Friday Night Waltz

Friday Night Waltz has mostly Waltzes in the dances and classes, along with Polka, Tango, Swing, and Cha Cha. People are friendly, and the atmosphere is warm and welcoming. Partners are not needed. We rotate rapidly in classes. Casual comfortable attire. All ages. People come from San Francisco, Berkeley, San Jose, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, and Oakland. info@FridayNightWaltz.com or call

06.23
Lewis Hom and Joy Wang are our djs for waltz and polka dancing from 9 to midnight.

disney Joan Walton is back to teach from 7 to 9pm. To get the most from the class, get there by 7pm. Joan is a long time friend and instructor at Friday Night Waltz.

Joan Walton has spent part of the past 2 summers teaching in Moscow, Russia, where she taught mid-to-late 19th century dancing, and dances of the Ragtime Era and the Jazz Age. Her energetic, focused teaching, theatrical choreographies, and morning warmups have become well known to dancers over the years. She has the ability to communicate movement concepts with energy, humor and interest. A keen observer of learning styles, Joan has an ongoing interest in understanding the many ways that people learn to dance.

Her classes in Ragtime, Jazz Age, Swing Era and 19th Century dance have been seen at Vintage Dance workshops across the USA, in Paris and the Czech Republic. Last summer (2014) introduced her to the dancers in Moscow, Russia. As Assistant Director and dancer in Cincinnati with Richard Powers' Flying Cloud Vintage Dance Troupe for 10 years, she performed on the ABC-TV mini-series North and South.

Joan designed choreography for award-winning operas and musical theatre productions at the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music, and other schools in the midwest. She was a guest artist with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra under the direction of Keith Lockhart, performing Morton Gould’s challenging Tap Dance Concerto.

Along with free-lancing around the country and teaching dance at Google Headquarters in Mountain View, she currently teaches the GE courses Dance in World Cultures and Dance Appreciation at San Jose State University, along with Social Dance, Swing Dance, Waltz, Latin and Tap Dance classes at the College of San Mateo. She has a Master’s degree in Dance Education from Stanford University’s top-ranked School of Education.

7pm - Ragtime Era One Step: Although this is an easy dance for beginners, we hope to have you zooming around the room doing some fancier variations within the hour. These One Step variations are also useful in other dances like the Tango and Foxtrot.

8pm - Two Step into Maxixe into Samba: Follow the historical progression of the late 19th Century Two Step through the Ragtime Era Maxixe, and into the Jazz Age Samba. The versatile Two Step has been re-used - with Brazilian style added - to create new dances over time. The Two-Step is Beginning level, the Maxixe and Samba will be Intermediate level.

$12 for dance and classes. $8 for dance only from 9 pm to midnight. $8 for students at all times.

No partner necessary. We rotate rapidly in class.

All Ages.

Casual comfortable attire.

First United Methodist Church 625 Hamilton Ave., Palo Alto CA. x Byron, Upstairs Fellowship hall

06.30 Independence day dance
Heather is our instructor for Introductory Waltz Class from 7 to 9pm. To get the most from the class, get there by 7pm. An excellent introductory class.

Diane Neeson is back as our dj for waltz and polka dancing from 9 to midnight.

07.07 NO DANCE tonight. see you next week at the Bastille Day Dance

07.14
Bastille Day Waltz Dance
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The Bastille Day Waltz Dance is our annual dance that features French waltzes, paso doble, and other French dances, with wonderful French waltz and polka music by Richard Powers. Always fun, always uplifting.

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Richard Powers assisted by Tracey Powers will be teaching French dances before the Dance.

7pm - Paso Doble, which uses cross-step waltz, Le One-Step (yes, the French use the English term) and La Java.

8pm - French Mazurka Clandestina, a slow and easygoing hybrid of waltz, mazurka and tango steps, at a slow cross-step waltz tempo. Richard will teach some of the easier steps from this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_VUpKHX5RA

Richard will play traditional and new French music from 9pm to midnight.

07.21
Disney Music Night!

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Peggy Pollard, our dance instructor friend from Santa Cruz, will be teaching Rumba and Choreography from the Disney movie, Beauty and the Beast!

7 p.m. Rumba , the dance of romance.

Rumba, called the "dance of love² is a slow, sultry partner dance based on  same box step as slow waltz but with syncopated rhythm and Cuban motion  hip action.  One of the easiest and most popular of the ballroom dances,it is danced to  slow romantic 4/4 songs. Peggy will teach partner dynamics and basic moves.

8 p.m. Beauty & the Beast waltz , and intro to slow waltz technique. Although the choreography does have more rotary waltz than slow waltz, oh well, will be fun and will build in the popularity of the current hit movie…

Jason Anderson is our dj for DISNEY MUSIC NIGHT! from 9 to midnight