Special occasions like the First Dance at Weddings, fancy New Year’s Eve parties, or a torch song at a night club call for the lost art of Formal Dancing.

From classic Foxtrot songs like Sinatra’s "The Way You Look Tonight" and "New York, New York" to Natalie Cole’ s Slow Dance standard Unforgettable", there are moments when the ability to dance gracefully to romantic music is mighty important.

Slow Dancing is much trickier than it looks.  This course covers 4 different types of Slow Dances : the Walking Slow Dance, the Rhythm-Switch Slow Dance, the Honky-Tonk Slow Dance, and the Foxtrot.  All four systems have similar patterns, but learning how to adjust these patterns to different speeds of romantic music is the tricky part. Fortunately, a little practice goes a long way!

Social dancing is a great way to meet people, a pleasant way to exercise, and a marvelous way to raise spirits. Many people avoid dancing out of shyness, fear of embarrassment, or worries that they possess two-left feet. Most social dancing is fairly easy, but you will never find out if you don’t try. This class takes a light-hearted look at social dancing, how footwork fits various kinds of music, how to develop a sense of rhythm, and the basic steps to Western, Swing, Latin, and Freestyle dancing.

The main intent of this class is to give people who don't know much about Social Dancing a quick 4-class introduction to the major dance programs we have at the studio. At the end of the course you not only have enough dance material to last you on the average Caribbean Cruise trip, but you also will have an idea what kind of dancing you enjoy the most and would like to learn more about. 

We might add you will probably also discover you didn't have Two Left Feet after all. 

Note: This course is excellent preparation for a one-time dance event such as a wedding reception, Christmas Party, or high school reunion where a wide range of music may be played. Partner not required.

Zydeco is a Creole Swing dance that is extremely popular in the Houston area. However it is tricky to learn just by watching, so join us and learn the Basic Steps of Zydeco! 

Zydeco dance music originated in the state of Louisiana in the United States. Similar to Cajun music, Zydeco is more heavily influenced by blues and music from the West Indies. Fast and bouncy, Zydeco uses instruments such as the accordion, saxophone, and washboard. It was popularized by American singer and accordion player Clifton Chenier, often called the "King of Zydeco music." 

Zydeco Dancing is high energy fun. The music grabs you and makes you want to move !  Typically on the final week of class the group goes dancing after class to Jax on Shepherd/I-10 for a graduation party.

We would like to introduce Willie Bushnell, a new SSQQ staff member. Originally from Ville Platte, Louisiana, just outside of Lafayette, Willie grew up in a family of Zydeco dancers. He actually began dancing at age 3!  He won his first Zydeco contest as a kid at age 11 dancing against grownups. From this point on it was pretty obvious that he had Zydeco inside his veins!

Now a Houstonian, a medical technician at Kelsey-Seibold, and a winner of numerous contests, Willie often travels around the country giving Zydeco workshops. However he is trying to "settle down" a little as well and asked to be connected to SSQQ. We feel very fortunate to have attracted a new instructor of this caliber!

Hopefully as Willie gets used to our studio, he will be able to expand our Zydeco program to include higher level classes as well. 

As 90’s Swing Music made dancing to Big Band music and Frank Sinatra "cool" again, Club Dancing began to call for the knowledge of more than just Swing when different types and speeds of music are played. 

Lounge Dancing teaches 
Closed Position Swing:  special moves for when the floor is crowded,
Cha-Cha:  for Latin rhythms such as Santana's Grammy Winner "Smooth",
Night Club:  a unique up-tempo form of Slow Dancing drawn from Salsa and Bolero, 
BoxFox:  a special form of Foxtrot perfect for Frank Sinatra ("The Way You Look Tonight"), Bobby Darin ("Mack the Knife") and small dance floors. Learn all four in this unique four week class !

Note : This course is tailored specifically for music currently played in Houston’s Swing clubs. It assumes the floors will be crowded.  

At many nightclubs, Freestyle is the only form of dancing used. This class is a Beginner - level program which targets people with little or no dance experience at Freestyle. We take a stab at getting the hands, feet, arms, and hips to pretend that they all play for the same team.

Freestyle is not hard to learn, but overcoming a paralyzing sense of self-consciousness is frequently a major hurdle. Fortunately once you learn some of the basics steps you will develop enough confidence to go out and practice - at which time you will improve naturally. 

There are actually two different Freestyle classes. Freestyle I is taught in the odd months while Freestyle II is taught in the even month. Although there are a couple moves that appear in both classes, the courses are basically completely different patterns with the same level of difficulty. Therefore, you are welcome to take Level II before Level I if you wish.

Once you have taken either of I or II, you are welcome to take the followup course for half-price.

For a more 
lengthy description 
of Night Club, 
click here

Night Club is an interesting dance that is described as an "up-tempo" Slow Dance, assuming your sensibilities can handle such an obvious oxymoron. Popular first in California and now making its way across the country, Night Club is a triple-step dance that combines a little bit of several dances and adds some twists of its very own. 

Latin dancers say Night Club is taken from Salsa, Western dancers claim it is a slow Polka, and Ballroom dancers see resemblances to Samba and Bolero. Personally I see similarities to some of the early Disco partner dances. Chances are, if you know any dance at all based on a Triple Step, at some point you will notice similarities between your dance and Night Club. I might add that the man who created the dance, Buddy Schwimmer, said in his experience Night Club most closely resembles Cumbia, but adds he had never seen a Cumbia in his life when he began experimenting with his own dance back in 1965. 

Although we will teach Night Club predominantly as a Western dance, everyone should be very clear that the dance is versatile enough to be danced to any 72-90 beat per minute romantic song there is if that is what you wish to do.  Night Club spans an enormous range of music from an In Sync love ballad to a Gloria Estafan Latin torch song to a Platters hit from the 50s to Bill Withers’ 70s hit “Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone”. Up to now, most of you either found your seat or did the vertical Bear Hug when songs like these were played.  Night Club gives you a fascinating alternative!

For a more lengthy description of Night Club, click here