Just Dance!

Just Dance! - Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

This is an archive site – none of this is current as of 2013-06-11.

Contact Ian! Allen www.idallen.com about current dance events in Ottawa.

Closed: Previous Index

This is an archive site – none of this is current as of 2013-06-11. Here is a link to an old Just Dance! index page. Contact Ian! Allen www.idallen.com about current dance events in Ottawa.

Closed: Ottawa Dance Network

This is an archive site – none of this is current as of 2013-06-11. Ottawa's Dance Network was a not-for-profit, membership-based, voluntary association dedicated to the development of a community of independent dance artists in Canada's National Capital Region.

Dance New England (USA)

Dance New England is an association of collectively- and cooperatively-run free-style dances in New England, U.S.A.  The spiritual parents to Just Dance!, this group of people puts on a truly wonderful summer dance camp at the end of August each year.

Gotta Dance!

California (USA)

Read about California's barefoot boogies here.

Adapted from a 1995 article published in Tone Magazine by Wendy Philpott:

It began the fall of 1991. From 6 months to 60 years, they came. Dressed free and colourful, they came. They removed their shoes before a large pine-lined room, and, with very little talk, they communicated fully their prime raison d'etre: to Just Dance!

In these days of talks about the importance of ritual, the need for community, breakdown in communications between various groups, and a longing for spirit, these regular gatherings address such problems at their primal roots: in dance and music.

Based on the model of dance co-operatives started in New England in the late 1970's, Just Dance! carries on the community spirit in Ottawa.

Smoke free and alcohol free, the Just Dance! space is just for dancing. Compact Disc and Taped music is provided by the dancers themselves. Drums, a fiddle and other instruments or song have also been enjoyed. No experience necessary. Many find that the presence of children in the first half helps to break down adult inhibitions, and emphasize that community feeling. A short break at half-time allows all to make any dance-related announcements, and to share some group dance, if interested. The last hour or so tends to develop a creativity unique to each different night. Then, that cooperative spirit carries into a rapid clean-up enjoyed by all who survived to the end!

Some Just Dancers have danced the spirit in other co-ops in New York, San Francisco, Vermont, Main, Colorado, and beyond. They have also supported the spirit in town with the Sunday drummers in the park, Sunday contact improvisation dance at Arts Court, certain dance rituals, the occasional dance performance you may see around town, and ...???

As long as the just dance spirit continues, there will be a Just Dance! every first and third Saturday at the Ottawa Japan Karate Studio, 475 Cambridge Street South.

It's a simple ritual, to be experienced freely, to be moved by a spirit connecting us all.

 
WebMaster: Ian! D. Allen idallen@idallen.ca  Updated: 2013-06-11