Dancing your Tush Off in Seattle

Seattle is a dancers’ paradise. There is so much dancing go on in this town

that you might just wear your socks out inside your shoes!

The best place to get an overview of all the dance is to visit the Dance Resources

webpage of the Seattle Folklore Society (SFS), http://www.seafolklore.org/dance.html

(please join SFS, very noble cause)

My favorite dance venues are

Sonny Newmans Dance Hall ( http://www.tangoseattle.com/ ) Greenwood

Dance Underground ( http://www.dance-underground.com/calendar/calendar.html ) Capital Hill

Living Traditions ( http://www.ltdance.com/ ) Ballard

Century Ballroom ( http://www.centuryballroom.com/ ) Capital Hill

Waltz Etc ( http://www.waltzetc.com/map.htm ) Shoreline

Each of these places offers both dance instruction and dances to a variety of taped and live music. You will find tango, swing, Cajun/Zydeco, waltz, blues, salsa, meringue
and much much more at these fine smoke-free locations.

Every year over all four days of the Memorial Day weekend is FOLK LIFE, where you can dance yourself into rapture – huge Contra dances (500 people dancing together on one floor!), Tango, Baltic, Swing, Waltz, Blues, Ethnic dances of many kinds –
Cuban, Indian, Irish, African, Israeli and more. DO NOT MISS IT!!!

One unusually rewarding form of dance is called Ecstatic Dance, held at Dance Underground on Wednesday nights 7:30 and Sunday mornings at 10:30am. Founder Mary Anderson has built an amazing following. Dance is free-form, improvisational and the music is a hypnotic, mesmerizing mix of World music. You can dance by yourself with others or even in a group, playful and FUN!!! $8

In Seattle dance halls are rapidly re-emerging as the place to socialize and have a wonderful, safe and energizing place to get to know new folks and deepen connections with regulars.

If you are married or a couple please be aware that most dance places have a dance etiquette of
changing partners. This doesn’t mean that you can’t dance several dances together. It just means you should be aware of other dancers and sometimes let your partner dance with others.

You will find it very worthwhile investing in a pair of good dance shoes like

Capezios. For a list of dance shoe resources go to http://www.ltdance.com/dance_shoes.html

(my favorite is Centerstage in the University District)

I commend the Dance community for creating a truly sweet, sustaining and invigorating collection of dances.

Enjoy dancing yourself happy!