The Scene - a dancer's point of view | dolphin-dancing | Geoff LaPlace

A personal review of the SF Dance scene

Sun, 12 Jun 2011 13:50:26 -0700

As a barefoot freestyle ecstatic jam modern ballesque dancer, here are some random thoughts about:

Personal and Dance Space: Ecstatic Dance and Dance Jam are now so full you have a minimum of personal space. Boogie has the “BEST Movement Space per Dancer “. If you’re a dancer of motion, this is a pretty important factor.

Socializing: Dance Jam, now Dance Journey is the most social. Many people go there to meet other people. Ecstatic Dance is less social than Jam. But Barefoot Boogie is pretty much “just Dancers Dancing”. Again, Boogie has the “BEST Dancers who Dance ratio“. If you’re a dancer of motion, dance partners is also pretty important factor.

Dance as Temple, Body as Temple: However, the “Tribal Community” thrives at Ecstatic Dance Wednesdays and Mass Transit Dance on Sundays. Ecstatic Dance has the most honoring of this with three altar icons fifteen feet wide dealing with Tarot, Crystals etc. One of the best “reflection spaces” anywhere. Younger people at nights, on Sundays all ages, to include older people,.

Boom Boom: Out go the lights! Tough week for dancing

Fri, 27 May 2011 11:24:36 -0700

How do you get closure for losing three friends in five days? That was “the week that was” for sure.

Yes, this weekend in May, three of the five dance venues I went to had their final night. Two were six month old start-ups and the third was fifteen years. Similar to the demise on long running Dance Jam, the management of the third “simply aged out…”.

Meta-Dance San Francisco: A real “save the last dance for me story”. Success in the San Francisco scene is thwarted more by the lack of venues than it is by enthusiastic dancers. The Women’s building was just the right minimum size, good location, but on a Monday night. Still, it pulled in 100+ dancers every week while it struggled to create a brand. Dancers showed up to dance regardless of the Metta Dance music genre of the week being played.

Encouraging news: speaking as someone who has been to virtually every Metta Dance event, ironically the best night of all was the last night with Eric Monkhouse. The Metta Dance image was lowered and Eric turned it into a scene most like the “ecstatic barefoot boogie jam” genre from the East Bay.

Barefoot Dancing Club style | A new Dance genre comes to SF and Oakland?

Sat, 14 May 2011 11:35:44 -0700

Knowa KnowOne drove home the new identity for MettaDance on Monday night, and possibly helped create a new dance genre in San Francisco “Barefoot Club Dancing”.

Whilst purists will fight the word “Club” being in any dance genre involving “them”, this is the closest thing form coast to coast I have seen. In complete fairness of this review, his scene is waaaay more special and precious than any dance club I have been to. Why?

MettaDance has created a space combining holistic with yoga with ecstatic with music that actually has words in it and beats you would shake your booty to at any club. An other reason is that all dance scenes need a promoter with love of the same dance as the dancers, and the commitment to attract those dancers on a weekly basis and then deliver what they actually expect…. With the SF club dance scene quickly going away, a space where freestyle boogie funk world …and on… dancers can share a space is very special, and do it with the flair and edginess of the SF scene is a real treat.

Dancers want something more... more than a non-stop electronic beat!

Sun, 01 May 2011 13:54:43 -0700

If you love to dance and you prefer a "conscious" environment where you  can hear a juicy mix of music -- funk, African, salsa, soul, house,  tribal, electronica, blues and beyond -- then join us for an evening at Barefoot Boogie in Berkeley, Sundays, 7:30-11pm!

Wanna dance to something you recognize once in a while? Do you like a diversity of rhythms to inspire different kinds of movement? Then Barefoot Boogie's the place to be! No earplugs required.

Boogie is a casual, smoke-free, alcohol-free, scent-free freestyle dance and a creative, connected community space. The first hour is a luscious warm-up for relaxing, stretching, or doing contact improvisation. The address is 2525 8th Street at Dwight in Berkeley.

Real music for real people! keep on dancing - christina

Quotes from Barefoot Boogie:
"All the freaky people make the beauty of the world." -- Michael Franti
"Bring on the wonder, bring on the song. I pushed you down deep in my soul for too long." -- Susan Enan
"Get up offa that thing, and dance til you feel better." -- James Brown

Dance Studio Rotation in a changing SF scene

Sun, 17 Apr 2011 10:59:17 -0700

....Change is happening among the big players in the freestyle dance communities. While the venues may remain the same, the top management has changed in all four of the biggest venues. So what do these changes mean for us dancers? Simply put, there is now “More choice – more nights – and more dancers” than there were before. Here’s a brief rundown,

•Ecstatic Dance: (Sundays and Wednesdays) the mother ship of large space and national acts, has broken into three distinct musical pieces and had a management change. Now Playing: Sunday “morning day dancing”, Wednesday “Ecstatic Dancing”, and Thursday “Live Music”. Each now has its own music, dance styles, personal space, and social scenes.

•Dance Jam now Dance Journey: (Friday nights) This venue and management goes back to the “original Dance Jam mother ship from the 80’s in Boston”. It grew by attracting both the Freestyle Dance community and the Contact Improv community. Today it is now “Dance Journey” with one large room, extended hours, two DJ’s, new music schedule, and a “hard” tempo flip from fast to slow at 10:30 PM. The new management has made sure to keep this night the #1 venue in socializing among dancers.