Afro & Dancehall Workshops in Seattle!

We are excited to host two workshops right after Thanksgiving to practice and celebrate Afro and Dancehall. These workshops will focus on popular steps and will be open to all level dancers.

• Both classes with be held at Dance Underground in Capitol Hill.
• Workshops are each $20.
• Per WA state regulation, all participants will need to show proof of vaccination or negative Covid test within the last 72 hours, and wear a mask throughout the class.

In this workshop we will learn popular Afro party grooves including steps from Afrobeats, Amapiano and Ndombolo. We will also spend time playing with improvisation exercises to get more comfortable with freestyle, and using steps to connect and dance with each other.

Afro:

Afro is an umbrella term encompassing several genres of music and dance originated in Africa mostly within the last 20-30 years. Some of the most globally popular genres are Afrobeats (Nigeria & Ghana), Amapiano (South Africa), Ndombolo (Congo), Coupe Decale (Ivory Coast), and Afrohouse (Angola). Afro street styles are fundamentally communal and expressive and deeply rooted in each country of origin's unique history and culture.

Taught by Kine Camara

We will warm up with some older influences and grooves of the old-school era of Dancehall (80s and 90s) and continue learning some of the flows along the timeline of mid-school Dancehall (2000s) all the way up to present-day Dancehall. We will focus on some call and response grooves that happen in the Dancehall party between the Selector (DJ) and the dancers, and learn a fun combination towards the end.

Dancehall:

Dancehall is was born from Reggae music in the 1980s, on the island of Jamaica in the Caribbean. Dancehall dance and movements are defined and referenced to a Jamaican cultural aesthetic, history, social, and socio-economic context. Dancehall as a genre is open-ended and continues to grow as codified steps are constantly added to it. The principles of Dancehall dance include movement that is grounded, curvy, fluid, and polyrhythmic, and responsive to the DJ selector. Within Dancehall there is also a spiritual component or "vibes" that is part and parcel to Dancehall dance experience that allows for the dancer to "elevate", or feel a higher vibration.

There are different styles of Dancehall that relate to the era (80s, 90s, 2000s) and the bpm(beats per minute)of the music as Dancehall music gradually began to get faster as years went by. The styles are termed old school, mid-school, and new evolution (present-day) Dancehall. Another style that is specific is the female style of Dancehall.

Taught by Alia Lux

Host or Publisher Kiné Camara