One Special Day - Two Special Events! English Country Dance with Bruce Hamilton Saturday, January 14, 2012 First United Methodist Church 625 Hamilton Avenue, Palo Alto
ECD Style Workshop 2:00p - 5:00p Only $12 for the afternoon	Special Evening Dance 7:30p - 10:30p Only $15 for the evening event
Get both for only $20 (save $7 - such a deal!)

BACDS and the Peninsula ECD Series present a unique opportunity to spend an entire day with local treasure Bruce Hamilton.

About the workshop

This workshop helps English Country dancers to improve their dancing and take it to the next level, showing you how to feel musical phrases, move with the flow, connect with your fellow dancers, and otherwise get the most out of ECD and enjoy it more than ever.  This isn't just a pleasant afternoon of dancing.  This is for folks who are willing to work.

We'll look at the basics and the not-so-basics: how to moving with ease and lightness, energy and elegance at the same time.  All three people in a hey-for-three starting at the same time.  A satisfying connection in turns (and other figures).  An introduction to the nonverbal communication that goes on between experienced dancers all over the room, that you may not have been part of before.  How to "help" others helpfully.  How to recover smoothly from your own mistakes.  Phrasing (everybody knows to finish the figure when the musical phrase ends, but when is that, exactly?)  How to do a 4-bar circular hey in 4 bars.  How to bring a smile to your neighbor in "gate" turns.  Et cetera. We won't cover all that, but that will be the flavor of the workshop.

All the points will be illustrated with dances, but the dances will all be simple or well-known, so you can focus on the point without having to think of what comes next. As Bruce says, "For people who've danced with me for years this will be familiar, but there will be more depth and focus than usual, and it's always good stuff to revisit."  Music is provided by Bill Jensen and Stanley Kramer.

About the evening

Looking for a fabulous night of incredible music and wonderful dancing?  Well, step right up and come to the evening event!  Come see and hear some of the best the Bay Area has to offer!

Bruce calls with a stellar band (Bill Jensen, Jim Oakden, Michelle Levy) for an all-comers night of English Country Dance.  Whether you are riding high off the afternoon workshop, or just want to enjoy some of the best teaching, music, and dancing in town, this is definitely the night you want to be on the dance floor!  Watch for more details!

NOTE: the evening is open to all - you don't have to attend the workshop to attend the evening.  Bring your friends, new or experienced!

About the instructor

Bruce Hamilton is a thoughtful and energetic teacher of English and Scottish country dancing.   Bruce began English Country dancing in 1967, at college, immediately fell in love with it, and subsequently started teaching and calling in 1971.  He co-founded the San Diego center of the Country Dance and Song Society (CDSS), and is current president of the CDSS Governing Board.  Bruce started what is now the BACDS Peninsula English dance series, was an early co-foreman of Berkeley Morris, started the Deer Creek Morris Men, and has been a frequent artistic contributor of The California Revels.

Bruce has taught English and Scottish country dancing in the San Francisco Bay Area for many years. He has become one of the country's most popular English dance leaders, with invitations to many festivals and summer dance camps each year. Lately he's been focusing on non-choreographic elements of English Country Dance: how to move well, how to be musical, how to recover from slips, how to be a good partner, body mechanics, and the social and mental aspects.

Bruce says he especially "loves doing workshops because people are eager to explore, both in old and new territory." Bruce began training dance teachers in the late 1980s and his dance leader workshops are enthusiastically attended all over North America. We are fortunate to have Bruce doing a style workshop; dancers are sure to find themselves in some new and fruitful territory.