Coming up on its fourth year, the Roots & Rhythms Dance Stage began with a passion to engage Roots & Blues Festival attendees in the art of dance.
From yoga to salsa, jive, African fusion, Hoola-hooping, and lots more, this interactive dance stage offers you the opportunity to learn more about dance around the world. It welcomes beginners with two left feet and those with more experience, hungry for a taste of world-wide dance styles from a selection of highly skilled instructors. The atmosphere is vibrant and energized, yet set at a relaxed and supportive pace so even the most timid dancers will soon feel at ease.
Dancers with experience are there, happy to partner up and support, with one-on-one encouragement and assistance. Take your first step towards never being nervous about dancing again. Be sure to watch the instructors’ Performance Showcase, then hop up on the dance platform for fun, laughter, and a great festival spirited dance experience.
This year’s workshops include FestiDance, a unique and energizing dance experience which fuses elements of urban street styles with folky roots.
Instructor Slava Doval will have you learning new moves you can take to the dance floor for the festival headliners.
Doval is a passionate dance performer and teacher who infuses her globally minded movements with grace and presence while exploring the common thread in dances from around the world. She’s currently busy teaching, creating choreography, artistic direction and costumes for Slava’s DanceFusion, a holistic dance school in Nelson.
Her style is a fusion of old world roots and new times sensibility, blending culture, movement and community to create an expression of joy, presence, discipline and grace. Her dance style is an organic blend of her Slovak roots, contemporary technique, Folklorico, Afro-Latin, Balkan, Bollywood, Cumbia, urban street styles and more.
Doval brought her joyful dance last year to Salmon Arm with the Adham Shaikh Outworld Orkestra, and is excited to be teaching at this year’s festival.
Maybe jive’s your thing, with its pumped up energy, quick steps and sharp turns enhancing the fun and spirited sensation of the music or perhaps you prefer something more exotic like Bachata which grew out of the dance styles of bolero and meringue and originated in the rural neighbourhoods of the Dominican Republic. For sheer fun try Hula Hooping 4 Guys n’ Gals and learn to spin the hoop from head to toe. Looking for more? Check out the salsa and African dance workshops and then cool it all down with yoga.
If you’re tuckered out just stand back and enjoy one of the many performer showcases this weekend. The performers and instructors this year are among B.C.’s finest and deliver an amazing show.
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City and Colour, the moniker of singer-songwriter Dallas Green and undeniably one of the biggest groundswell stories in Canadian music, will be headlining the 21st Annual Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Festival on Sunday.
With three JUNOs under his belt, and three platinum-selling albums, Green is gearing up to release his fourth City and Colour studio album this summer. City and Colour’s most current LP Little Hell debuted at number-one on the Top 200 SoundScan Chart in Canada, number-two in Australia, and 28 in the U.S.
City and Colour’s last Canadian tour sold out in minutes, and came on the heels of an international run with sold-out shows across the U.S., U.K. and Europe. After his appearance at SXSW, City and Colour heads to the U.S. where Green was invited by P!NK to open three arena dates on her upcoming U.S. tour, before heading to perform as direct support for Biffy Clyro’s extensive U.K. run.
Now in its 21st year, the Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Festival is the largest and most musically diverse festival in the B.C. Interior. The festival takes place on the Salmon Arm Fairgrounds, an 18-acre park in the centre of Salmon Arm. Highlights of this year’s festival are Juno winner/icon Bruce Cockburn, 2013 Juno Blues Album of the Year nominee Shakura S’Aida, 2013 Juno Blues Album of the Year nominee Steve Strongman, Beatbox artist Butterscotch, Beatboy/Youtube sensation Felix Zenger, Juno nominee Skratch Bastid, boogie woogie man Ben Waters, indie darlings Sallie Ford and The Sound Outside, and more.
The Roots & Rhythm’s Dance Stage is part of the 21st Annual Salmon Arm Roots & Blues Festival, taking place Friday, Saturday and Sunday. For schedules, tickets and more information on the Roots & Rhythms Dance Stage as well as the Roots & Blues Festival, see www.rootsandblues.ca
