All about the history, culture, and dance related to blues music
How do we, if we do not have any Black people around us, bring cultural context into a community? With increasing regularity, I find myself being asked by communities all over the world. There are so many people who want to do better and simply don’t know-how. This piece is about starting that process, what …
Nowadays, the people that come to dance to blues music overall all hate/fear one thing: solo dancing. We’ve heard every reason: “I’m here for the connection”, “I’m scared”, “I don’t care about that”, even “I could never do that”. We want to point out the historical significance of solo dancing, why it’s important in your dancing …
The Importance of Solo Dancing in Swing and Blues Read More »
A letter to the White Blues Dance Community January 20, 2018 Dear community, In the last day or two, Ellie made a post. It really set off a good conversation in the community. Surprisingly, I haven’t received that many messages yet. I’m slowly realizing that majority of my community has no idea of what it …
To encourage social distancing we created a list of blues documentaries (and a James Baldwin collection) you can watch right now for free! I’ll be creating more lists as I find more. I have not watched majority of these in full and plan to over the next weeks. If folks are interested we can have …
When we think of the Blues the first places that come to mind are always the delta and Chicago. And although that’s not wrong, Blues music was played regionally in many parts of the country. One place with a rich Blues history is California, with the creation of West Coast Blues. This blues has a …
Are you a blues dancer looking for more resources? Learning to learn more about the dance? About Black culture? Whether you are new to the style, looking for resources, or just want to gain some context, this article has what you are looking for! Check out this article for a simple summary of blues dancing. …
Today I often hear complaints from older adults about “the youth” and their music. Today’s music is so dirty! Let’s take off our nostalgic glasses and look at some Hokum blues. What is Hokum Blues? Hokum, a term that is debated on it’s origins, is a style or performance, where the distishgishing factors are sexual …
The current artist series to combat to popular myths that blues is dead, or that it is no longer Black. Obsidian has picked 5 artists of varying ages to highlight, all with very different sounds. Artists that can still be found today! Consider checking them out, buying a CD and adding them to your que …
5 current blues artists you should know : part 2 Read More »
A few months back I was attempting to use my audible credits and I downloaded a bunch of random books. One was a book I bought for research on blues. And I’m in love. First the reader is simply one of the smoothest and easy voices to listen to. It’s dark, and gritty and yet …
A common cultural miscommunication that alienates Black people within our dance communities is the love of the past and time travel. I don’t mean Doctor Who time travel. What I mean is the the common idea that people who do these dances desire to go back in time. They say things like “I feel like …
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