Blues Muse | Muses

Blues Muse (October 3-5, 2008 - Philadelphia, PA)

Muses

The story goes that Bill Speidel was dancing in Orlando with Megan and off-handedly mentioned that follows like her, Mike the Girl, Heather, and Carsie inspired his dancing in ways he couldn't explain. He said it was if they were his dancing muses. Well, a coupla' phone calls later, Bill inspired us to put together a weekend of workshops and dancing spotlighting these blues muses...

Terpsichore, The Muse of Dance

Megan Adair

Megan Adair, a passionate and engaging dancer, brings vernacular jazz and blues movement to the classroom, stage, and social dance floor.

For the past 6 years, Megan has taught hundreds of students a variety of vernacular dances, increasing their body awareness and refining their quality of movement while keeping them focused and engaged with the music. Her class material includes Lindy Hop, Blues, Charleston, & Balboa, and in all of her classes Megan wants her students to enjoy themselves, leaving the classroom with new moves, new challenges to play with, and new confidence to explore improvisation and expression on their own terms.

As a performer, Megan has graced the spotlight from D.C. to St. Louis and San Francisco to Atlanta. Her dancing is masterful and expressive; in addition to vintage blues & jazz, she adds elements of African, belly dance, and hip hop to create a style uniquely her own. Megan is a charter member of and choreographer for the Hoodoo Ladies, a blues dance troupe founded in 2005.

Above all, Megan brings her joy, passion, and playfulness with her onto the floor and the stage. She wants to inspire people, and she wants people to dance.

Heather Adams

Heather began listening to blues music in the womb, thanks to a mother with excellent taste. Unfortunately for her mother, that’s also when she began dancing to it. Her dance career on dry land began about as soon as she could walk, and she has 14 years of ballet training as well as over a decade of swing and blues experience. She has been teaching dance for 10 years. In her teaching, Heather gives her students the tools they need to become comfortable with their own body movement and shows them how to fit that within the tradition of blues music and dance. She seeks to teach them not just moves, but how to dance, and how to hear the music. Most of all, she wants them to have as much fun as she does when she dances.

Carsie Blanton

Carsie Blanton discovered blues dancing at her first late night dance, at her first Lindy exchange (SLX 2005), and was instantly hooked. Not long after, she left her home in Eugene, OR to spend three months couch surfing in San Francisco, studying blues voraciously. In 2006, Carsie relocated to Philadelphia, where she joined forces with five other young enthusiasts to form LAB, Philly’s weekly Lindy and Blues dance (and Blues Muse’s proud sponsor).

Carsie delights in discovering innovative ways to express the sadness, sass, and sexiness she finds in her favorite blues songs. With her teaching partner and beau, Jon Darvill, she teaches these qualities in a direct, inspiring, and lighthearted way, while ever emphasising the importance of consistent and huggable connection. In her civilian life, Carsie is a singer/songwriter.

Mike Legett

Mike (the Girl) Legett combines an intuitive understanding of connection with an analytical speaking style to give her students technique, but also strives to challenge and inspire her students to push themselves further into the music. She aims to help leaders create artistic compositions that are clearly led; she wants follows to have the ability to be the completely literal follow, and the inspiration and freedom to be an imaginative and dynamic contributor. In the classroom or on the social floor, she seeks a connection that involves active communication from both partners, to make a dance together.

Other Instructors

Stuart Collins

Swing and lindy hop found Stuart back in the good year of 1999, but he really learned how to dance at the Mercury Cafe in Denver while attending Colorado University for undergrad. In Boulder, Stuart taught and choreographed for the CU swing team and now does the same at LaB and the University of Delaware, where he’s going to grad school. Dance for him is about energy, musicality, and partnership. It’s also his form of Zen.

Jon Darvill

Jon started dancing Lindy in 2003 in Ithaca, NY. He picked up blues dancing when he moved outside of Philadelphia in 2005. His focuses are clean and clear connection and making life better for his followers. Also a co-Founder of LaB, Philadelphia’s weekly Lindy and blues dance practicum, Jon is known across the northeast (and elsewhere) for his great connection and eagerness to please.

Jesse Young

Jesse’s training in movement and body control began with six years of wrestling and martial arts. In 2001, he began to study Lindy Hop and Umfundalai African dance technique. Jesse was enamored with the new ways in which the dances taught him to move his body and with the seemingly magical connection both between the dancers and the music as well as between the dance partners themselves. When blues dancing found him 3 years ago, it deepened and amplified this love affair with connection, music, and movement. Jesse co-founded LaB in order to share his love of the dance, and now it is his pleasure to share it with you.