4th Saturday Dance - Belvidere Community Center
The Northern Illinois Chapter of USA Dance, (formerly USABDA), holds its 4th Saturday Dance monthly at the striking, remodeled community center in Belvidere Illinois. The large well managed facility provides us with a wonderful dance floor that has handled even our largest turnout which was over 500 people at our 10th anniversary dance held in (Sept 2006). Please review our calandar for scheduled dances during the year. The 4th Saturday dance begins with a 1 hour ballroom dance lesson from 7 PM to 8 PM taught by one of our local professional dance instructors. This followed by open dancing, several mixers and a show from 8 PM thru 11 PM.
Our events are all alcohol and smoke free.
USA Dance members fee is $6.00, non-members fee is $8.00 and students can participate for $2.00.
Don't forget to look at our Friday and Saturday Dance photographs!
Description of Bolero
Along with cha cha, rumba, east coast swing, and mambo, bolero is one of the five rhythm competition dances in American style ballroom dance competition. The bolero is a close cousin of the Rumba, sharing the same footwork timing and many similar figures. Bolero is the slowest rhythm dance. The music tempo is only 96 beats per minute. As with rumba, the basic footwork timing is slow-quick-quick. As with rumba, three steps are taken to four beats of music and the music is written in 4/4 time. For spectators, it is often difficult to distinguish bolero from rumba. It is also difficult to class music as either rumba or bolero. In competitions, the “standard tempo” of rumba music is 104 beats per minute, which is slightly faster than the “standard tempo” of Bolero music, which is 96 beats per minute.
Character of Bolero
Rumba is often called the dance of love but so is the bolero. The music and the feeling of bolero enhances a sense of love and romance. Slow, graceful, romantic, movements and actions characterize the bolero.
History of Bolero
The history of Bolero is a bit of a mystery. Bolero has the same Afro-Cuban roots as the Rumba and is thought to have originated from Cuban or Spanish folk dances such as the Danzon and Beguine. It was introduced in the United States in the 1930’s. Originally a Spanish dance in 3/4 time, it was changed in Cuba initially into 2/4 time then eventually into 4/4. The music is frequently arranged with Spanish vocals and a subtle percussion effect, usually implemented with guitar, conga or bongos.
From www.thedancestoreonline.com
USA Dance Fort Wayne Dancesport Championships to be held July 5 & 6, 2008 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. As a part of this competition the local USA Dance Chapter is hosting the First Special Olympics Ballroom Dance Competition in the USA.
Comments from the Ft. Wayne, Indiana chapter; "We would like to see all the chapters in our region and across the country represented at the USA Dance Ft. Wayne Dancesport Championships" (a sanctioned USA Dance competition). "It has been very exciting planning this event and it promises to be a very exciting and enjoyable event to attend. We encourage everyone to participate and support this new competitive event in the midwest.
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<<<<<<<< ======= Click on the image to view the flyer for the competition.
Click here to visit the Ft. Wayne USA Dance Chapter website www.fwdancesport.org
Severe Weather Policy
With the winter months upon us, the board has decided to define our severe weather cancellation policy. In past years we have held a dance so long as roads were not closed per the Illinois state police. At the February 2007 dance, this did not work well. While the roads were officially open, travel was dangerous. We have decided the chapter president or designee will decide if a dance cancellation is necessary and will notify a call tree to get the word out to local radio and TV outlets. We will also publish any cancellation on this website, as soon as we know of the cancellation.
Chapter 2039's 2nd Friday Dance
Our 2nd Friday dance has a new home;
See you in 2008 at our new 2nd Friday Dance location.
USA Dance - Northern Illinois Chapter to Raise Entry Fee
Starting in the 2008 event year, January 2008, our entry fees are going to be increased slightly to help offset the increasing costs we are seeing to operate the organization.
Our new entry fees will be $6.00 for USA Dance Members, $8.00 Non-Members and $2.00 for Students. These still compare very favorably to the fees charged by other nearby USA Dance chapters. These increases will return our chapter to a nearly breakeven financial situation on an annual basis unless our costs for printing, mailing and our facilities are increased significantly.
We continue to be very fortunate with the costs for our dance facilities. Even with the recent and projected increases we have lower venue costs than many USA Dance chapters.
