Zouk at the Park - HALLOWEEN EDITION!

Live (in-person!) dance classes plus a Halloween and birthday celebration. Whether Halloween is your favorite holiday or one you avoid, we'll have fun together dancing outdoors. We'll stick to solo dancing to follow public health guidelines. The cold approaches and we've got to take advantage of this opportunity to be outside with our friends and instructors. Even if it's a bit cold on Saturday, the space has overhead heaters so we'll be toasty. We have *five* different classes with *three* different instructors, plus a costume contest and a birthday celebration for Jamiel. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- SCHEDULE Class 1: Foundations for Zouk Body Movement w/ Alisson 1-1:50pm Is Body Movement your jam? or your achilles heel? Either way, in this class we’ll take it slow and dive in deep. As we teach you some drills to unlock and improve your body movement, we will also go around to help and provide feedback, making sure everyone is flowing. We’ll include isolations, undulations and other foundation body movements. New to zouk? No problems, this class doesn’t have prerequisites, as long as you are ready to work hard! Class 2: Foundations for Zouk Timing and Footwork w/ Alisson 2-2:50pm Timing or Rhythm? This is exactly why we need this class. In partner dancing, good timing and rhythm are two extremely important skills. In fact, a lot of connection issues come from lack of timing or rhythm. We will dive into this topic with some theory/practice exercises that you can learn on the spot and take away to share and practice for years. As long as you have some partner dancing or solo dancing experience, this class should be suitable for you. Costume Contest & Birthday Celebration for Jamiel 3-3:30pm Costumes are optional for this Halloween Event, but we’ll have a contest for those who come dressed up. The winner will get free admission to a future Zouk at the Park event. Also, Halloween is Jamiel Roberson’s birthday! Jamiel was a District Zouk instructor for several years, and we want to take this opportunity to celebrate him. Class 3: Foundations for Zouk Turns w/ Alisson 3:30-4:20pm Are we dizzy yet? After working on our Body Movement, Timing and Rhythm, it’s now the time to fix our turns. In Brazilian Zouk we do a lot of them… and with many different axes. No matter what turns we do in dance, they all come from a similar foundation. We will work on the body alignment for a better axis, clean up the footwork for a good base, and practice some effective drills for better slow and fast turns without getting dizzy and losing yourself. This class is suitable for anyone who has just started or has been doing partner/solo dancing for a while. Class 4: Followers Flow & Arms w/ Vanessa 4:30-5:20pm How do we find flow in our solo or partner dancing? Plus what do we do with our arms? Vanessa will build on the element of turns with fun, styling, and sass. Both leads and follows are welcome and encouraged to dive in and sauce up your lateral, bonus and fundamentals with this fast moving fun. Class 5: Michael Jackson’s Thriller Choreography w/ Terry 5:30-7pm Halloween is the perfect time to break out your inner Michael Jackson. In this class you can learn the original Thriller choreography from an experienced instructor. He’ll teach it and we’ll dance it together, and then you can show off for your friends and for future Halloween parties. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- HOW WILL IT WORK? -All dancing will be solo, and we'll be practicing social distancing -Bring your own mask - we'll ask you to wear it during the class -Bring your own water -Limited capacity -Pre-registration required -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- COST $15 for each zouk class $27 for a pair of zouk classes (1 & 2 or 3 & 4) $10 for the Thriller choreography class Tickets at: https://dzpark.eventbrite.com -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- LOCATION Glen Echo Park - Bumper Car Pavilion 7300 MacArthur Blvd. Glen Echo, MD 20812 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ABOUT THE INSTRUCTORS Alisson Sandi began his dance career at the age of 15 in São Paulo, Brazil, where he was born. Over the years he trained in Brazilian, Latin and International Ballroom dancing with Jaime Arôxa, Renata Peçanha, Alex de Carvalho, Rodrigo Delano, and others. In 2007, he joined the Juan Rando Dance Academy (JRDA) in Perth, Australia, and stayed in Australia through 2019 teaching in multiple cities and around the world. Alisson has held performances and workshops in over 41 countries, and holds titles including 2x Pro World Champion, 3x Australian Pro Champion, and Winner/Finalist of various BZDC All Stars/Champions Jack and Jill Comps. He is one of the the founders and the first choreographers of the International Zouk Flash Mob. He has also been an official judge for the Brazilian Zouk Dance Council since its first competition event. Alisson has a passion for teaching and is known for his attention to detail and effective instruction in dance techniques. Recently Alisson completed the 50-hour lambada certification course with Master Braz, and is looking forward to practicing and teaching more lambada and sharing it with the dancers and community here and in Washington, DC. Vanessa Scott found zouk in New Zealand and was drawn to its music, fluidity and circular movement. When she lived in the midwest US, she persuaded a ballroom teacher to split the cost of some instructional DVDs and learn Zouk from scratch together. In 2016, Vanessa moved to the DMV area and has been zouking as much as possible ever since. She joined the District Zouk dance team and performed with them for three years, and began teaching with District Zouk at the end of 2016. In 2017, she went to the first ever 30-day Rio Zouk Immersion Course in Brazil where she studied with top Brazilian instructors Jaime Aroxa, Renata Pecanha, Brenda Carvalho and Anderson Mendes da Rocha. Working closely with them in such an intimate setting allowed her to see the depth and different philosophies of this dance. She continued learning from some of the top international instructors, including a 40-hour one-on-one training with Xandy Liberato in Spain and a 19 hour training with William and Paloma in Singapore. In 2018, she formed her own Ladies Performance Team with District Zouk and she continued as the director and sometimes as the choreographer. In summer 2019, the District Zouk Ladies team won first place at the National Team Zouk N Play Competition under Vanessa’s direction. Vanessa has been teaching, traveling the world, and soaking up different flavors of Zouk, and is excited to share her passion and knowledge with others. Terry Chasteen was born and raised in Northern Ohio and developed a passion very early for both music and dance as well as animals of all kinds. In his first life in a rural farm community of Northern Ohio, the dancing was mostly square dancing and Two Stepping at local events and horse shows, which he attended regularly. Terry earned a Bachelor of Science in Animal Science with a minor in business administration at Ohio State University in 1974. OSU is where he took his first Ballroom class at the Student Union in 1969. In '74 he enrolled in a 10-day teacher training course at the Fred Astaire Dance studio of Columbus, Ohio just to get "free dance lessons" and having no intention whatsoever of teaching after the two week crash course was completed. That was 4 decades ago and he has been teaching as an independent instructor and continuing to study nearly every form of social and competitive dance ever since. Terry has trained with many of the best coaches in the world, and continues to train, including with mentor of over 17 years, world renowned DanceSport coach and adjudicator, Ron Bennett. He continues to train weekly in nearly every style of social Ballroom, Latin, Swing and more to bring the best to his students of all levels. Terry is one of the managers and primary instructors at DanceSport Dupont Circle, teaching ballroom, swing, line dancing and wedding dance, among other styles.