Beginner (Level 2): Hustle
Intermediate (Level 3): Foxtrot

Level 1: Swing and Foxtrot
Level 2: Hustle
Level 3: Foxtrot
Level 4: Rumba
Level 5: Cha Cha

Hey dancers!  I have good news!  After announcing to the class last week that we were going to change to Wednesday nights, we saw that most people didn't react well to that, so we went back to the drawing board.  By a stroke of luck, I found a phone number of a place I hadn't checked yet and called them up.  As it turned out, they were available on Thursday nights!  Our Thursday night classes will now take place in the gymnasium at the Hebrew High School in West Hartford!  Yay!

Here's the address:
300 Bloomfield Ave.
West Hartford, CT

The school is located just past the University Of Hartford on the right.  It's approximately 15 minutes away from our studio.  The gym doesn't have a wooden floor, but the floor they currently have is slippery enough to make it work.  This will at the very least be a temporary solution, but depending on how it works out, it might become something a little more permanent.

Spread the word! Have a great day!
-Lisa

Hey Dancers!  You're probably looking at this post because you've heard our announcements all week long and you want a little more information...

Well, here's the short version we've been telling everyone all week: our current lease is ending on June 30, and Michele has chosen not to renew.  We are instead moving the studio to a space Nate and I have leased in the brick building next door (56 Arbor st).  Since the new space is going to be a bit too small for our monthly dance socials, we're relocating these events to a dance studio we're renting from on New Park Ave (5 minutes away).   Finally, the Thursday classes will be relocated to the Hebrew High School on Bloomfield Ave in West Hartford (15 minutes away).

Hey dancers!
As you've probably noticed by this point, the website is currently undergoing some major structural and cosmetic changes.  Recently, Michele decided to that our two websites should merge, something I agreed with wholeheartedly.  Mom has been meaning to make some changes to the website for some time now, but since I was already willing to do just that with my own site, she decided to let me do all the work and become the site manager from now on.  Fine with me!

Eventually, this site will become hartfordballroom.com and you won't have to refer to two sites anymore.  But there's a lot of work to be done!  You've probably noticed that a lot of the links aren't working, and that some pages are annoyingly blank.  I'm a beginner at web design, and I'm learning as I go, so it's going to take a while before everything is completely up and running.  I'm spending a lot of my free time on this, however, so it should be all ready to go by the end of June.  

Thanks everyone for being so patient!
-Lisa Spiro

I often get these two questions when I teach new students:
1) What kind of shoes should I wear?
and
2) Should I get special dance shoes?

Dancing, like any other physical activity, requires certain equipment to keep you comfortable for extended periods of time.  With the clothing, there's nothing to worry about: you simply wear something practical that you easily move around in, be it casual or fancy.

But when it comes to shoes, that's a completely different story.

Now, I know that I'm a little biased when it comes to this topic, and it's not just because I'm a dance teacher.  Ballroom dancing has been a huge part of my life, ever since I was 5 years old, and mainly it's because of my mom, Michele Evans.  She's been a ballroom dance teacher for over 30 years.  She's also a former Blackpool Dance Champion.  Thanks to her efforts, I grew up learning the various forms of ballroom dancing.  I did performances, I got my friends to do it, I even wrote a college paper on it for my cultural anthropology class.  This activity is woven into my life's history, including my love life.  If it weren't for my mother's dance classes, I never would have met my husband.

In this day and age, ballroom dancing is slowly dying.  It will never be eradicated, in my opinion, but clearly it has lost a lot of its popularity as a social activity.  Back in the good old days, dancing was naturally part of every party or celebration.  Nowadays, you'll be lucky to find a party with a decent dance floor.  Music is now just background noise, and no longer an inspiration for your best dance moves.  The people of my own generation don't even move their feet when they dance, but jiggle to the tunes with a drink in their hands.  In fact, most people refuse to even venture onto the dance floor until they've consumed a few alcoholic beverages.  The majority of my friends refuse to learn ballroom because they either feel embarrassed or clumsy; the same goes for just about everyone else who won't even try it.