A partner-dancing pilgrimage to downtown Portland for the Urban Blues Recess. BY DEVI CHUNG

We forgot to sleep and danced through the night.

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In a cold warehouse, filled with sweaty bodies, we set up our tents and built a city from inspiration. A weekend of exchange, teaching and learning in a community brought together by a shared passion for blues-inspired music and movement. It was a weekend of recess, granting us a break from our daily lives; a time to let go and be creative, the Urban Blues Recess was an event to remember for its people who love to dance.

Enter world of the contemporary partner dancing—a collective sub-community of people who keep the magic of social body movement alive. Across America, participants of this community are brought together for annual “dance exchanges.” Inspired by the Lindy exchange's of the late 90's (based off the jazz-inspired 'Lindy Hop' dance style), these week-long gatherings focused on bringing together dancers from different cities to a featured city and by doing so an exchange of experiences, dances, and styles would occur. Internationally, these exchanges helped to promote the exchange of cultures between each country. The week often featured instructional workshops, followed by nightly programs of dance events. But by and large, these events were known best for their focus on hospitality and their social nature.

2011 was the first year for the Urban Blue Recess (Portland), which was made up of a series of unique blues- and fusion-based dance events. Two other similar events, both running in their fourth year, are held annually: Aspen Blues Recess and Northwest Blues Recess (held various places in the Pacific NW). While most people might imagine partner dancing taking place in big ballrooms with black tie uniform and hotel lodging, these informal events are all about community and bringing people together in (sometimes) make-shift environments. Furthermore, Blues Recess events continue to break down traditional norms by flipping partner-dancing archetypes: leads become follows, follows become leads. Together a new breed of community is formed operating with total cohesion, learning and teaching, teaching and learning without particular focus on whether you’re new or advanced at the fancy (and not-so-fancy)  footwork that is dancing. What's more important is how each individual contributes to the overall community spirit.


Urban Blues Recess t-shirt design by Krystal Wanberg

A typical day went like this: wake up (after an hours worth of sleep, crawling out of your sleeping bags), dancing starts as you swallow your breakfast (because music is always playing) or chill amongst your fellow warehouse lodgers. Around noon, the workshops start at other locations and go on until 5 p.m. Then, you return, reassemble and get ready to party at the night’s main dance until that venue closed. The party doesn't stop, though, as it moves back to the tented warehouse where music blasts till 6 a.m.

The main dances were tackled with a different approach every night. Thursday was host to a giant house-party, together the DJ's and dancers transformed the ‘living room’ into a residential rave. The body heat generated was so intense, it fogged out all the houses windows (imagine the car-scene in Titanic, forgo the sex). There was club hopping on Friday, as three venues were rented out for a three-club private party across Portland's downtown. Saturday saw a Rocky Horror-themed costume dance, held in the industrial warehouse beneath the glow of neon projected art installations and warm Christmas lights. Thew weekend closed with a dance-floor gathering under the I-5/-84 interstate overpass, complete with fire barrels and special guest performances (among them, the experimental band Beats Antique).

Officially, the weekend started with Friday's schedule of workshops, designed to “challenge, stretch, and inspire”, said Justin Riley, organizer of the event. With five to six different taking placce concurrently, these classes didn't always teach dance. This is essentially where the “exchange” part of the event comes in because, here, anyone with a skill and a desire could teach what they know. These skill-share worships ranged from DJ-ing mechanics to bicycle repair, acrobatic yoga to champion show wrestling. In the dance scene, Justin said, “I'm very anti-hierarchy. Usually you have your instructors and your students but we want to bring out the fact that everyone has something to offer.” For those who are just there to dance, at any one time there would be three dance classes taking place featuring styles from modern hip hop to classic swing, and a special beginner class for those completely new to blues/fusion dancing. One was never without something to do.

Justin Riley prides himself in never creating the same event twice, so if you do end up going to one in the future, don't expect the same experience. “[Urban] was very difficult”, said Justin “we had a lot of complaints about no running water in the warehouse...The other events have always been much bigger and in nature, plus there's no workshops and its more retreat-oriented (e.g. hiking, hot spring soaking)”.

“These events aren't just dances,” Riley says emphatically. At Blues Recess events, “our purpose is to inspire creativity and magic, and to bring communities together.”

For someone like me, who was so completely new to it all—the dancing, the people, the community—I found my common ground in the event’s music, which featured anything and everything that a body could dance too. The original reason for my interest in the Recess, was my fixation for the blues, and that craving was often satisfied with the DJ's who, also, filled the dance floor with the likes of Bessie Smith and B.B. King. The unique charm to this event, though, was being able to hear Nina Simone whisper “I put a spell on you...” while dancing in my partners' arms, which was , then, followed up by an untitled track from Ratatat's 9 Beats. The “urban” aspect kept the weekend mixed with trip-hop beats, dubstep, and popular electronica, which reflected the gritty industrial atmosphere that constantly surrounded us. It was impossible not to dance!

And experience? Prior to this, I barely knew my left foot from my right and, no, it hadn't mattered (though it might have added to the number of feet I flattened). Mostly, I felt Urban Blues Recess was an experience of total connection between me, my partner, and the music. I'd encourage anyone who's interested in community, expression, and dance to check these events out. I know that for me, my role in this new 'dancing family' is open and destined for another weekend.


+ Official website for Blues Recess events
+ Blues Recess on Facebook