Night time is the right time.
Come dance on Thursdays!
February 19,26 March 5, 12,19, 2o15.
6:15-7:15 p.m.
Balance Studio
418 North 35th Street
Seattle, WA 98103
$50 for the series*
Drop-ins are welcome: $15 at the door.
The Thursday night series is designed for those who want to go deeper into the intensity, technique and choreography of Wassa Dance. The lively hour features focused energy and choreography along with deeper skills and technique. And, it’s FUN FOR ALL!
Series spaces are limited. Please contact Lara to sign up.
Drop-ins are welcome: $15 at the door.
*no refunds or extensions on individual series purchases
It’s rare that I get this sort of thing but today I received this really lovely piece from one of my beloved long time students. Darryl is a wonderful human being with a large heart and a wicked fun sense of playful adventure. I am honored by what he has to say here:
About Wassa Dance
I’m a runner and 63 years old. I had never taken a dance class, except for square dancing in my entire life. Then, more years ago then I dare to count, I decided to take a risk and walk through the door to an African dance class taught by Lara on the second floor of the Physical Culture dance studio. My wife was taking Lara’s class and said I would love the music. She was right. I loved the music and did my best to imitate Lara’s moves. The music pulled me in and to my amazement I believed I was learning the movement and the dance. At least I was moving in the right direction most of the time and even my feet occasionally seemed to follow Lara’s pattern and rhythm. But when I took a moment to observe amidst the excitement of of a new experience, I seemed to be moving in dancing in a dimension different than the one Lara and the other dancers were dancing in. During classes Lara described bowls of light, johnny jump-ups, lava flows, internal rubberbands, sugar cane harvesting, star fish and Bamako club dancing. Lara kept describing the experience of moving from the center and letting the movement begin internally and flow, shimmy, warble and wisp out to the fingers, toes and crown of the head and beyond to the sky and earth and then loop back for another go. I loved the class and just wanted it to go on for hours. Somehow over the years the watching, imitating and listening seemed to sink into this runner and I would begin to experience brief moments of pure joy and ecstasy when somehow I would sync in with Lara’s moves, the spirit and beat of the music and the moves of the other dancers. I just wanted that fleeting moment to last forever. I am still running long distances and have now gotten bit by the trail running bug. When I’ve consumed my initial burst of energy in the first couple of miles and have many more to go, I find that center for running and try to relax and settle into it with legs, arms, body and energy moving from the center, connecting and reconnecting to the earth and moving through space. Thanks Lara!
Darryl Eastin
Maketa, Alexandra, Bill and Blake were an awesome house band for our Dec.-April 2014 Live Music Sundays.
“I believe that Lara a marvelous leader, visionary for African dance in America, and powerful instructor. I was thrilled to see that our dance group was “my” age group. I have enthusiastically shared my wonderful Wassa Dance experience with many family and friends.”
Bettina M- Alaska
Participant in “Spring Tuning” at Kalani Oceanside Retreat Center, 2014.
Saturday June 14, 2014 
5 – 8 p.m.
Balance Studio
418 N.35th St
Seattle WA 98103
advance registration – $20
at the door, if there’s room – $35
Wassa Dance is hosting a dance class and party with Ousmane Sylla, Samato Contemporary African Dancer and Get the Party Started Master.
We’ll begin the fun with a Samato Dance class. Then we’ll show off our moves with Ousmane spinning the Samato
tunes to get our groove on! It’s going to be so much fun.
Space is limited for this very special event. Early registration is strongly encouraged.
SIGN UP WITH LARAMore about Ousmane and Samato Dance.
INTERNAL & EXTERNAL ORIENTATION with Janelle Campoverde and Lara McIntosh SATURDAY MAY 31, 2014
2:30-4:30 P.M.
BALANCE STUDIO 418 North 35th St. Seattle, WA 98103
$50
The intricacy of our human design hard-wires our brains to be continually learning throughout our lives.
Orientation involves awareness of three dimensions: time, place and being. We learn orientation through movement.
In this workshop, Lara and Janelle will introduce ways to hone your ability to orient where you are while you are dancing. Lara will bring the movement patterns you that you both enjoy and are challenged by in dance classes. Janelle will offer exploratory movements that heighten your ability to feel yourself and your surroundings while moving – clarifying how to direct your movement intentionally and spontaneously.
To register, please contact Lara McIntoshMore about Janelle Campoverde
WASSA DANCE’S SAVORY AUTUMN INTENSIVE
with Lara McIntosh
Madrona MindBody Institute
Fort Warden in Port Townsend, WA.
Friday Oct. 10 – Sunday Oct. 12th, 2013
Join us for a delicious autumn weekend of inspiration and concentrated experiences of Wassa Dance’s joyful African-infused offerings at one of the Puget Sound’s most beautiful resources for movement studies.
Inspired by the elemental roots of music and moves from Africa and the Americas, this retreat is designed for people who love to move in a nourishing, structured environment. Our sessions will include image-rich movement meditations, floor work and stretching, along with spirited dancing in Wassa’s unique style.
Prices include five intensive Wassa Dance sessions, lodging, 2 breakfasts and lunches, all fees and taxes.
Single rooms : $475
Couples/Shared room : $800
Limited enrollment for one or two day movement sessions Saturday and Sunday and scholarships, available by request.
To register for this workshop or for additional information contact Lara McIntosh: lara@wassadance.com
More about Madrona MindBody Institute.

Celebrate Thanksgiving with Village Volunteers and contribute to a woman’s opportunity for economic freedom and independence.
Wassa Dance’s 10th Annual Thanks-Giving Dance by Donation
featuring some Seattle’s finest percussionists and Lara’s joyful moves
(please plan to dance barefoot at this event!)
Thursday, November 28, 2013
9:00 – 10:30 a.m.
ARC School of Ballet – 9250 14th Ave. NW Seattle WA 98117 (Ballard)
This year we will be dancing for the “Ndori Banana Women’s Fund” which helps women access micro loans to start businesses or enhance their small enterprises in a small village in Western Kenya. Our goal is to sponsor as many women as we can with $100 seed loans.
All loan recipients receive training and assistance with becoming economically stable. The loans are administered locally and when the funds are paid back, they are reinvested with more local women’s projects.
This kind of fundraising alliance has touched many people’s lives through the amplifier effect of resources and expertise being passed hand to hand. On the women’s meeting days, their camaraderie is palpable when they dance and sing greetings to one another. Let’s join that spirit this Thanksgiving!
We invite you to also keep it local by contributing part or all of your donation to the operational expenses of Village Volunteers, the organization that keeps all of these programs going throughout the year. If you’d like to support both Ndori Banana Fund in Kenya and Village Volunteers in Seattle, you can designate the amount you’d like to go to each on the memo line of your check or a note with cash donations. We are very grateful for your support!
All donations are tax-deductible and eligible for company matching funds. If you can’t attend and want to contribute, send a check with Wassa Dance on the memo line to:
Village Volunteers
5100 South Dawson Street, Suite 202,
Seattle, WA 98118
ASANTE SANA!!
For more event information contact Lara at: lara@wassadance.com
For more information about Wassa Dance: www.wassadance.com
For more about Village Volunteers’ great work: www.villagevolunteers.org or contact shana@villagevolunteers.org or call 206-683-6681
Bringing their collective years of movement and music explorations together, collaborators Lara McIntosh and Marla Simms invite you to
WASSA DANCE – SPRING TUNING
March 9-15, 2014
Big Island, Hawaii
Kalani Oceanside Retreat Center
Shake out your winter bones and seed a new season of your body’s potential for ease and joyful vitality through dance and movement exploration. Come as you are and let the rhythms take you deeper!
Included in this six day sweet island style retreat are daily sessions of image rich movement meditations, floor work and stretching along with spirited dance segments in Wassa’s unique style. Spontaneous offerings for group or individual sessions TBA throughout the week. Portions of each day are purposefully left open for participants to enjoy their own experience of Kalani’s offerings along with the many other delights and resources of Kalani and its neighborhood. Delicious daily buffet style meals, accommodations and use of Kalaniʼs grounds, pool and spa are also included.
We will
- Cultivate fresh vibrancy in our physical wit and wisdom.
- Establish healthy practices designed to take and grow at home to nourish an active longevity.
- Free our bones with Afro-infused dance inspired by some of the best music the world has to offer.
- Engage our senses with the complex natural and cultural beauty that IS the Big Island where ocean meets lava, mongoose, wild pigs, tree frogs, bird song, hula, solar power, compost, and not so far away strip malls all exist with the newest earth and cleanest air in the world.
To register contact Lara McIntosh: lara@wassadance.com
Registration requires a $250 nonrefundable deposit
.
| RETREAT FEES (per person) | Single Occupancy | Double Occupancy |
| Lodge Room (shared bath) | $995 | $1240 |
| Lodge Room (private bath) | $1225 | $1475 |
| Tree House Room | $1350 | $1675 |
| Bungalow Room | $1350 | $1675 |
Lara McIntosh has studied dance all her life and is an active member of Seattle dance, music and public art communities.
Lara is the originator of Wassa Dance which is inspired by dances and music from the African diaspora. She has been teaching independently in this Afro-fusion style since 1997. Travels to Brazil and Mali, West Africa and ongoing study with locally based teachers are great influences in her work. “Wassa” is the Bambara name Lara received during her first visit to Mali. It translates as “one who acts for joy and fulfillment.”
Lara’s curiosity about movement and cultures are combined with a deep love for music and community building. She has a long history of collaboration for performance, event production and movement education which include ten years with THREAD DANCE, multiple collaborations with artist Cameron Anne Mason and the Fremont Arts Council for parade and pageant presentations. During her six years on the Board of Directors of the
Seattle World Percussion Society (SWPS), she helped oversee the production of the World Rhythm Festival at Seattle Center, which is one of the largest free percussion festivals in the country.
Lara is an adjunct faculty member of the ARC School of Ballet. She also offers school residencies and conducts annual intensive workshops in Washington State and Hawaii.
Marla Simms started her love affair with the human body and its magic from the inside out. She experienced the boldness and explosive energy of a gymnast in her youth. Later, she studied modern dance and performed in the Southwest and the Pacific Northwest (Pat Graney & Co. and THREAD DANCE). She then turned to focus on the exploration of other’s bodies through the study and practice of massage. She has been a massage practitioner and massage educator for 20 years. She teaches continuing education classes for massage practitioners in the greater Puget Sound area. As an educator, she pursues a better understanding of the soft tissues of the human body and how they react, however subtly, to the stresses and challenges of life and living. For Marla, the body continues to be a venue of art, joy, and discovery. marlasimms.massagetherapy.com,
The time has come for me to discontinue our current Wednesday evening classes at SHIFT, sigh. I love dancing at night, especially in the warm summer months where we open the big garage door and let the light pour in. And, I’m very grateful to the devoted folks who have been supporting this “after work” option for so long.
While June 5th will be our last of the this round, I’m looking forward to discovering what comes next. I’d be very happy to co-invent the next version, so stay tuned! I’m open to suggestions and requests.
Meanwhile, let’s dance into the evenings, May 8, 15, 22,29 and June 5!!