The Dance Collaborative

• Next Dance - Thursday, March 20, 2008

Hello Dancers! Thanks to everyone who came out last week. We had a full-house, that’s for sure! Special thanks to Nancy Rule for her wonderful teach, Ooh Poo Pah Doo. Nancy is no stranger to local dancing or The Dance Collaborative, so we’ll have the pleasure of learning from her again real soon! Until then, you can find Nancy teaching and sharing her love for dance through The Sweetheart Dancers of Sunderland, MA. Nancy holds lessons every Tuesday night. For more info, contact Nancy directly via e-mail, sweetheartdancers@comcast.net.

This week should be equally as exciting! The Dance Collaborative is proud to host the legendary Forty Arroyo. Folks, you don’t want to miss the opportunity to learn from one of the area’s best. You see, Forty has been dancing since she can remember. She was raised in a predominantly Afro-American and Hispanic community, in New York City, where she developed her love for the Afro-Cuban rhythms that influence her dance style to this day. Her passion for dance is like no other, “When I dance, even my eyelashes move!”. She says, “It’s all about the dance.” For many years and before it was known as “salsa” (a term coined by the late and great Queen of Latin Soul - Celia Cruz), Forty gave private and group mambo lessons in New York City. She also taught hustle and popular freestyle.

She was introduced to Line Dance in 1991 and has been teaching it since 1994. In New York she taught at various venues and held weekly/monthly classes and workshops. Forty has used her love of dance to raise monies for great causes; The American Heart Association, The American Cancer Society, The Arthritis & Lupus Fondations, Make A Wish, The Psoriasis Foundation, D.A.R.E., The Hitchcock FREE Academy, and Southbridge Catholic Charities. In New York she donated over $42,000 to Good Samartian Hospital’s Cardiac, Home Care and Emergency departments – with money raised via line dancing.

It was only two months after moving to New England to be closer to her aging Mother when Forty began holding weekly classes at The Hayloft Barn in Sturbridge, MA and The Sturbridge Senior Center along with local and regional events and venues like The Tim Gillis Dance Weekend (NY), The Cowboy Junction/Dance Ranch (Worcester, MA), The Boston Dance Revolution , The Line Dance Showdown (MA), The Northeast Dance Jam (NH), The Mishnock Barn (RI), and the WOW Line Dance Weekend (NJ).

During 2004-2005, she began hosting two special annual events at the Hayloft Barn. The Northeast Ladies Of Line For Arthritis, dedicated to raising money to benefit the Arthritis Foundation while acknowledging female instructors from throughout the northeast who promote dancing in their communities. She also hosts September Fun with Barry and DariAnne Amato & Wildman Louie St. George. She ocassionally invites local instructors to share their dance skills and choreography at special workshops - among them in passed years: Johanna Barnes, Todd Lescarbeau, Robert DeLong, Sarah Preston, Charleen Weincek, Jan Barrus, Lynne Flanders and more.

She enjoys teaching all levels of line dance as well as choreography; At the 2006 Line Dance Showdown (her first and only competition at a major weekend), she won 1st and 3rd place honors in ABC division with “Syncopated Kiss” and “Ain’t Nothin’ U Can Do” respectively, and 1st place honors in Country Division with “Polkaplay”!

Forty is very excited about the success of The Dance Collaborative – it’s initiative, vision and direction. She is happy knowing there is another “all-inclusive” place to dance. She is very happy to have been invited to teach and looks forward to becoming a part of The Dance Collaborative Family. To learn more about Forty, please visit http://www.FortyArroyo.com.

We hope to see you this Thursday night for your usual dose of great mid-week dancing and to meet the one and the only, Forty Arroyo. She would like to remind everyone, “It doesn’t matter where you dance, just as long as you dance!”

Greetings Dancers!!! Thursday is upon us once again and we are looking forward to another great night of dancing. Sorry it’s been so long between updates. Life is too busy!  Tonight we have a special instructor. She’s hardly a “guest instructor” but, rather, someone we’ve all enjoyed dancing alongside over the years. Last week Nancy Rule volunteered to teach a very fun, beginner level line dance called Ooh Poo Pah Doo! The dance was choreographed by Violet Ray of Hawaii to the song of the same title by American Blues artist Taj Mahal. If you know Nancy, then I’m sure you’re delighted to hear that she is teaching. If you don’t yet know Nancy, come on out, show your support, and make a new friend!

Not to take away from the dancing, but in case you’re not familiar with Taj Mahal, he is a singer, multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, and two-time Grammy-winner who grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts. Currently, there is an exhibit on display at the Springfield Museums’ Connecticut Valley Historical Museum titled, Blues in Our Blood: The Artistic Evolution of Taj Mahal and Carole Fredericks. Click here for more info!

So, enough with the History lesson already…We hope you’ll come out tonight for a DANCE lesson. We would like to thank Nancy in advance for contributing to the tradition being created by The Dance Collaborative. We’d also like to send out a BIG Thanks to everyone for your support, feedback, and attendance over the last few months. We’ll see you tonight!

 The Dance Collaborative, “By Dancers, For Dancers!”