House dance is so widely practiced around the world and has
lots of followers and devotees… Funny, but this dance style is pretty new for
Georgian dancers and they only just beginning to discover how interesting this
style is. Fortunately, I took the opportunity to invite great house dancer from
London Aaron Shikamaru Charles (A.C) to teach at D-Star Dance School his class
and introduce Georgian dancers to House Dance.
I asked Aaron to tell us a little bit about House Dance
during his workshop at D-Star and here are some really good words from A.C.
“House dance was born in
the clubs of New York City around the mid 1980's. This is a social dance with
many different influences from hiphop, Lindy hop, tap, salsa, rocking, lofting
and that's just to name a few. Important reason house dance has so many influences
is because of the simple fact, when people (dancers & non-dancers) from
different backgrounds of life were in the clubs they spoke to one another
through exchanges of body language to communicate, which social dancing was and
still is all about. Just like every other style under the street dance umbrella
(house dance) has culture, this particular culture involves going to the house
(music) nights, sharing the dance with people, making circles (cyphers), having
fun and expressing yourself as a person while the music takes you to another
place within your body and soul. Some places where house music was played
during the 80's were, powerhouse, the loft, warehouse, paradise garage, the
music box, power plant and studio 54. Plus major contributors (which are now
known as pioneers) to the house dance scene in NYC include Ejoe Wilson, Brian
"Footwork" Green, Tony McGregor, Marjory Smarth, Caleaf Sellers,
"Brooklyn" Terry Wright, Shannon Mabra, Tony "Sekou"
Williams, Shannon Selby (aka Shan S), Voodoo Ray, Chris Sawyer, and many
others. I hope you enjoy the experience of the workshop and you can use this
dance to help you grow as a dancer as person in and help to share this dance so
it doesn't die out and continues to make the clubs full of love and happiness.
Before I forget I will be showing and teaching
you foundation covering the footwork, groove, and understanding the movements
of house dance so the level will be beginners so don't worry if you can't get a
certain movement, mistakes are the greatest learning skill in my classes. AC
konoha”
Thanks to Aaron for great workshop and his love to share knowledge and
energy :)
Special thanks to Oleg Skitishvili "Olegito Photo Studio" for the pics.