Capital Blues

Pairs of dancers in a room lit with purple light
Photo copyright David Soltysik

We offer dances, classes, special workshops, and other events celebrating blues dance in the Washington, D.C. area.

Weekly dance

Back Room Blues, our weekly dance, happens Thursday nights at 9 pm in the Back Room at Glen Echo Park. Beginner lessons start at 8:15. Hope to dance with you there!

Red Hot Blues & BBQ 2024

Coming May 24-27, 2024: we’re hosting the triumphant return of Red Hot Blues & BBQ, an annual weekend of picnics, bands, and late night blues dances around the DC area. Registration opens 3/20.


Announcements

Back Room Blues Weekly Dance (2024-03-14)

This Thursday’s Back Room Blues Dance features the following.

Series Lesson (8:00 pm – 9:00 pm, Main Ballroom)

Instructors: Rebecca R.G. and Jesse Metcalf-Burton

Class Name: Solo Blues

This class will be an in-depth study of groundedness and groove. We’ll work on body awareness and isolations, expressing different rhythms with different body parts, improvisation (aka stealing ideas from other people!), and how to look like you’re doing blues instead of something else while doing all of the above. We’ll also dance solo with other people! While this class has no hard prerequisites, you will have a much better experience if you already have some familiarity with blues dance and blues music.

Full Details: https://capitalblues.org/classes/

Beginner Lesson (8:15 pm – 9:00 pm, Back Room)

Instructors: Catherine Cole and David Stein

Catherine (she/her) found her way to partner dancing during her first week of college, becoming an active member of the William & Mary swing dance club. She attended out-of-town events, taught beginner lessons, and served as club marketing officer. After a hiatus from dancing during graduate school in which Catherine earned her MFA in Printmaking, she returned to swing dancing in the DC area and began attending and volunteering for blues in the Back Room in 2015. Catherine likes to find connections between her music and art background and dance, drawing from the elements and principles of art and music to find ways to improvise, play, and have conversations with her partners within the frame of the dance.

David (he/him) first attended a Lindy Hop event in 2001 at a speakeasy-themed bar in Cleveland and was instantly hooked on social dance. David has traveled extensively throughout the U.S. to attend blues and swing social dance events and workshops, including BluesSHOUT!, Austin Blues Party, and Swing Out New Hampshire. David enjoys teaching beginner and intermediate blues lessons with a focus on social connection, musicality, and playfulness.

DJed Dance (9:00 pm – 11:30 pm, Back Room)

DJ: Colin Hay (first set) and Jim “Whisky” Muirhead (second set)

Colin Hay started dancing swing and blues in college and shortly after started teaching beginner drop-in lessons for both styles. He has been in the Washington, D.C. dance scene for the past 10 years and helps to organize, teach, and DJ at local dances as well as regional dance events.

Jim has been collecting and curating blues and jazz music since 1988, and although he’s only DJ’d for Back Room Blues since August 2022, he started DJing at house parties and for swing dances in Edmonton back in 2007. After taking a long hiatus, he has been spotted in the wild occasionally DJing blues and soul at house parties in Baltimore over the last 8 years. His sets prioritize music geared towards blues idiom dances and have interesting musical elements to inspire musicality and creative dances. He looks to expose dancers in the Back Room to the rich history and diversity in blues music about which he will geek out frequently on request.


Updated COVID-19 policy and survey

All attendees must wear a mask over the nose and mouth.

Attendees are no longer required to present either proof vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test.

See our COVID-19 Policy page for complete information.

Also, we have created a survey to ask our community about your feelings and risk tolerance for COVID as it relates to our dance events and policy.

Please help us understand your thoughts and feelings related to our COVID policies. The survey is completely anonymous, and every question is optional. We welcome any questions about the content of the survey or our intended use of the results.

Link to survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfRpTLc6WUSGsgH_OM4y0yUaS-gNKeij1ZFSunr9t5TuzmelQ/viewform