The most recent Urban Blues Recess was in 2011. For the 2012 equivalent, check out Lost Valley Blues Recess.

 

the event

Urban Blues Recess logo by Willow Wind Urban Blues Recess Tshirt Design by Krytal Wanberg

A little about Urban Blues Recess: We will all be housed together in an "Indoor Tent City" in an enormous Portland warehouse space. There will be workshops all day, from 10am until 5pm, 6-7 classes at a time, in the same space where we are camping. Envision teaching or taking a class surrounded by a circle of tents separating your class-space from your neighbors. Pretty cool, huh? Every late night (2am-6am) will also be at the "Tent City Warehouse," so that anyone can check out for the night whenever they are ready. For the main dances of the night we'll be out and about in beautiful, happening, and rainy Portland. Friday night we'll be renting out three clubs on the same block, throwing our DJs in them, and having a raging, 3-club, private party until they kick us out at 2am, at which time we are back to where we are camping for the late night.

Saturday night will be in an industrial, rave venue founded and operated by members of the local Burner scene with three live Fusion acts and three prized competition finals: a Fusion (music) Jack & Jill, a Flead and Lollow Strictly, and a Solo Runway and Costume Competition lumped into the Rocky Horror Transvestite costume theme for the night.

Sunday night will be either under an interstate overpass with a half-dozen 50 gallon barrel fires dotting the dance floor to keep us warm or in the old Union Train Station arrivals/departures area. Sunday is still in the works, but it’s going to be magic, whatever it ends up to be.

Explore the website for more information on class and instructor lists, DJ lineups, registration prices, volunteer opportunities, motives and morals of the event, live act previews, and how the event is being run as a cooperative!

 

registration

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The first 75 tickets are only $99 for the UBR Full-Access Pass! And only $75 for first-time dancers wanting to take the INTRO DANCE track!

Be sure to register ASAP, as tickets will go fast. Last year’s Northwest Blues Recess event completely sold out in 72 hours of registration opening (4 months before the event!) So if you want to go to UBR, buy yourself a ticket something like right now!

 

schedule

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music/djs

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Urban Blues Recess Live Acts:
*Auditory Sculpture, Portland, OR: Down Tempo, Artisan Trip-Hop. http://www.auditorysculpture.com
*Chance's End, San Francisco CA: Live violin fusion, melodic electronica. http://www.chancesend.com
*David Keogh and Adrian Adair, Seattle, WA: Original Fusion Electronica, performed and composed specifically for alternative blues dancers.
*Hopeless Jack & the Handsome Devils, Portland, OR: A local Rock & Roll Blues Band www.hopelessjack.com
*Sean Morse, Seattle, WA: A One-Man, Acoustic Blues and Alt-Blues Phenom.
*UBR House Blues Band: A Spontaneous UBR Participant Performance Project

Urban Blues Recess DJ Line Up Includes:

 

classes

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Workshop Breakdown:
There will be a minimum of 6 (probably 7!) Skill-Share workshops going on at a time. At any one time there will be 3 Dance Classes, 1 Beginner-Track Class, and 2 Other/Non-dance classes. So that is 6 classes at a time, 4 classes a day, for 3 full days!

Dance Classes:
Classes on a dance-related topic. There will be no tracking for dancers, but rather dancers will be able to decide which class best fits their needs dependent on class descriptions.

Beginner-Track class:
An 8-class progressive beginner’s series designed for those who are new to blues/fusion dancing. Ideally participants will start the track on Friday, and by Saturday evening be proficient after taking 8 classes in a row, each one building on the next. Registrants for this "New-And-Bright-Eyed " track will get a 25% discount on the weekend to try and encourage new dancer participation. During Sunday workshops, Beginner-Track registrants will be able to take any class they choose.

OTHER, or Non-Dance Topic Classes:
These classes will cover a wide spectrum: bike repair, partner massage, acro-yoga, cranial sacral therapy, costuming, DJ training, urban foraging, par-core, to name a few. Full class listing and descriptions up soon.

 

logistics

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Online Event Google Documents (for participant coordination)

Venue Locations

What to bring:
Remember, this isn’t your everyday, Plane-Jane exchange. This is a Blues Recess. Therefore participants may have some additional, albeit unique concerns to consider. Every night we will be “urban camping” in a large industrial warehouse space. Coordinate with other recess goers for tent space. Be sure to bring some sort of ground pad or inflatable mattress, as the floor of the warehouse is concrete. You’ll also want a set of earplugs, as the late-night dance will be within earshot of where we are camping. While few of us will be getting any sleep over the weekend, it’s at least nice to have the option to sleep if you want it. .

Warm Weather Gear:
Be aware that UBR is early April in Portland, and the main workshop and camping warehouse does not have centralized heating. We are renting a number of industrial-sized heaters to heat the space, but it is an enormous space it still could still be in the 50s and 60s. Be prepared; bring warm sleeping and dancing gear.

Clothes To Be Screen Printed:
Once again the lovely and talented Willow Wind and Logan will be custom screen-printing clothes over the UBR weekend. They will have a large selection of pre-printed, up-cycled clothing to choose from (aprox $12-$17 an item) in addition to offering custom-prints on any clothes you choose to bring. Clothing to be custom printed must be dropped off Friday and/or Saturday morning and will be available for pick-up Saturday and Sunday nights. The print itself is an original piece by Portland’s very own Krystal Wanburg, which can be viewed at the top of the page.

Dancing Shoes:
Like other recess events, we’ll be dancing on all types of surfaces. For Urban bring shoes to dance on hardwood, concrete (polished, like a garage floor), and for the dirt!

Food/Snacks:
We will be staying a 5-minute walk from restaurants and a MAX (light rail) stop within the fareless square (meaning its free!). However, it is probably a good idea to bring snack and breakfast food. The only meals provided by the event will be at the late nights, served nightly around 2:30 am.

Have an idea for a class that you want to teach? Email us! (bluesrecess@gmail.com) and/or just bring your class idea to the event and sign-up Friday morning in our All-comers Instructor class slot. Unfortunately we can’t offer event shares or compensation for All-comers classes, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want what you have to give!

Blues Band Jam Class: Musicians bring your instruments!! If you play an instrument—anything from guitar to washboard, from vocals to the kazoo—and are interested in performing in a band comprised of fellow UBR participants, bring your instrument! Friday morning there will be a class entitled “Blues Band Performance,” where musicians will collaborate and practice for a performance at a dance later on in the weekend.

 

motives, inspiration & ethics

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With this event we want to attempt to deconstruct and dissolve the "dancer hierarchy" that often forms in dance scenes, and that are particularly strengthened at weekend workshops with the juxtaposition of labels like “beginner” and “advanced” or “student” and “instructor,” or even “lead” and “follow.” UBR offers a much wider variety of workshops, ranging in topics from bicycle repair, to screen printing, to costuming, massage, and DJ mechanics. These are in addition to the usual dance-oriented classes, like advanced fusion aesthetic, tango moves for blues dancers, hip-hop to trip-hop, etc. My hope is that professional dance instructors will be taking classes on bicycle repair from beginning dancers, and new dancers will be taking classes from seasoned dance instructors to create a type of community cohesion that transcends the typical oligarchic structure that so naturally forms within social dancing scenes.

Urban will also have a number of classes specifically designed to break down the lead/follow binary, and develop more Fleads, Lollows, Dancers, insert-your-preferred-gender-neutral-pronoun-here. There will also be a prized Jack & Jack/Jill & Jill/Flead & Lollow competition Saturday night.

Event Organization: A Cooperative, Profit Sharing Organization. We’re running Urban Blues Recess as a co-op, meaning that if the event makes money, so does everyone who contributes. All instructors, DJs, organizers, and volunteers receive a certain number of UBR 'shares' for their contribution. Each share is worth a minimum amount and factored into the event budget as an expense. Once the event nets more than its expenses, what each share is worth increases. The idea is that it’s all of our’s event. We all contribute to it, and we all benefit from its success. Ideally with 100 people personally and financially invested in UBR, it can’t help but be outlandishly successful!

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photo ©2010 peter chee photography, used with permission -- urban blues recess logo courtesy of willow wind -- tshirt design by krystal wanberg
text ©2010 justin riley
sponsorship provided by matthew allen productions
site by ian bone