Uncharted Territory: How Blues Stole my Heart....

Okay, a few years back I discovered the world's coolest book.

The Majic Bus by Douglas Brinkley, is the story of a class that travels across America while studying American literature, history, music and everything in between. At one point, they traveled into the Mississippi Delta and begin to learn about the music movement classified as "The Delta blues". I wasn't familiar with any of the mentioned musicians, so I went to the handy-dandy Internet and looked them up. I was hooked! Watch out. It's sharp! ------>

Imagine my surprise then, when I got to Provo this year, to discover there was something around called "Blues Dancing". What is Blues Dancing you ask? Well, it's a great question. Let's see if I can provide a few clips to help you folks out here.

The first thing I like to tell people is that this: Is a good example of a kinda faster blues dance.

Normally, Blues is done a lot slower, and it's not choreographed, but this is a good introduction to it. (It can be a bit faster when it's mixed with a swing beat.) Also, Zac Effron obviously approves of it, so I've got the entire female population between the ages of 12-30 hooked.

The next thing is too remember what the Blues movement was about: Release. It was a form of expression, and it still is. When I think about music and dancing as a form of outlet, I always begin to mentally channel The Jets in this dance:

You can feel all the pent up anger and frustration at the world here, and that's what blues was! (I love knowing the background of things. HISTORY NERD, right here.)

Blues is a very "free-style" dance. For all you ballroom dancers, forget that nonsense about "frame" and arms being held higher than your head. Uh-uh. Blues is chhhiiillll. It's all about the music. Close your eyes. let it wash over you. Follow your lead and lead your follow the way your SOUL tells you to. This ain't no place for people to tell you what to do, or how to do it. You do it your way or no way. This is our time to be free and easy. Every person you meet will do it differently. Some will do it like this:

Or this:

or even this:

So. Blues Dancing. Got a better idea-ish? It turns out that my roommate is good friends with a BYU (now) Graduate, who started up his own dance venue for, you guessed it, Blues. It's called Blue Tango, and you can check out the website here.

It meets very Thursday from 9-12pm, at the Ozz. They do lessons from 9:00-9:45, and then you are free to hang out, dance, and just have a good time. You should come check it out! We always welcome new dancers- especially those who don't dance. If you're human and have a soul, you can feel and understand blues. (I know. I DO NOT dance, but I do, blues.) It's only 5 dollars, and there are ways to make it cheaper all the time. (.........aaaannndddd.....END of my shameless plug. Seriously though. Come. Then you can do a blog on it. :P)

The thing I love about it, is that it still serves a form of expression. You can physically watch someone who's had a bad day, dance that anger and stress out of their lives and let their bodies unwind. It's a beautiful moment and so in sync with what it was originally intended for.