Welcome to the 2025 Dance Friday/Freedom Spring Dance Weekend

Welcome in spring with
A little bit of camp in March

To register click here

Friday, March 14^th

Join us for the
2025 Spring Weekend
Opening Dance

St John’s Episcopal Church
74 Pleasant St
Arlington, MA
Class and Dance 7:30-10:30pm

The Weekend kicks off with our first class:
7:20-7:40pm Check in, Welcome, Opening Circle (Foyer)
7:40-8:30pm Class 1 Tuning Moving Meditations — Helena Froehlich
8:30-10:30pm Dance Live Music with Stan Strickland

Saturday, March 15th

11:50-1:20pm Welcome Lunch (not included in weekend registration)
Noodle Market
470-472 Massachusetts Ave. Arlington, MA

Saturday continues at St.John’s Episcopal Church
1:30-10:30pm
74 Pleasant St. Arlington, MA

(Tentative Schedule)
1:30-1:45 Check in (Foyer)

1:45-2:35pm Class 3 Main Hall
Roth 5 Rhythms — Margaux Medicine Dancer

2:35-2:45pm Break

2:45-3:35pm Class 4 Main Hall
Bellydance to Bliss: an Ecstatic Dance Journey —Johara

3:35-3:45pm Break

3:45-4:35pm Class 5 Main Hall
Argentine Tango — Hseuh-Tze Lee
or
3:45-4:35pm Class 6 Parlor Room
Foot Reflexology — Bill Kennedy

4:35-4:45pm Break

4:45-5:35pm Class 7 Main Hall
Contact Improvisation: how to do it and why it’s fun — Chris Ellinger 
or
4:45-5:35pm Parlor Room
Acoustic Music Jam: must be able to carry your instrument upstairs

5:35-5:45pm Break

5:45-6:35pm Class 8 Main Hall
Contact Tango Fusion — Erica Skye Roper

6:35-6:50pm Dining Hall set up for dinner

6:50-8:15pm Bardic Dinner share a poem, song or dance during dinner

8:30-10:30pm Dance with DJ DAS Dave Sheppard

Sunday March 16th

Support Your Local Teachers Day
Check back here to find a list of dance happenings in the Arlington Area.
Hot tub hangout in Burlington, MA $45pp dependent upon interest

Class Descriptions and Artist Bios

Tuning Moving Meditations
Dance, tuning into your movements from within. Hear the music, permeating space around and through you. Experience aligning and balancing, throwing and catching, falling and rising, gathering and releasing energy. Connect to the space and people around you. Breathe in, breathe out, and expand the limits of your perceptions…

Helena Froehlich
Helena Froehlich Boston Ballet Faculty. Dancer, Teacher, choreographer, Helena has worked with several companies including, Centre National de Danse Contemporaine in France, Felix Ruckert in Germany, American Repertory & Princeton Ballet School in the USA and performed with her company CreationDance in Europe and the United States. She studied Tai Chi, Acupressure, Reiki, and is a Yoga for the Lattice and EMF Balancing Technique energy work practitioner.

Stan Strickland
Singer, saxophonist, flutist, actor Stan Strickland has performed throughout the United States, Europe, Scandinavia, the Caribbean, New Zealand and the former Soviet Union. In addition to numerous radio and television appearances, Stan has performed in many clubs and concert halls, including Jordan and Symphony Halls in Boston, Carnegie Recital Hall and Town Hall in New York, and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Stan has performed with jazz greats Yusef Lateef, Pharoah Sanders, Herbie Mann, Danilo Perez, Shirley Scott and Marlena Shaw.

The 5 Rhythms: A Moving Tantric Conscious Connection

www.Margauxskalecki.com

Belly Dance to Bliss: an ecstatic dance journey
Discover this earthy and sensual dance from the Middle East. Learn slow serpentine snake-arms, body-waves, Belly-rolls, and figure eights along with fast and fiery hip-locks and shimmies.Wear comfortable clothing (Optional: bring any variety of scarf for the hips).

Johara
Johara has been a leading performer, instructor, choreographer, and percussionist since 1995. She is certified in Hatha & Vinyasa yoga and has trained in multiple dance styles. As the director of Snake Dance Theater Company, she has performed her innovative blend of traditional (Egyptian, Turkish) and fusion belly dance in Turkey, Greece, Brazil and across the US. She’s produced over 15 theatrical shows. Currently, Johara teaches at the New
England Movement Arts and the Dance Complex where she has been a faculty member since 1993.

Argentine Tango
Argentine Tango has been enthralling dancers for over 100 years, and is surging worldwide among dancers of all ages. In social tango, dancers improvise musically within a close embrace. Tango is creative, dynamic, challenging, fun, expressive and transcendent. Come singly or with a partner to discover the special connection that is tango.

Hseuh-Tze Lee
Hsueh-tze Lee teaches tango across the United States and internationally. www.bluetango.org

Foot Reflexology/Foot Massage
You are invited to delight in a few minutes of foot heaven with us! No previous experience necessary and beginners especially welcome.  Together we will create a safe space for giving and receiving healing energy and learning to share the magic of a foot massage with each other.  Join us for the pleasure, the intimacy and the joy of learning to release tension and restore body balance.

Bill Kennedy
Bill Kennedy has taught numerous classes of yoga, massage, reflexology, and meditation for many years.   His regular Reflexology classes at the MIT Medical Department and at Cambridge Center for Adult Education received 5 stars consistently.  Formerly he taught Physics at MIT and was a Research Fellow in Mind Body Medicine at Harvard Medical School.  He is a Reike Master, and trained in Reconnection Healing.  He believes each of us has a miraculous capacity for healing ourselves and others. 

Contact Improvisation: how to do it and why it’s fun
Want to know more about Contact Improvisation Dance? Come to the 50 minute class  You will get to explore the spirit of contact: make warm contact with fellow dancers while tuning into your own creative impulses. You will also get tips on how to safely share weight, space, and leadership with your fellow dancers. We will also touch on bringing story and character into a dance. Everyone welcome. You can adapt the invitations to what works for your body–and fine to come and watch. There will be lovely music during some of the class and a chance to be inspired by contact principles in your dance.

Chris Ellinger 

Tango/Contact Fusion
Exploring your improvisational dance. Individual and partnered fusion inspired by Contact Improv and Argentine Tango. This class will explore dance through connection and improvisational movement and go beyond the limits of any individual dance to enjoy the playful meeting with oneself, dance, partners, music, and community space.
ALL LEVELS no partner necessary.
PLEASE: bring socks or soft–soled dance shoes and comfortable clothes to move in!

Erica Skye Roper
Erica Skye Roper’s earliest dance memories are of folk dancing with her sister and grandparents. Erica joined her first performance folk dance team Hop Brook Morris when she was ten years old, she began dancing the Cuban Salsa Rueda at twelve, Rapper Sword dancing at thirteen, the Argentine Tango at nineteen and isn’t exactly sure when she began exploring Contact Improv. Erica continues to study a wide variety of dance forms but no dance has influenced her life more profoundly than the Argentine Tango. Erica does not remember exactly when she transitioned from primarily learning dance to also teaching dance. Erica teaches Tango Fusion, Argentine Tango, and Salsa Rueda classes for various types of dancers, organizations, dance communities, and colleges across New England. Erica believes that learning anything; specifically, dance is a lifelong process. She continues to study dance and enjoys playing with Tango Fusion particularly at the interstation of Argentine Tango and Contact Improvisation. 
Erica is available for private lessons in Western Massachusetts and the greater Boston Area.