NEW: Bal Play SLIDES
Welcome to BAL PLAY — 6 lessons designed for Balboa dancers to get better at both technique and improvisation, all through the act of play. (You don’t have to do all the lessons in a specific order, you can mix and match as desired.) SPECIAL SALE!! (Ends May 1!) Want more info on everything? Just scroll below the videos for more.
LESSONS
Movement and Rhythm. (Buying one of these lessons buys both, and the same password will get you into both lessons (where you can stream or download them).
MOVEMENT. Secrets and in-depth ideals to help foster healthy and attractive looking movement in Bal, from the physics and anatomy of stepping to residual movement.
RHYTHM. The fundamentals of swing rhythm and how our movement relates to it, especially as Bal dancers, from our relation the the swung beat to the secrets of dancing “in the pocket.” Slows, Quicks, Ba-Dums, Triples, Skipping, and three different looks at Emphasis. Once again, all systematically broken down into small pieces for ultimate play.
PUNCTUATION. Learn a core concept of Bal movement, and how improvisation in Bal can all be pulled from that concept — then we do it through Tapping, Knees, Hitching, Heels, Rolling, Waggling, Hopping, and the philosophy of Bal’s Upper Body Movement. SPECIAL SALE PRICE (ends March 31)!
KICKS. Learn how to play with one of the most fundamental expressions in all swing dance. Not only do we cover the fundamentals of great kicking technique, we also cover sweep kicks, swoop kicks, buffaloes, Kickity-kickities, kick-ball-changes, switch-ball-changes, cow-tailing (swirling), knee kicks and flicks.
TURNS. We lay the foundation for playing in turns and spins. We breakdown the physics and anatomy of turning and cover push turning, torque turning, all fundamental spins, arm momentum, knee momentum, leg momentum, posture play, hopping, improvisation drills and dizziness remedies.
SLIDES. In the sixth and seventh videos of Bal Play, we cover the basics of all slides, from non-weighted to weighted to supported slides. We cover how to practice slides and then go into (Part 1): Drag Slides, Pull-Through Slides, V-Slides, Diagonal Vs, Ski Slides, Circle Slides, and the timing of slides, and (Part 2):, Side slides, Low-Down Slides, Cross- Slides, Scootch Slides, Running Slides, Faux Slides, Board Slides and the art of emotionally conveying a slide. One ticket buys both. (Buying one of these lessons buys both, and the same password will get you into both lessons, where you can stream or download them.)
What is BAL PLAY?
Goals:
1. Enjoy practicing alone as much as possible.
2. Focus on true improvisation and solo self-expression in Bal.
How does it work?
6 lessons, each covering a major piece of dancing we can play with: Movement, Rhythm, Punctuation, Kicks, Turns, Slides. Each lesson has many sections, covering a crap ton of ideas to play with, encouraging dancers to grow their own style through their own play. (For both Bal Leaders and Followers.) You don’t have to do the lessons in any specific order, you can just mix or match. And the program is designed for you to go through them again after you’re done the first time.
Think of it as a P-90X for individual Balboa improvisation. (Er, yeah, niche.)
When? All lessons are available now above and on individual pages in the website menu. (We also have a handy playlist below). Lessons can either be streamed or downloaded (there’s a little downward arrow on the video bar for downloading).
Where? RIGHT HERE! Lessons will appear at the top as they are added.
How Much? Each lesson is around an hour of solid, in-depth material. Slides lessons are even more, the equivalent of hard-core DVDs. For a SPECIAL INTRRODUCTORY SALE, we’re going to do the first two lessons in one package for $40. (The price will go up after two weeks.) We’re also doing a sale on ALL 6 LESSONS! The whole bundle for these first two weeks will be $120 (!!!). (This is, quite honestly, a huge discount. That’s the equivalent of 7 DVDs worth of material.)
DO YOU HAVE SOME KIND OF SNAZZY TRAILER I COULD WATCH? We do!