swing dance

Learn Swing Dance with Paté: No Partner Needed!

/ Cassidy Kuchenbecker / 1 Comment

If you have not been taking swing dance lessons during the week due to your work schedule…you now have a weekend option! 

Starting on the first Sunday in January 2025, dance instructor Paté (Patrice) Nassalang will be teaching 90-minute beginner/intermediate swing dance lessons almost every Sunday at Casa Collective in New Berlin. Both 6-count (“East Coast Swing”) and Lindy Hop are being taught. No experience or partner needed. Details below.

Growing up in Senegal, Paté was surrounded by the joy of rhythm and dancing from birth. There were drums in his house and drums in the neighborhood. Music, drumming, and dancing were an integral part of his culture and childhood. That love for music and movement shaped his entire life. Around 1995, Paté was chosen to be the choreographer for his region in a national televised dance competition similar to So You Think You Can Dance. At this time, he was teaching, dancing, and choreographing traditional African dance along with Hip-Hop, Salsa, and many other dance styles.

He moved to the United States in 1997 and started the weekly African drumming/dancing class at Danceworks in Milwaukee in 2003. He left for a time to work for prestigious dance groups (AADE) African American dance Ensemble of Durham  in North Carolina and Muntu Chicago. When he returned to Milwaukee in 2205, he started a Non-profit  company “Jam Ak Jam Afro Dance Theater”. Through this company he choreographed and taught dance classes throughout Midwest  schools (Milwaukee Public Schools and Universities). He has also performed with the company in some of the biggest theatres around.

Swing music and swing dance may have been created in the United States, but the roots of the sounds and movements originated in Africa. Pate has been motivated to dig deeper in doing research in African American Vernacular jazz dances’ link to traditional authentic African dances. 

The Milwaukee area has a deep and rich swing dance community. Meet new friends and confidently strut your stuff on dancefloors as there are dance events every week in and around Milwaukee. Join Paté on Sundays for the fun, the exercise, and the lifelong skill of dancing.

Location: Casa Collective Dance Studio

Time: 4:00 – 5:30 (see flyer below for dates)

Fee: $10 to $15 per class (see flyer below) 

Facebook event link: https://www.facebook.com/share/wCx1ZztxhLyYcGEU/

Traditional Tuesday Swing Dance Returns!

/ Cassidy Kuchenbecker / Leave a comment

After a summer hiatus, the weekly “Traditional Tuesday” swing dance returns to Falcon Bowl on September 3, 2024. Every Tuesday is the free 7:00 to 7:50 basic dance lesson followed by free bands and swing DJs playing from 8:00 to 10:00 (sometimes 10:30).

The band lineup has expanded with Sweet Sheiks, 3rd Ward Jazz Band, John Carr Band, and others joining the familiar Tuesday bands of Extra Crispy Brass Band, Old Sam and the Tear Drops, and Sliphorn Jazz Band.

The dance lessons will be primarily the basic style of swing that is danced ubiquitously around Milwaukee – East Coast Swing (“6-Count Lindy Hop”) with certain dates dedicated to Blues, Balboa, and other such styles when various dance groups are preparing for their weekend workshops or special dances. The lessons are crafted to produce dancers with strong fundamentals and an appreciation of the local and greater swing/blues dance community.

How can you get involved?

This weekly event is a unique partnership between the musicians and the dancers with the shared vision of vastly expanding the Milwaukee audience that listens to – and dances to – music from this era. Being hosted at Falcon Bowl gives this partnership a boost. The venue is a wonderful and sizable dance hall surrounded by thousands of diverse citizens within a couple minutes of walk. Falcon Bowl is also the current home of Cream City Swing, the dance organization that hosts the Monday night Lindy Hop dance lessons – the only only place in Milwaukee to follow a leveling-up style of swing lessons that builds each week to produce dancers of advanced skill.

As a dancer or musician, this should excite you!

If you are interested in getting involved as a musician, dance teacher, host, DJ, promoter, or with some other skill or effort, email us at MilwaukeeStomp@gmail.com. Tell us what you have to share (time, energy, skills, resources) and to what extent you can share them with the community and we will gladly accept your offer. No effort is too small to be appreciated.