Social Dance at UT Austin
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Welcome to Dance Lab!
On this page, you'll find some fun activities that you can participate in while at Dance Lab!
Learning New Moves
If you want to learn new moves in the dance of the day, you can ask Nick and Melissa or one of the CAs, or you can explore one the the following two playlists of YouTube videos: our demo videos from UT, or performances of the dance from around the world.
UT Cross-Step Waltz Demos: All of the demos that Nick and Melissa and the CAs have produced.
Cross-Step Waltz Performances: A variety of performances from YouTube.
Creating New Moves
If you want a fun creativity challenge, we encourage you to use one of the following "Random Move Generators" to get the name of a new variation and then come up with a series of movements in today's dance that fit the name. In all three cases, we recommend that you click through a bunch of options until you find something that speaks to you! If you come up with something, Nick and Melissa would love to see it!
Random Dance Vocabulary Generator: This generator randomly suggests words and phrases that could be the name of a dance move. Your challenge is to create a new move inspired by this name.
Random Dance Mood Generator: This generator randomly suggests emojis that could inspire you to create a new move. Your challenge is to create a new move inspired by this emoji.
Random Dance Move Generator: This generator (the original!) was first developed by our friend Lucas Garron at Stanford. It mashes together existing pieces of dance vocabulary to suggest the name of a new move. If you don't know what a word or phrase means, you can ask Nick or Melissa what it means, or you can come up with your own interpretation. It's totally fine to use only part of the name, so if it says "in cross-step waltz," but you want to do it in another dance instead, go for it!
Upcoming Dance Labs
- March 22 - Cross-Step Waltz
- March 29 - Salsa
- April 5 - Fusion Party
- April 12 - West Coast Swing
- April 19 - Tango / CA Auditions
- April 26 - Country / CA Callbacks
Other UT Social Dance Events
- March 28, 7-10 pm at the Tower - Tower Jam
- April 23, 7-10 pm in the Union Ballroom - Social Dance Soirée
Past Events
March 8, 2024 - Wonderlab
March 1, 2024 - Nightclub
February 23, 2024, 2024 - Bachata
February 20, 2023 - Tower Jam
February 16, 2023 - Valentine's Day
February 2, 2023 - East Coast Swing
January 26, 2023 - Mixer Party
January 19, 2023 - All Dances
November 30, 2023 - Evening Soirée
November 30, 2023 - Daytime Soirée
December 1, 2023 - Country
November 17, 2023 - Tango
November 10, 2023 - West Coast Swing
October 27, 2023 - Salsa / Halloween
October 20, 2023 - Cross-Step Waltz
October 17, 2023 - Tower Jam
October 6, 2023 - Nightclub
September 29, 2023 - Bachata
September 22, 2023 - Fox Trot / Huapangos
September 15, 2023 - Rotary Waltz
September 8, 2023 - East Coast Swing
September 1, 2023 - Mixer Party
April 26, 2023 - Soirée
April 14, 2023 - Country
April 14, 2023 - Tango
April 7, 2023 - West Coast Swing
March 31, 2023 - Salsa
March 28, 2023 - Tower Jam
March 24, 2023 - Fusion Party
March 10, 2023 - Cross-Step Waltz
March 3, 2023 - Nightclub
February 24, 2023 - Bachata
February 17, 2023 - Rotary Waltz
February 16, 2023 - Tower Jam #1
February 10, 2023 - Valentine's Day
January 27, 2023 - East Coast Swing
January 20, 2023 - Mixer Party
November 30, 2023 - Soirée
November 18, 2022 - Tango
November 15, 2022 - Tower Jam #2
November 4, 2022 - West Coast Swing
October 28, 2022 - Salsa / Wonderlab
October 21, 2022 - Cross-Step Waltz
October 14, 2022 - Rumba
October 13, 2022 - Tower Jam #1
October 7, 2022 - Nightclub
September 30, 2022 - Bachata
September 23, 2022 - Improv Contra
September 16, 2022 - Rotary Waltz
September 9, 2022 - East Coast Swing
September 2, 2022 - Mixer Party
May 6, 2022 - Country
April 29, 2022 - West Coast Swing
April 26, 2022 - Waltz Outing
April 22, 2022 - Rotary Waltz
April 15, 2022 - Tango
April 8, 2022 - Salsa
April 1, 2022 - East Coast Swing / Wonderlab
March 25, 2022 - Cross-Step Waltz
March 11, 2022 - Nightclub
March 4, 2022 - Bachata
© 2022 Nick Enge