We offer dances, classes, special workshops, and other events celebrating blues dance in the Washington, D.C. area.
Red Hot Blues & BBQ 2024
Coming May 24-27, 2024: we’re hosting the triumphant return of Red Hot Blues & BBQ, an annual weekend of picnics, bands, and late night blues dances around the DC area, featuring live music with local legends Carly Harvey and Stacy Brooks and headliner D.K. Harrell. Registration for the full weekend, live music only, or individal dances is now open!
Back Room Blues Weekly Dance (2024-04-18)
Back Room Blues, our weekly dance, happens Thursday nights at 9 pm in the Back Room at Glen Echo Park. Beginner lessons start at 8:15. Hope to dance with you there!
This Thursday’s Back Room Blues Dance features the following:
Beginner Lesson (8:15 pm – 9:00 pm, Back Room)
Instructors: Catherine Cole and David Stein
Catherine (she/her) found her way to partner dancing during her first week of college, becoming an active member of the William & Mary swing dance club. She attended out-of-town events, taught beginner lessons, and served as club marketing officer. After a hiatus from dancing during graduate school in which Catherine earned her MFA in Printmaking, she returned to swing dancing in the DC area and began attending and volunteering for blues in the Back Room in 2015. Catherine likes to find connections between her music and art background and dance, drawing from the elements and principles of art and music to find ways to improvise, play, and have conversations with her partners within the frame of the dance.
David (he/him) began DJing in 2010 by playing swing and blues music for dance events in the Cleveland area. David frequently DJed for the Back Room in the mid-2010s and has rejoined the roster for the post-COVID era. David’s sets highlight juke-joint and contemporary blues, along with traditional Chicago and acoustic blues.
DJed Dance (9:00 pm – 11:30 pm, Back Room)
DJs: Omar Myers (first set) and Kenneth Shipp (second set)
Omar has been collecting music for blues, swing, and soul since he was a lil dude. It wasn’t until after he started Lindy Hop did he decide to start getting people to dance. He began DJing in 2010. Since then, he has left-clicked tunes all over the world including for events such as Snowball, Lindy Focus, and Blues Muse. Currently, he is a regular DJ in the Atlanta area.
Kenneth Shipp hails from St. Louis, MO as an instructor who grew up dancing hip-hop and DJing breaking comps before jumping into blues. He has spent the past few years passionately studying the family of blues idioms, incorporating his nerdy personality along the way. Kenneth’s life experiences inform his dancing and teaching style so that students walk away with a better historical and contextual understanding. With every class and practice, he’ll encourage you to approach social dancing with coolness, relaxation, or in other words “Chill The F$%& Out.” When he’s not dancing, you can likely find him ranting about the latest blockbuster movie, game, or nerd convention, or desperately trying to dismantle toxic institutions.
Updated COVID-19 policy and survey
All attendees must wear a mask over the nose and mouth.
Attendees are no longer required to present either proof vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test.
See our COVID-19 Policy page for complete information.
Also, we have created a survey to ask our community about your feelings and risk tolerance for COVID as it relates to our dance events and policy.
Please help us understand your thoughts and feelings related to our COVID policies. The survey is completely anonymous, and every question is optional. We welcome any questions about the content of the survey or our intended use of the results.
Link to survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfRpTLc6WUSGsgH_OM4y0yUaS-gNKeij1ZFSunr9t5TuzmelQ/viewform