All workshops will be held at The Riley Hall, Wellington High School, 249 Taranaki Street, Wellington.
Every workshop runs for an hour, and we have a full half hour between workshops. Music will be playing in the main hall during this time, and you’re welcome to use this time to rest, recharge, practice what you’ve just learned, or just enjoy dancing.
Saturday
9:00am Amy & Eamon
Shapeshifters
Join us for a workshop all about how we manipulate shapes and spaces to create new and exciting moves! Discover ways to make your mark on every dance, as we bring flair, originality and musicality together. No moves required – this is true freestyle.
10:30am Ben & Keita
E hika mā! Let’s have fun
Bring silliness, fun, and play to your dancing! We’ll explore how to use connection to initiate something different, creating space for musicality and engaging in playful ‘I go, you go’ interactions, all whilst highlighting and celebrating your partner as you both shake what your mumma gave you.
12:00pm Dave & Ren
Kinetic Intuition
Dance smarter, not harder! Explore the physics of smooth, effortless movement in partner dancing. We’ll uncover secrets of balance, flow, and body awareness to enhance your dance quality across all styles. Expect hands-on experiments, practical techniques, and just a dash of nerdy science (whiteboard appearances likely, but maths will be kept to a minimum).
Sunday
10:00am Dave & Keita
Eloquent Conversation
In this workshop, we’ll explore how lead and follow dynamics mirror a fluid conversation. Learn to ‘speak’ clearly through your movement, ‘listen’ actively with your body, and engage in seamless nonverbal dialogue on the dance floor. You’ll develop techniques to enhance your connection, improve your responsiveness, and create that magical feeling of floating effortlessly with your partner.
11:30am Keighlee & Brad
How to Ace DWAS
This workshop will run you through the strategies we use to quickly adapt to different partners and music, and tips on how to enjoy and get the best out of of your DWAS dances
1:00pm Ruby & Hati
Stop, Collaborate, and Listen
In this workshop we will explore how dancers move to different music genres and energy levels. We will first learn how to create more space for musicality in our dancing. Then we will experiment with reflecting musicality within our modern jive movements and patterns.
2:30pm Amy & Eamon
Light and Shade
Now that we’ve got some cool shapes in the arsenal, let’s look at how we can make them bigger and better! In this workshop we’re looking at contrast – how to make big moves bigger and small moves smaller, loud moves louder and quiet moves… well we’re gonna make those loud as well.