đșđ»đ” Learn exciting new things about music and connect them to your dancing! đđ„
Thank you for your interest in this course! For a more detailed overview, please scroll down to the âCourse Overviewâ section.
Workshop Dates
Sunday 8th, 15th & 22nd June
Sunday 6th, 13th & 20rd July
Location
Cores End URC Church, Hawks Hill, Wooburn Green, Bourne End SL8 5HZÂ
(free parking in the carpark or roads nearby)
Workshop Times
2:00PM: doors open
2:15PM – 3:15PM: Part 1
3:30PM – 4:30PM: Part 2
Key Info & Booking
Please note, rather than a series of drop-in sessions, this is a six workshop course! People are very welcome to pay either in one go, or spread the cost by paying for three workshops at a time. However, whichever payment option is more suitable, the expectation is that people are signing up for the complete course, with the option to spread the cost over time.
We do ask that people pay for the entire course even if they have to miss one of the workshops, as we arenât really accepting new entrants once the course starts.
ancers and musicians from a wide range of experience are welcome – as long as you can dance a complete salsa track with basic partnerwork, you would be very welcome on this course – as would someone who has been dancing for decades!
Booking is in advance (not on the door). Many thanks!
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Playing Music as Dancers – Course Overview
Thank you for your interest in this course! I wanted to give a brief(ish) overview of what I envisage the six workshops will cover and achieve.
Dancing, for me, is essentially playing music with the body. Iâve played the piano since I was seven, been a full-time piano teacher since 2013, and danced since 2001. And when I dance, I feel Iâm channeling the same spirit, and drawing on the same energy, as when Iâm playing the piano. In other words, dancing is another way of playing music.Â
As a piano teacher, Iâve seen over and over again that the more that people understand what music is, the reason why they are playing the notes they are playing, the more convincingly they play. More depth, more feeling, more confidence, more âmagicâ. They are more assured in charting their own course and developing their own ideas, too.Â
Crucially, they start to hear music differently too. They still enjoy their favourite music, but moreso: there are more colours, more nuances, and more detail. Musically complex pieces start to make more sense. This has a feedback effect on their playing: they make different or more subtle musical choices, moment to moment, hearing the difference it makes. They often end up memorising music too, even if they hadnât intended to, again because the music makes more sense.Â
The foundation of this course is that all of this is true of dancers, too.
Hearing and appreciating the music in more ways, being more connected to it, opens up our options when we are dancing. From how we assess the overall character of a piece, to micro-movements in basic steps, to what âmovesâ we choose to do, to creating the moment-to-moment dance and partnership connection, to remembering music weâve heard before, to anticipating whatâs coming in unfamiliar pieces, to general dance confidence and creativity, whether freestyle or with a partner.
This course has two main aims:
- Develop peopleâs hearing, so that by the end of the course, everyone, irrespective of their dance or musical experience, will hopefully find that music is beginning to naturally present itself in greater clarity and colour. Like buying a more expensive set of speakers that bring new life to the music.
- Connect what weâre hearing to our dancing. As the course progresses, people will, I hope, instinctively find themselves wanting to make more musical choices in their dancing, moment to moment, essentially because theyâre hearing more opportunities to do so. The course will encourage people to express themselves individually and musically, and experiment with what feels right for them, whether in partnerwork or solo, and through more basic steps or advanced movements.
The course content will be a combination of three things: music theory; aural; and practical dance application.
- Music theory is the building blocks of music. Most of us probably have an idea of what pulse is, and how important it is to hold as salsa dancers. The course will expand on that to other aspects of music: pitch, articulation, tonality, dynamics, character, melody and harmony, keys, improvisation, and more. Please donât worry if those terms are meaningless – theyâre just there to give a flavour of the possibilities. Each aspect has ever-increasing depth to it and weâd take things at an appropriate pace for the group.
- Aural is the practical application of these ideas to music. For example, can we mark the strong beats, downbeats and upbeats of a piece of music? Identify whether it is in a major or minor key, whether there are any key changes, and how this affects the feel? What range of notes are being used and any particular direction to them? Identify when the harmony changes? Identify tonal centres and when the music is moving away from or towards them? Hear how tension is created and resolved? Identify cadences? Discuss sonority, texture and structure? Anticipate whatâs coming next and explain why?
Essentially can we ‘think’ in music? - Dancing: How might we express this expanded musical repertoire as dancers? It wouldnât be about complicated or overly-choreographed moves, but rather, deepening musical expression within our current technical ability, whether solo or in partnerwork, exploring new musical ideas with our dancing, and encouraging people to lean into their own style.
Each workshop will build on and develop ideas covered in the last, which is why theyâre being run as a course rather than a series of drop-in sessions, and theyâll be delivered in a collaborative manner rather than âtop downâ. It is my feeling that a course of six two-hour workshops is about the minimum for people to start to notice they are instinctively hearing music in more colour and clarity than before.
On that basis, we would be very grateful if people only book if they are able to commit to all or most of the course dates. We do ask that people pay for the entire course even if they have to miss one of the workshops, as we arenât really accepting new entrants once the course starts.
Dancers and musicians from a wide range of experience are welcome! This is because we can be musical with more basic steps as well as advanced movements, and the focus is on hearing as much as dancing. I will assume no musical knowledge, and any suggested dance ideas will have options for those who are less experienced as well as for more advanced dancers.
As a result, the minimum level of technical ability required is being able to dance a complete track in partnerwork with basic salsa steps (forward-and-back (mambo), cross body leads, single right turns, etc).
Thank you if youâve made it this far! Please donât hesitate to contact me (Jonathan – the person delivering the course) or Basil (owner of Dance2Salsa Dance Company) with any questions.
For some time now I have felt that musicianship is both fundamental to us as dancers but also very limited in terms of opportunities to explore and develop it. Musical depth, for me, is an ongoing process of discovery – there is no end that I have found, and I expect to find new things as a result of this course alongside everyone else. I hope that it will open up new territory for dancers and musicians of all levels of abilities in unexpected directions!
Best,
Jonathan (workshop facilitator)
Tel: 07980 617253
Email: jonathan.windsor.piano@gmail.com
Basil (owner, Dance2Salsa Dance Company)
https://dance2salsa.co.uk/
Tel: 07595 397184
Email: info@dance2salsa.co.uk