I hope everyone was able to enjoy a wonderful holiday weekend of Red, White & BLUES!! Speaking of Blues, North Star Blues 2010 is just a little over two months away, and really, at the mind-bogglingly low LOW price of $45, how can you NOT be registered for this year?! You’ll be getting an incredible weekend of dancing, for a great price!! Check out http://www.northstarblues.com to sign up today!

When you do register, don’t forget to sign up for housing. We are looking for local dancers to host the amazing out-of-town guests who will be coming in for the event. The competitions for this year, Strictly Blues, Jack & Jill and Team Cutting are going to be outstanding, and we have several registrants for that as well. I have a feeling that the Team Canada will be looking for revenge against Team Planet in the Team Cutting Competition!! Trust me, after seeing last year’s competition, this event is COMPLETELY worth the cost of registration, and you do NOT want to miss it.

Until September, keep dancing the Blues and we will see you in Minnesota!

If you haven’t already signed up for North Star Blues, what are you waiting for?! If you need a bit more convincing, how about checking out the following reasons?

1) The fall colors in Minnesota are spectacular, and what better place to enjoy them than outdoors Saturday afternoon with Blues and BBQ at Wolfe Park. Wolfe Park has served us well for many years, including up to 4 square feet of charcoal grilling surface and 500 square feet of smooth concrete dance surface. Bring a Frisbee or kick ball, maybe we'll get a game going!

2) After a great afternoon at Wolfe Park, we are pleased to have Moses Oakland performing at Jawaahir on Saturday evening. A native of San Francisco, guitarist and singer Moses Oakland came of age with the "San Francisco Sound" bands of the '60s. After a seven year break from professional playing, he returned to the scene in 1984 with the late Oakland, California bluesman Haskell "Cool Papa" Sadler. In 1987 he arrived, with his family, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Currently, he can be found around the Twin Cities, playing his guitar and singing with his smokin' Blues/R & B/Jazz quintet. Moses Oakland and Friends host the jam every Sunday, as they have since May of 2000, at Famous Dave's BBQ & Blues, In Uptown Minneapolis.

3) Sunday evening will bring us our Strictly Competition. This competition is for partnered couples. The music selected by our DJs will be of varied tempos but will be primarily be in the Classic, Piano, and Jazz Blues style. You may dance any style of Blues, and dancers will be judged on Blues Aesthetic, Musicality, and Creativity.

If the above reasons aren’t enough to convince you to sign up NOW, I’ll leave you with one final reason—the price to register is currently $50 for this incredible weekend, BUT the price will be going up on August 1st! So head to http://www.northstarblues.com and sign up today!

I don’t know about you, but I’m getting excited for North Star Blues 2010!!! We are so pleased to have Damon Stone as our Competition Coordinator again this year. AND, Minnesota can now claim him as one of our own!! Damon has been dancing his entire life has taught dance extensively on both coasts, and studied the development of vernacular jazz and blues dance regionally and nationally, traveling to New York, Chicago, Memphis, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, St. Louis, and New Orleans. All of our competitions will be in good hands with Damon at the helm!

If you were able to join us last year at ‘The Barn’, I’m sure you’ll recall the AWESOME Team Cutting competition in it’s first year. We are thrilled to be bringing this competition back again. Not sure what Team Cutting is? Well, Cutting or Challenge dancing has existed for as long as dance has been around. The roots among African Americans traces it way back to derision dances in West Africa, but can be seen from the Cake Walk and Jig contests of the days of slavery, through to back room joints like the Hoofer's Club, grand ballrooms like the Savoy where Whitey's team of youngsters went up against Shorty's team of seasoned veterans where a young Frankie Manning introduced the first airstep, all the way to the b-boy battles of the 80's and Krump sessions of today. The soul of improvisational dance was put on display in battles of skill and heart bothsolo, partnered and team.

Teams will be a minimum of four people and a maximum of eight. You are encouraged to work as a team and use both solo and coupled movement. The rules are simple--show us your best blues moves to the music of our choosing with the team of yours. Respect your opponents, and leave it all on the floor. Assemble your crew and practice your steps, because on Saturday night during North Star Blues someone is getting served and one team is going to walk away with all the bragging rights. Team costumes highly encouraged.

We return to Social Dance Studio for Sunday's Late Night Dance. The space has a unique atmosphere and will be the perfect location to finish out the weekend. And with access to the airport via the Light Rail, it is perfectly situated for those who will have to leave the party early in order to catch a flight home.

If you are interested in volunteering for the weekend, our application is now on-line, and you can sign up at: http://bit.ly/NSB2010Volunteer to help out! We do ask that applications be received by August 13, 2010. It is our plan to review them, and let everyone know by August 17th who has been selected.

So, have you signed up yet for North Star Blues 2010? If not, what are you waiting for?! Registration is currently $55, and you can register at: http://www.northstarblues.com.

See you in September!

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Less than a month and we will be enjoying North Star Blues 2010. Have your registered yet? If not, do so at http://www.northstarblues.com –prices will be going up again as of September 1st! A surprise hit from NSB 2009, Jojo's Rise and Wine turned out to be a fantastic Sunday afternoon dance. Relaxed with tasty food, this is the perfect fit after Saturday night. We can't wait to go back, and to take you along!

DJ Spotlight:

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p>Despite starting out in the "Let's blues dance to Maroon5!" camp during college, Susan Olson quickly learned to appreciate how much more the wonderful world of blues music has to offer. Her DJ style continues to evolve, drawing inspiration from blues music of a wide variety of regions, time periods, and artists, mixed with the occasional bit of soul and jazz. Susan's sets can range from Mahalia Jackson to Muddy Waters to Johnny Otis to Al Green. After DJing at every opportunity before graduating from college, she began spinning more and more frequently at house parties and dances in the Twin Cities, including North Star Blues 2009, and is inexpressibly excited to be playing at North Star again.

The fall weather has arrived in Minnesota and we are less than two weeks away from North Star Blues 2010! The event staff has been busy getting the final touches put on what will be a phenomenal blues exchange—even if we do say so ourselves! If you have not registered, there is still time to do so—just head to http://www.northstarblues.com and sign up today!! It will be a great weekend of dancing, competitions and music. We look forward to seeing you there!

DJ Spotlight: Jamison Valenta was raised under the Twin Cities dance umbrella at St. Olaf College. He fell in love with the blues about three years ago, and the music has filled up his life. After graduating, he moved to Chicago and started to collecting and playing blues for other dancers, and BAM, the DJ genie made Jamison a position among the blues DJs! Magic aside, he strives to play music that plays to your heart and trickles out your toes. And that, my dear friends, is something wonderful.