Deep in the Blues w/ Damon & Kelsy Stone, Aug 15-16

Dance workshop weekend in Portland Oregon with Damon and Kelsy Stone presented by The Portland Blues & Jazz Dance Society
About this Event

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Subject: Deep in the Blues! This is the workshop your Blues and Fusion dancing has been missing — Damon & Kelsy Stone, Aug 15-16

Hey PB&J Dancers!

We're bringing Damon and Kelsy Stone to town for a weekend that Blues and Fusion dancers are going to want to clear their calendars for. Two days, six classes, one rare chance to train with two of the most respected teachers in the game.For our Blues dancers: You do not want to miss this weekend. This opportunity will elevate your blues dancing by leaps and bounds. Damon is one of the foremost living authorities on Blues idiom dance, and this weekend's curriculum — Slow Drag, Jukin', Texas Shuffle, Barrelhouse — is a genuine deep dive, not a surface-level intro. Teachers at this level don't come through often, so don't sleep on this one. Fusion dancers, this is for you too!

Here's the thing: Fusion didn't come out of nowhere. It grew directly out of the Blues scene — the same people, the same rooms, the same connection vocabulary, just pointed at different music. If you've ever dropped into a low, grounded groove, played with weight and tension in a close embrace, or found that deep pocket in a slow song, you were speaking Blues. You just might not have known it had a name.

Damon is one of the most respected instructors in the Blues dance Community. He didn’t start learning from a book, or classes, but from his own family. He started dancing at family gatherings in Oakland before he was old enough for kindergarten, learning from his grandmother, whose people came from Memphis. He's spent his career studying and teaching the roots that Fusion dancers riff on every single week without necessarily knowing where the riffs come from, and is largely responsible for preserving a number of the blues idiom dances that we know today. Kelsy trained as a ballet dancer before falling into Blues, and together they've built a reputation for teaching that's technical, generous, and completely unpretentious.

This isn't "eat your vegetables" cross-training. This is going straight to the source with two people who can actually show you why your favorite Fusion moments work the way they do — the groove, the pocket, the partnership dynamics — and give you a deeper toolbox and a broader understanding to bring right back to your Fusion floor.

Opportunities to train with teachers at this level don't come around often, and definitely not for this price. Bring a friend, bring your curiosity, come find out where your dancing actually comes from.

Schedule

Saturday, August 15

• Modern Branches of the Blues Dance Tree
• Jukin': Small Floor, Big Groove
• Texas Shuffle: Footin' the Groove

Sunday, August 16

• The Slow Drag: Late Night Slow Burn
• Barrelhouse, Stride & Boogie: Play with the Blues
• Bad Ass Ballroomin'

Pricing

• Full Weekend Pass: $60
• Single Day Pass: $40
• Single Class: $20

Spots are limited. Grab yours before they're gone.

See you on the floor!The Portland Blues and Jazz Dance Society

If you would like to attend from out of town and need housing, please email [email protected] and we will try to connect you with community members.