Every Monday night: a warm, welcoming dance
- From 7:30 to 9:30 we play a
mix about half waltzes & half other stuff, like swing, blues,
salsa, cha-cha, the occasional zydeco
etcetera: the mix we've been playing for
years (we've had a weekly dance since the beginning of
1999). We love variety; the etcetera is just as important as the waltz
for us. This is the more exuberant part of the evening.
- Around 9:30 we turn down the lights and the dancing
gets more intimate as the mix changes to slow blues, sensuous Latin, seductive waltzes and
other downtempo
stuff. We go as long as there's a good crowd still dancing, usually until
10:30 or 11.
- Waltz etcetera dancers are friendly, casual, unpretentious. Because we
play such a wide
variety of music,
we attract dancers who are versatile
& creative. There are a couple of snapshots
of the dancers at Waltz etcetera at the bottom of this page.
- Classes? There's a drop-in
class at 6:30, right before the dance; the dance always
includes music for practicing your new moves.
- How much?
$6 for the dance, $15 for the class, $20
for both.
- Where? Lake City Community Center, 12531
28th Ave NE in Seattle; it has a big hardwood dance floor plus plenty
of room off the main dance floor to socialize, rest or dance in a
quieter setting than the main floor; the offsides area has the same
great hardwood floor. People go back there & practice new moves
& stuff.
- Parking?
Free parking in the LCCC's lot plus plenty of free street parking
nearby.
- Do I need to bring a
partner? No, most people come solo to both classes and
dances. In classes we rotate partners frequently.
- What's it like?
Waltz etcetera feels warm & easygoing, where some dances feel cold & disconnected, or
worse, competitive. It feels like home, relaxed, undemanding & cheerful. People discover
us, then keep
coming for years. There's a quality and depth of
connection between partners; the dancers here are friendly, kind,
generous with
each other. Read
more about what it's like. Watch video
clips from the
dance. Also, dancers love the quality & variety of our music.
February
classes: Swingin' Cha-cha
Swingin' Cha-cha is cha-cha with a twist, or rather just a bit of a
cool swing; you dance it to swinging, bluesy music rather than Latin
music, tunes that have a nice mellow groove, the kinda music that makes
up a good portion of the etcetera part of Waltz etcetera's music.
Swingin' Cha-cha is intuitive and easygoing; you can quickly pick up
enough of the basics to have a great time dancing it, even if you're
not an experienced dancer. If you already know any
cha-cha moves, they'll fit right in, as will many swing moves; you can
easily go back & forth between Swingin' Cha-cha and tripletime
swing. Plus, you can easily make Swingin' Cha-cha travel around the
room, which is a total hoot. More info on Swinging
Cha-cha | Watch a
video of us dancing it
Class
details: You can drop in anytime. No need to sign
up, just show up. Classes are
6:30 - 7:30 pm every Monday, $15 per class, right before the dance, at
the Lake City Community Center.
No partner required; we rotate partners frequently. The dance
afterward always includes plenty of music for you to practice what you
got in the
class. In all our classes we teach humane,
egalitarian leading & following, lead-follow dancing
that's 100% voluntary for both partners, rather than shoving your
partner
around, however gently, or being shoved. Everybody dances;
nobody gets danced; partner dancing's more fun if no one's in charge.
Our music
We
have a great collection of music for dancing; just ask any of our
regular dancers. We're
always on the lookout for new music, searching for songs that move us,
music
that makes us want to dance, and when we find something promising, we
try it out to see how the dancers respond. Lots of times what seemed
like such a promising new song doesn't end up being a hit with the
dancers; we learn as we go.
We play the stuff that does turn out to be a hit with the dancers, and
so voilà, the
dancers
love our music!
Dancers at Waltz
etcetera (lots more pix here)
