The Dance Collaborative

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!!!! Hope everyone has stayed warm and dry over the last few days. It looks like we’ll be drying out throughout the day tomorrow and will head into Valentine’s Day evening without any weather concerns. Temperatures should be pretty mild, but we’ll be heating things up on the dance floor, as usual!!!

This week we are happy to have a a World Renowned guest instructor come add to our fun. The wonderful and talented Johanna Barnes has been dancing for close to 15 years and has been instructing for nearly 10 of those years. She began competing in Line and Lead-Follow partner dancing in 1999. In 2007 Johanna Barnes took home two World Titles at the United Country Western Dance Council’s (UCWDC) World Championships XV, including a first place finish in the choreography competition for her brilliant and ever popular dance, Geek in the Pink.

Johanna is well-known throughout the international dance community. She can be found teaching and competing in dance events around the country and is a respected competitor at UCWDC, World Swing Dance Council, and other independently sanctioned events. For many years, she competed Pro/Am with her coach, 4-Time US Open Swing Dance Champion Robert Royston. Recently, Johanna gave up her amateur status in order to extend her reach when sharing her love for dance, in particular, West Coast Swing. You can find out more about Johanna on her website, http://www.DanceWhatYouFeel.com. Of course, we recommend you come out and meet her for yourself this Thursday!! As with all of our guest instructors, Johanna is sure to share something for everyone. Her love and passion for dancing is obvious in every class.

Hope to see everyone on Thursday. Until then, stay dry!!!

• Next Dance - Thursday, February 7, 2008

Just thought I’d give a shout out to the New England Patriots, the organization that allowed me to enjoy the biggest upset in the history of professional sports!!! “Thank You!” to both the Patriots and Giants for an exciting Super Bowl!!! We haven’t had a game like that in years!!! I’m a play-off fan, if there ever was one, so when it gets to being Super Bowl time I’m always hoping for a good game!!! We got a Super Bowl this year, we did indeed!!!

Anyway, I hope everyone had fun watching the game last night, I sure did. Even still, nothing compares to the fun we have on Thursday nights! I hope you’ll agree! We’d like to Thank our new friend Carole Zeneski for her fun teach last week, Sex on the Beach. The Party favors were great and I’m sure the winners enjoyed getting leied! Thanks so much, Carol, for your generosity, enthusiasm, and support!!!

Also, last week Todd Lescarbeau, introduced some of this latest choreography with a his teach, “Color My World”, a beautiful nightclub two-step. If you missed it, I’m sure Todd will be reviewing the dance soon.

Of course, we’re planning on doing it all over again this week. Before then, we’d like to remind everyone that your comments and suggestions are always welcome. The Dance Collaborative was founded “By Dancers, For Dancers” and so we’ve been working hard to provide a quality and reliable dance experience for all who attend.

In doing so, The Dance Collaborative has made an effort to introduce some new and exciting dances that we think everyone will be able to enjoy or, at least, gain something from. Another important goal of The Dance Collaborative is to promote dancing throughout the region. Here in the Northeast, we are so fortunate to have such a great concentration of places to dance. We will continue to provide exposure for other venues, events, instructors, and choreographers, not only here in the Northeast, but Worldwide.

Finally, the most important goal for The Dance Collaborative is to keep everyone dancing and having fun as we’ve come to enjoy it over the years. In providing a quality and reliable dance experience for all we hope to accomplish our goal of helping to “Secure, Promote, and Enhance the Community of Dance”, but not by taking away from all that you’ve come to enjoy and expect over the years. We’ll look forward to seeing you on Thursday!!