Mark your calendars for Friday, July 9th, for our next virtual workshop at 1pm ET! Topic will be announced the previous week. If you have requests, please reach out to Tessa on Facebook or send an email to tessa@fortedancestudio.com!
If weight transfer, frame, and connection are the meat and potatoes of great WCS, than dynamics are the SAUCE. And baby, it's time to sauce things up!!
This Friday, March 12th, at 1pm ET, I'm offering a virtual workshop focused on two specific dynamics: level changes and speed changes! We'll start by learning the physical technique for creating rise & fall and moving parts of the body faster/slower. Then we'll delve into where to apply these dynamics, with specific examples from common patterns. And we'll finish with learning how to match these choices up with what's happening in the music!
This workshop is for leaders and followers and lasts 75 minutes. Registration gives you access to the live workshop, recording, and accompanying lesson notes! To register, send $10 to paypal.me/tessaantolini or Venmo @Anastasia-Antolini. SAUCE IT BABY!!
For more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/events/422236368733342
Bring cloths you’re tired of and walk out with “new” cloths you love!
Bring only cloths in good, clean condition. If it has holes, stains, or smells, it should stay at home and become part of your couch repertoire.
We recommend 5+ items per person; the number you bring will be the number you take away!
All shapes and sizes are welcome!
Bring all unwanted clothing, including items that are out of season (like tank tops and dresses!).
On Saturday, February 8th, immediately after the Follower’s Intensive, Tessa will be hosting a ladies’ clothing swap and potluck! Have a closet full of beautiful cloths that you’re tired of wearing (and WCS competition cloths in particular?!)? So does she!! Let’s freshen up our wardrobes, eat some tasty food, and enjoy each other’s company before the 2nd Saturday workshops and dance in Wayland!
Please bring one tasty food item with you to the swap!
Extra credit for healthy options, like protein, veggies, and fruit.
Tessa will provide soda, water, and ice. Want something else to drink? Bring it!
If you have food allergies, please post in the facebook group so that others can consider your needs when planning their food!
Saturday February 8th, Tessa will be offering a follower’s intensive 2.5-hour workshop.
The first section will focus on technical skills specific to followers needs, and the second section on musicality and reflecting that music in your body. We will break in between to rest and refresh.
This workshop is de-gendered—all who follow are welcome! The information shared in this workshop requires sufficient experience to be able to dance the basics by yourself.
$20 for adults, $15 for students. Pre-registration required. To register, click HERE.
It will be followed immediately by a ladies’ clothing swap and potluck!! For more information, please click HERE.
Please note that this month, our dance will take place on the first Friday, NOT our usual second Friday. That way both “2nd weekend” events take place back-to-back and you are free to be with your loved ones on Valentines day!!
Please join us Friday evening January 10th for a night of West Coast Swing workshops and social dancing! This month our beginner and intermediate workshops will be taught by Kyle Lapatin and Elizabeth Lloyd (you can cheer Tessa on as she competes at SwingCouver in Canada!). Social dancing will be DJ’d by Kyle!
Workshops: Level 1 is for those who have never danced WCS before or those wish to brush up on their fundamentals. We support more experienced dancers to participate! Level 2 is for those who have mastered the six basics: left side pass, right side pass, sugar push, sugar tuck, basic whip, and left side inside roll. There are snacks and drinks provided. Anyone under the age of 18 gets in FREE!
Forte Friday Funday is delighted to host champions Ben McHenry & Cameo McHenry on Friday November 8th! These amazing teachers will be guiding the Intermediate workshop at 8:30pm. Tessa will host the Beginner workshop at 7:45pm, and social dancing with DJ Josh Albert will kick off at 9:30pm and go until midnight.
Beginner Workshop + Dance $10 ($5 for students)
Intermediate Workshop + Dance $15 ($5 for students!!!) — Join the beginner workshop @ no charge!
Social Dance $10 ($5 for students)
FREE SNACKS AND DRINKS!
Ben & Cameo will be available for private lessons Friday-Sunday. For more information or to book, please contact Kyle Lapatin.
Please join me this Friday October 11th for a night of WCS workshops and social dancing!
Extensions—those niggling, extremely common, almost-looks-like-it-was-part-of-the-pattern additions (in two beat increments)—are key to musicality. We lead and follow them hundreds of times in a night of social dancing. But the majority of Westies find themselves performing the same (usually pretty simple) variations over and over and over again.
This workshop is designed to explore variation through extensions. Leaders, that’s having a slew of them in your pocket and pulling them out at musically appropriate times. Followers, that’s recognizing when an extension is happening (or, even better, about to happen!). And for both leaders and followers, that’s having multiple ways of performing them so that you can vary them to suit what’s happening in that particular song in that particular moment.
Be prepared to feel foolish…very foolish. As my coaches so often say, the way to Cool-ville is always through Dork-town!! Wear loose, comfortable cloths. Don’t bring your date (unless your dorky, but completely joyful and—let’s face it—sweaty self is exactly what you’d like your date to see). DO bring a willingness to experiment: you’ll be moving your body in unfamiliar ways that will ultimately make you a far better dancer!
This class is for those who immediately understood what an “extension” was. If you don’t know yet, you’ll get there, just not in this class :)
$10 for adults; $5 for students with active ID; FREE for anyone under 18!
On Thursday July 25th, Tessa will be offering a workshop specifically for spin technique. This class is for dancers (leaders and followers) who wish to improve their skills in spinning. She will cover concepts on how to remain balanced, maintain control, and develop the ability to spin quickly and (more importantly!) STOP quickly!
Afraid you'll get dizzy? It's a legitimate fear--one that holds many people back from practicing their spins! Part of the class will cover strategies and practice to avoid dizziness. If any point in class you start to feel woozy, take a seat, and rejoin us when the fog has cleared.
Beginner experience required. We will use basic WCS to apply our spins.
$10 for adults; $5 for students with active ID.
This 60-minute class begins at 7:30pm.
In celebration of the the studio's 5th birthday, Tessa will be offering private lessons Friday June 14th and Saturday June 15th at 50% off!!
Have you always wanted to take a private West Coast Swing lesson but haven't found the time or the funds? Now is your chance! Private lessons are just $45 cash*! Space is limited so Facebook message or text/call now at (804) 397 5562.
*All lessons must be purchased in cash and used by 6pm Saturday, June 15th, 2019. Limit 2 lessons per individual/couple.
This class is for WCS dancers who are experienced and confident with intermediate-level material. If you can do variants of pushes, passes, and whips and know WWTriple inside and out, then you're ready for this class. Not yet muscle memorized with these things? Hold off for now; this material will only curfuffle your brain!
Please join me Thursday, May 16th for an hour-long workshop devoted to blues footwork variations. Most of you know that your styling choices dancing to blues should be somewhat different from how you would dance to mid-tempo or slow contemporary. The hard part is actually learning what to do to make that blues stand out as "BLUES"!
The faster the music, the less we wish to travel, and the more we wish to use our feet to reflect what we hear in the music. In this class, we'll cover the basics (and some not-so-basic!) styling variations for those feet. Once you have these concepts in your feet, they work just as well for mid-temp to fast contemporary songs as they do blues!
$10 for adults; $5 for students with active ID, FREE for juniors!
WCS styling relies on the dancer’s ability to isolate, control, and move specific parts of the body. In order to do that successfully, one must start by learning to “talk” to each party of the body, discover the various ways it can move, and then combine those movements on top of the WCS basic actions of lead/follow, frame, and connection.
This class aims to introduce the body to isolation work (such as moving one’s shoulders independently from everything else) and to begin the process of combining that with WCS. Prior WCS experience is required (I ask that you have at least competitive-newcomer skills to attend this class).
There is NO SUCH THING as too much practice with isolations! If you have “done” them in the past, I heartily recommend you touch base with them again. Perhaps you will discover new, more varied movement patterns that can inform your dance!
$10 for adults
$5 for students with active ID
