It’s Time for Day of Dance 2024!
As part of Bay Area Dance Week, join Big Moves in the studio AND on Zoom in celebrating all bodies with an afternoon of FREE beginner-friendly classes with the most joyful and fat-positive instructors on the block. We’re serving up Gather Round: A Full Body Warm-Up, Belly Dance, Soul Line Dance, Jazz, Access Centered Afro Beats, and Taking Space!
Day of Dance is free but pre-registration is required! Sign up at this link: https://forms.gle/9Bj2NFYzV9ZJQsF17
*** Well-fitting N95/KN95/KF94 masks required for Day of Dance participants and teachers AT ALL TIMES in the building. Water and snack breaks will be outside. ***
Sunday May 5th, 2024 – All times are PDT
11:45am: Check-in begins
12:00 -12:40 Welcome and Gather Round: A Full Body Warm-Up with Matilda St. John- Get ready for your day of fat positive fun and community with this dynamic warm up. We’ll shake off our inhibitions in an easy-to-follow dance party designed to get you limber and confident for the day!
12:50 -1:40 Access Centered Afro Beats with TaMeicka “Ifasina” Clear – This is an access centered cultural dance and embodiment practice that supports your well being through joyful movement! Seated and standing variations of Afro Beat and other Black/Pan African dances and movement are used to support dancers with life and body concepts intended to nourish the soul.
1:50 – 2:40 Jazz Dance with Jessica Judd - Get those jazz hands ready! We’ll be warming up with some jazz dance basics and then we will learn a short and fun jazz dance combination where you will get to show off your moves, and attitude, in style!
2:50 – 3:40 Shimmy with Tammy: Belly Dance to Egypt’s shaabi music with Tammy Johnson – Wake up! Wake up! Sunday we will be moving to Egypt’s shaabi music, specifically to Nancy Ajam’s Sah Sah, meaning Wake up! Shaabi means ‘of the people.’ Shaabi is a genre that is considered popular music. We’ll have fun learning about the music, the people, the culture and some great moves!
3:55 – 4:45 Soul Line Dance with Michele Germany - Come join Michele’s Soul Line Dance Class at Day Of Dance. All Levels: Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced. No need to be shy, take your Lindy, Jazz Box and Drunken Sailor to another level!!!! Learn current, vintage and most popular, Party, Wedding and Club Line Dances. You don’t want to miss this class!
5:00 – 5:50 Taking Space with Juicy D. Light- One of the first things we, as fat people, need to do is be comfortable taking up the space we take. we should not try to shrink down for anyone or any reason. Whether it’s physically, intellectually, vocally etc, we should never be less of who we are. This class is designed to help us begin being more comfortable in our skin, living fully and filling the space we fill. There will be a few exercises to help us breathe into this space. Participation will be required to stay in the room.
5:50 – 6:00pm: Wrap up and mini-performance by emFATic DANCE!
Accessibility notes: All classes will be offered in person and on Zoom. There are no stairs to get into The Beat and none inside the studio. The dance studio, lobby, and bathrooms are all wheelchair accessible. There is free street parking in front of the studio. There will be dancers demonstrating seated adaptations for all movement taught throughout the day. In order to make this event accessible to as many people as possible, we are requesting a low-scent environment–please refrain from using scented body, hair, or laundry products prior to attending. Please note that we are one group of many who rents this studio and it is part of a shared office building with shared bathrooms; we are unfortunately unable to control the type of soap in the bathrooms and cleaning products used in the space. Please also note that due to the shared building and studio there may be individuals in the building without masks, though we are requiring N95/KN95/KF94 masks for all Day of Dance participants and teachers. Follow us on Instagram @bigmoves_bayarea and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/BigMovesBayArea .