Being sick is the worst! Being sick when you’re a dancer is the ABSOLUTE worst. Not only do you feel horrible, but you also can’t do what you would normally do to brighten your mood—dance! Now, as many of us know, the same could be said for staying in quarantine.

Dancing is incredibly demanding on the body.

Netflix. Amazon Prime. Hulu. HBO. Disney Plus. Countless others.

Ever since the coronavirus swept through most of the world in the first few months in 2020, all aspects of society have changed, from the way we grocery shop and interact on a daily basis to the way we experience art and entertainment. That has been especially true for dance and dance studios, which are adapting all across the country and, really, the world in order to confront these new challenges.

Dance is perhaps the most physically demanding and grueling art on the planet — and also maybe the most intimate. The necessary physical proximity to your partner or partners is key in many forms of dance, but especially in ballet, ballroom, and hip-hop. Even in elaborate group dances, physical engagement and connection drive a great performance. 

The events of the last week have been tremendously painful to us all.

As we know very well here at FloDance, there is nothing in the world that brings as much hope, inspiration, love, and human connection as dancing. Even in the midst of COVID-19 and the difficulties that this global pandemic has caused, people are still dancing. And there's nobody who has demonstrated that better than Dr. Jason Campbell, who practices at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland. 

The coronavirus pandemic has stranded all of us in our homes, and for dancers, that's especially difficult! We like to move, sweat, rehearse, perfect our routines, and express our creativity with our bodies. This whole lockdown thing is almost making that impossible.

Wow, dancers! What a way to end the week! The 2020 UCWDC Country Dance World Championships started with some wonderful dancing by the ProAm divisions and this year, the competition included over 6,500 entries! It just kept getting better and better as we moved into the Couples and Line Dance events, finally culminating in mind-blowing performances by the Classic Masters group on Saturday evening. 

It’s time again for the UCWDC Country Dance World Championships, friends! Held at the beautiful Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee, next week promises nonstop dancing in the form of workshops, daily competitive events, and nightly social dancing. Dancers, amateur and professional alike, from around the world have been preparing for this event all year. Some will be competing at Worlds for the first time, while others are returning to defend their titles or try for a second title at a new level.

The final competition of 2019 is officially complete, which means Worlds is just around the corner! Couples who qualified to dance in Nashville at the UCWDC Country Dance World Championships are surely making their final tweaks and adjustments and preparing to compete on the biggest stage in country western dance.

Happy Holidays, everyone! This weekend will mark less than two weeks until we find out if we made it onto Santa's Nice List. Can you believe it? Here at FloDance, we’re taking a break from shopping and gift wrapping to attend Christmas in Dixie, the final UCWDC competition before Worlds! That means it’s sure to be an exciting weekend.

One sign of a well-run event is one where a lot can go wrong behind the scenes without anyone attending the event ever noticing. During the awards ceremony at Dallas Dance Festival, one of the organizers, Dave Getty, shared how the dance floor went on a little adventure before finally arriving at the hotel much later than scheduled and how they finished setting up the ballroom with only 30 minutes to spare before the doors opened on the first day! Aside from a few sleep-deprived staff members that morning, you never would have known without him telling the story.

Happy November dance fans! The weather is getting cooler, the days are getting shorter, but the dancing just keeps ongoing. Things are heating up in the dance world as we get closer to the Country Dance World Championships, held in Nashville, Tennessee on December 29, 2019, through January 5, 2020. There are only a few events left where dancers can qualify to compete at Worlds, one of which is the Dallas Dance Festival happening this weekend.

While most of the country was experiencing cooler fall weather, things were heating up in Albuquerque this past weekend! The 30th anniversary of the New Mexico Dance Fiesta included some amazing dancing and close competitions.