🎶✨ REGISTRATION OPEN: 19th-21st December 2025 — Blues Dance Workshop with The Stones ✨🎶
✅ World-class instructors
✅ 14 hours of instruction
✅ Social dancing at local live music venues
Why “Lil’ Sumpin’ Sumpin'”?
[ˈlɪɫ ˈsʌmpɪn ˈsʌmpɪn]
“little” → [lɪɫ] or [lɪʔɫ]
- The /t/ is either deleted or replaced with a glottal stop [ʔ] (common in informal or fast speech).
- Final syllable /əl/ is reduced to syllabic or velarized [ɫ].
“something” → [sʌmpɪn]
- The /θ/ is deleted (a process called consonant cluster reduction).
- The final [ɪŋ] is reduced to [ɪn], known as g-dropping (though there’s no actual “g” — this is nasal place assimilation from [ŋ] to [n]).
This phrase is from African American Vernacular English (AAVE), where it means something with a little extra — something cool, special, and full of flavor. That’s the spirit of this weekend.
This isn’t just a dance workshop. It’s a space to connect more deeply with the Black American cultural roots of the blues — its values, movement aesthetics, and embodied history. You’ll get that “lil’ sumpin’ sumpin'” to help you grow — from someone who moves to the blues, to a true ⁵⁵ dancer.
Whether you’re just stepping into the scene or looking to refine your style, we’re here to help you level up with respect, rhythm, and soul. 🕺🏽💙
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🔎 Details:
- 📅 Date: 19-21 December 2025
- ⏰ Time: TBA
- 📍 Location: Huahin Dancesport Academy
- 🎶 Socials: Daily dancing at local live music venues!
- 📅 Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/715956031120627/
🎟️ Registration:
- Full Workshop Early Bird Opens: July 1st — 3500 THB
- Full Workshop Regular Registration Opens: July
15th22nd — 3850 THB - Individual Day Registration Opens: September 1st — 575 THB Friday, 1725 THB Saturday / Sunday
- Full Workshop Late Registration Opens: September 1st — 4200 THB
- Individual Day Late Registration Opens: October 1st — 650 THB Friday, 1950 THB Saturday / Sunday
- Individual Workshop Registration: At the door only (as available)
▶️ Videos:
📍 Venues:
Workshops
Huahin Dancesport Academy
Google Map | Instagram | Facebook
- Address: 708 Hin Lek Fai, Hua Hin District, Prachuap Khiri Khan 77110, Thailand
The location of all our dance workshops! Located in the T Rex Sport Club / Badminton Courts
Social Dancing
Woodstock Hua Hin
Google Map | Instagram | Facebook
- Address: Hua Hin 88 Rd, Tambon Hua Hin, Hua Hin District, Prachuap Khiri Khan 77110, Thailand
- Happy Hour: 1pm-8pm
- Live Music: 9pm-late
A fantastic local live music venue. Ped Bluesman and Friends play often, and Sunday nights there is a blues jam. They serve food all day, so it is an option for after-workshop dinner if you want to arrive early before the music. We will have a table reserved for around 30 people starting at 8pm
Food / Brunch & Learn
Panini Restaurant & Cafe
Google Map | Instagram | Facebook
- Address: 708 Hin Lek Fai, Hua Hin District, Prachuap Khiri Khan 77110, Thailand
- Hours: 8am-7pm
The location of the optional bonus workshop! Also convenient for lunch breaks. Located in the T Rex Sport Club / Badminton Courts
ℹ️ Instructor Bios:
Damon Stone
Damon has been dancing his entire life, starting with vernacular Jazz/Blues first taught to him at the tender age of six by his grandmother. After nearly a decade of learning at the heels of his elders, he went on and eventually studied a numerous dance forms until coming full circle in 1995 to focus primarily on the history and styles of Swing and Blues as his family danced them with a special focus on the Southern styles from the Mississippi Delta region. He has studied the development of vernacular Jazz/Blues dance across the United States learning from a number of the original dancers. He is largely regarded as one of the foremost authorities on Blues idiom dance and has been interviewed as a dance historian in documentary and for radio. Damon has been a featured instructor at camps, festivals, and workshops across five continents.
Kelsy Stone
Kelsy brings her lifetime of dance training, a passion for vernacular dance, and a sharp eye for technique to the Blues dance world. She has brought her joy and knowledge of blues idiom dances to some of the most high-profile events in the US, including but not limited to: bluesSHOUT!, The Experiment, and Nocturne Blues–serving as faculty, mentor, competition coordinator, and judge.
Kelsy’s critical eye and love of deep technique are tempered by her love of “dad jokes,” getting lost in the music, and embracing of the ridiculous. She shows her appreciation of African American culture by speaking of the history of Blues idiom dance and taking her craft seriously, but never herself. She believes every mistake is an opportunity to learn, every class an opportunity to challenge, and every dance an opportunity to pay respect to those who came before.
🗒️ Class Descriptions:
Friday Evening Focus – Building Blocks
Block 1 – Coming Where I’m From: Blues Fundamentals (6pm)
Blues as an improvisational folk art form depends on a shared set of value based rules that defines the language of the Blues. In this class we’ll teach those rules giving you a foundation to build your Blues upon.
Block 2 – Get On The Good Foot: Juke Joint Sampler (7pm)
In this class we will teach numerous common Blues moves and movements which are in truth the basic steps for entire Blues idiom dances. You’ll get a chance to learn some new dances and have your mind expanded on familiar territory.
Saturday Focus – Creating The Blueprint
Block 1 – Rhythm Nation: Let the Music Move You (10am)
Understanding how the cultural expression of African-Americans translated into both music and movement allows us to take our own ideas and thoughts and translate them in a way that is both authentic to ourselves AND to Blues.
LUNCH BREAK (12pm)
Block 2 – The Way: Matching Idioms to Music (2pm)
Being able to recognize different elements in Blues music can help us determine what subgenres they are and how best to dance to them in an authentic and musically appropriate way. In this class we’ll explore what separates one subgenre from another and how those elements drive the various idiomatic approaches to Blues dance.
Block 3 – Hustle & Flow: Blues Tempo is Every Tempo (4pm)
There is an enormous tempo range for Blues music from 40 bpm to 240 bpm. The concept that Blues is a genre of music or dance meant for a specific narrow range of tempo is misguided. In this class we will focus on being both technical and expressive across the range of tempos and learn to love the variety of expression that each offers.
Sunday Focus – Culture and Context
Block 0.5 (Brunch & Learn) – The Blues Migration (10am)
(Bonus workshop! Taught by Elizabeth Kilrain with input from the Stones)
Join us for a journey through over a century of blues history, exploring how the Great Migration and movement of Black populations shaped regional styles from Delta to Chicago, Texas to Kansas City. Understanding the historical context behind the music deepens how you connect to the dance—each region’s sound carries its own story, and knowing those stories matters when you step on the floor. Food orders from the venue are highly recommended (outside food not allowed).
BRAIN BREAK (11:30am)
Note that there will not be an additional lunch break due to the Brunch & Learn session.
Block 1 – About Last Night: Triples, Shuffles, and Straight 8s (12pm)
Now we put that history into your body. We’re exploring how to hear the musical characteristics—Triples, Shuffles, and Straight 8s—so you can identify when the music is calling for Chicago Triple, Struttin’, or Texas Shuffle. You’ll work on identifying musical cues that define different blues subgenres, reading which idiom the music is asking for, and connecting regional sounds to how you express in the dance. The music tells you which idiom to dance—let’s make sure you’re listening right.
Block 2 – All Eyes On Me (2pm)
In this class, we’ll teach using an African American pedagogical approach of “vernacular instruction” or “do as I do” challenging students to take what they’ve learned about Black culture, values, and the Blues aesthetic to learn styling, form, movement, and moves purely from observation.
Block 3 – Read the Room: Dancing in Community (4pm)
Social dancing requires dancing in social spaces, among people you share an interest in Blues with at the very least. This could be your partner that you are engaging in lead/follow with, this could be the person you are solo dancing with (be it riffing or cutting), or it could be everyone on and off the floor within that venue. This class will focus on the context in which Blues dancing happens, address the responsibility we owe to our partners, regardless of which form they come in, and how to engage with them well.