter of the floor. Spot dancers and traveling dancers need to accommodate each other. The rule is, spot dancers (regardless of skill level) must stay away from the perimeter of the floor, allowing free passage for the traveling dancers around the outside of the floor. And traveling dancers should stay to the outside of the floor and avoid invading the spot dancers' real estate on the inside of the floor.

Click Here for previous tips.

CONTACT INFO

We are located at the Dance Center within Pioneer Park just Northeast of the intersection of Peger Road and Airport Way.
Maps: Regional - Detailed

Ballroom Dance Club of Fairbanks Incorporated
P.O. Box 81197
Fairbanks, AK 99708
http://www.ballroomfairbanks.org
Contact us at info@ballroomfairbanks.org
For upcoming events call 456-3331
Pioneer Park Dance center: 452-5699
To access the hall during off hours, call Pioneer Park Security: 452-2215

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website updated February 18, 2008