FORT ATKINSON – The Fort Atkinson Club Community Center, located at 211 S. Water Street East, Fort Atkinson, WI 53538, is welcoming social dance lessons for an 8-week Sunday series running April 3 through May 22, 2016.  Professional instructor Denay Trykowski will offer “SLOW DANCING WITH NIGHT CLUB TWO STEP” from 3:00 PM to 4:15 PM, and “FAST DANCING WITH EAST COAST SWING” from 4:30 PM to 5:45 PM.  A free sample lesson will be offered on Sunday, March 20 at 3 PM.  Denay encourages people to come to the FAC to try out either or both of those dance styles prior to starting a session.

Denay will teach Night Club Two Step and East Coast Swing for beginner-level adults age 18 & older with little or no previous social dance experience.  Partners are recommended, but not required.  Persons wishing to register without a partner should contact the instructor.  Pre-registration is required by Saturday, March 26.  For more information, fees, and pre-registration, contact instructor at trykowsd@att.net, or call 262-473-2300.

Night Club Two Step is not a new dance – its creator, Buddy Schwimmer, introduced it about 50 years ago in 1965, making it most visible and popular in metropolitan areas.  It works with slow evocative ballads often heard on easy-listening radio programs, pop music stations, and country western radio. It is a good choice for those special wedding occasions when the groom leads his new bride in a slow dance, and the father dances with his newly-married daughter.  Night Club Two Step dancing usually fits most American slow ballads written in 4/4 time.  It is a smooth, soft dance executed to lyrical, emotive music.

East Coast Swing is older than Night Club Two Step. It officially arrived for the general public via ballroom dance studios in the 1940s, on the heels of the black street dance Lindy Hop/Jitterbug of the 1920s and 30s. Sometimes called Eastern Swing, it was an attempt by ballroom studios to tame the wild and frenzied early Lindy Hop dance, making it more accessible to a white, older, ballroom dance market.  Unlike Lindy Hop evolving out of Harlem NYC among black street dancers during the jazz age, East Coast Swing is an invented, simplified adaptation of the original Jitterbug or Lindy Hop.  It is danced to Swing music genres starting with the Big Band Era, 40s Bebop, all the way through and beyond 50s pop music known as Rock-N-Roll.

Denay Trykowski, BA, MS is not a newcomer to dance and its many styles. Since receiving her Master’s Degree in dance from James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA, she has taught modern, ballet, ballroom, social dance, ethnic dance, country western line dance, aerobic dance, movement education, rhythmic fundamentals, and dance fitness. She has also danced in entertainment and competition settings.

Denay loves to dance Night Club, Hustle, Salsa, East Coast Swing, Merengue, Mambo, Cha-Cha, Rumba, Bachata, Lindy Hop, Viennese Waltz, and Polka.  Since recently retiring from teaching Dance at UW-Whitewater, she wants to share her passion for dancing with the community.

After graduate studies in dance, Denay performed partner dances for “The Old Country” at Busch Gardens, Williamsburg, VA, where she entertained theme park visitors in exhibition American Clog and German Oktoberfest shows.  She also trained as a professional ballroom dance instructor with Arthur Murray Ballroom Dance Studios, Newport News, VA.

She was part of the Bannerman Cloggers of Richmond, VA, who traveled to Korea to perform as part of a Friendship Force Exchange in Seoul.  As faculty director of the Salisbury State College Dance Company in Maryland, she choreographed and coordinated student performances in contemporary and ethnic dance forms. Before moving to WI, Denay choreographed and performed in a “Country Western Cabaret”, Indianapolis, IN.  In Wisconsin, Denay trained with professional American social dance instructors for West Coast Swing, Lindy Hop, Waltz, Night Club, and Hustle.  She is a former Pro-Am partner-dance competitor for West Coast Swing, Night Club Two Step, and Hustle in Chicago, Detroit, and Madison.

Denay was previously employed as a dance and fitness instructor by the University of Richmond (Richmond, VA), Salisbury State College (Salisbury, MD), Wichita State University (Wichita, KS), Ball State University (Muncie, IN), and UW-Whitewater, (Whitewater, WI).