Just Dance! - Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
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An open, free-style barefoot boogie, our
theme is community expressed through dance. We meet every First
and Third Saturday from 7:30pm to
midnight, except for a two-month July-August summer recess.
Just Dance! is a smoke-free, alcohol-free, shoe-free dance and movement environment. Families with children of all ages are very welcome! Look below for details and a schedule of this year's dance times. Updated: Saturday September 23, 2000 02:19 |
Just Dance! happens at 7:30pm every 1st and 3rd Saturday
| First Saturday: 7:30pm to midnight |
April 1 7:30pm |
May 6 7:30pm |
June 3 7:30pm |
Summer Recess July - August
|
| Third Saturday: 7:30pm to midnight |
April 15 7:30pm |
May 20 7:30pm |
June 17 7:30pm |
Dancing resumes in September. |
| Fifth Saturday: Community Pot Luck Lunch |
April 29 Just Eat! Pot Luck Lunch (Click for details!) |
Communty pot-luck lunches every fifth Saturday in a month | ||
| First and Third Saturday every month |
Year 2000 Spring Dances Open Dance 7:30pm-Midnight |
Side Door Ottawa-Japan Karate Studio 375 Cambridge St. South |
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Just Dance! comes together every other Saturday from 7:30PM to midnight (or so) at the Ottawa Japan Karate Association, 475 Cambridge Street South in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Enter through the side door and please remove your shoes. To pay, look for the person carrying the Just Dance! purse.
Bring some of your favourite dance music on CD or cassette tape.
In the middle of the dance, we have a brief community circle to exchange names and dance-related event information.
Just Dance! is a community of volunteers. Please contribute your time to help set up the space and pack it away at the end of the night.
Welcome!
Just Dance! Location:
Side Door
Ottawa Japan Karate Studio
475 Cambridge Street South
Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA
Cambridge Street South runs parallel to and west of Bronson, south of Highway 417 (the Queensway) and north of Carling Avenue. Street parking is available in the neighbourhood.
Cost:
Children $1
Adults $4
Families $10
Contact:
Jorge Deligiannis
au335@freenet.carleton.ca
(819) 827-6639
Organizing, Meeting, Eating, etc.
Just Eat! - a Just Dance! community Pot Luck: Louis Radakir is hosting a Just Dance! community Pot Luck lunch at 11:00am on Saturday, April 29.
11am Saturday, April 29: Just Eat!
c/o Louis Radakir (louisr@ccai.com), Apartment 414
150 Argyle (at Metcalfe, just south of the Museum of Nature)
All Just Dance! people are invited.In March during our community circle, and in April, May, June, and August during meetings combined with a pot luck lunch, members of our dance community discussed how to further promote the existence and sustenance of Just Dance! More gatherings are planned. Come to the gatherings, or watch this space for minutes and notes.
Just Dance! Newsletter
Jon Peirce (E-Mail: peirce@admin.uottawa.ca) is editing a simple monthly Just Dance! newsletter listing items of interest to the local dance community. To contribute items, send him email or call (613) 745-4970 (up to 10:30pm at night). If he is not home, please leave him a detailed message and your phone number.
Volunteers
This list is always being updated. Your name could go here!
 | Workshop Coordinators: Susan and Jan (jet@ncf.ca) |
| Newsletter: Jon Peirce (peirce@admin.uottawa.ca) |
| Banking and rental payments: Jorge Deligiannis (au335@ncf.ca) |
| Open, set up equipment: Ian! Allen, Louis Radakir (louisr@ccai.com) |
| Put away equipment, lock up: Ian! Allen (idallen@idallen.ca) |
| Meeting Minutes and Pot Luck Notes: Andy |
| Collect money: Liza, Jan |
| Supplies: Jon Peirce |
| Posters: Andy, Jon and Charlotte |
| Door greeter: Susan Alexander, Jan |
| Safety OmbudsDancers: Jorge, Susan, Phoenix, Ananda, Jan ... |
| DJs: Louis, Jorge, Ian, Susan, etc. |
| Phone Tree: Louis |
| WebMaster and Keeper of the Contact List: Ian! Allen |
Ottawa Dance Network
Ottawa's Dance Network is 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.
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.
