Here’s a great opportunity for all dancers near the DMV — Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia.
USA Dance members, led by Eamonn Knights, are working to revitalize the USA Dance Mideastern Chapter and relaunch it as the Mid-Atlantic Chapter. This chapter, in its heyday, hosted the USA Dance Mid-Atlantic DanceSport Championships, which attracted thousands of dancers to the Washington, D.C. area each year. The last such championship took place in 2022, and the hosting chapter subsequently faded away.
The new Mid-Atlantic Chapter will focus on social dancing and expanding the scope to encompass Hand Dancing and Bop, dance forms that originated in the DC/Baltimore area. The Chapter will also feature conventional ballroom styles, as well as Salsa, Bachata, Merengue, Night Club 2-Step, Hand Dance, Hustle, West Coast Swing, and Argentine Tango.
The goal is to leverage local expertise to teach and promote these dances, thereby creating more opportunities for local professionals, studios, and dancers. “Many dancers are familiar with a few styles but haven’t had the opportunity to learn additional ones,” said Eamonn Knights. “This will broaden their spectrum by featuring different types of dancing at each social event.” It will also hopefully attract new crowds with fresh energy.
The social dances will be hosted at local locations in the DMV. Each event will begin with a lesson taught by selected instructors, followed by social dancing based on a range of dance music. Hopefully, local dance groups will embrace the notion of supporting and expanding the dance menus of their constituencies in a social context.
Each event will be fun and inviting, but with a larger purpose of building a dance community that supports the rich variety of dance styles reflected in the DMV.
The first step is a fabulous dance party and membership drive, which will be held at Dance Studio Lioudmila in Alexandria, Virginia, at 7:30 PM on Saturday, June 7. The group needs to sign up 25 new members to re-establish the chapter.
The evening will start with a lesson in Swing, taught by Dance Professional Maria Bliznetsova, followed by an evening of social dancing. Later, the evening’s special event will feature dances by Senior Amateur Smooth and Standard National Champions Mike & Rose-Ann Lynch and Senior Amateur Latin Finalists Eamonn Knights & Ida Jones.
USA Dance Members, area dancers (Professional and Amateur), and spectators are all invited to join the event. It will be a lot of fun and a great evening out.
Regarding the Mid-Atlantic DanceSport Championships, we will have to see what the future holds. In the meantime, the dance floor is calling at Lioudmila’s in Alexandria, and on June 7, the USA Dance Mid-Atlantic Chapter Relaunch is definitely the place to be.
