The Breakaway

Happy holiday everyone! Heads up on a very special event coming up tomorrow morning at 10:30am PST: Join Prof. Moncell IllKozby Durden, LaTasha Barnes, and other dance scholars for a panel and a screening of the documentary: "Everything Remains Raw". It is a film that explores the African history and heritage in many current day social dances being enjoyed by people around the world: https://www.moncelldurden.com/shop/everythingremainsraw

We miss live music, we miss social dancing, and most of all, we miss you, our community! This clip is from 3 years ago at The Breakaway in Oakland, California. Shannon Lea's Redwood Rhythm featuring Jessica King @jesking @shannonleajazz Wishing you all a safe holiday season

Hello folks! Our friends at San Jose Swing is holding a session tonight with special guest Shelby Johnson to talk about some Jazz/Swing era history! Come check it out and get your tickets ahead of time https://breakawayswing.square.site/special-community-events for the zoom link in email!

Hello friends! We wanted to let you all know that The Breakaway is planning to close our Tuesday night classes and socials for the months of November and December, and likely into 2021. This is due to the upcoming holiday season, and to take a pause to breathe after more than 6 months (!!!) of virtual events every Tuesday since the third week of March. We hope to start up again in 2021 with renewed energy, but it will most likely not be in the form of weekly virtual events,... and will depend on a number of factors. In the meantime, if anyone is feeling motivated and inspired to put together an event and needs support with getting the word out or using The Breakaway's online infrastructure, let us know! We’d be happy to help. Our goal during the pandemic was to provide our community with a sense of consistency, connection, and joy during a time that felt like the exact opposite. We are so appreciative of the dance teachers, DJs, musicians, speakers, students, participants from near and far, and community members that contributed to that sense of connection. We're also grateful to have had the opportunity to share in our continued learning about the African American roots and history of jazz and swing, and how this context applies to our present day lives. Thank you all for helping us get through this pandemic and have something positive to work toward and look forward to week after week. Hope to see you all in 2021 <3 Shawn Chiao, James McBryan, Jessica Dancisak, and Joleigh Davis-McBryan

Hello everyone! Professor Moncell Durden, with whom we had a fantastic talk on Black dance heritage back in June, is starting another online course. The course also includes a showing of his documentary, "Everything Remains Raw". Classes are on Saturday, from 10:30am to noon. Don't miss out on this!! https://www.moncelldurden.com/onlinecourse

Tonight's the night! Register at the link in our bio for @tasha_b_va's SOLO JAZZ WORKSHOP!! Thanks to Brynna from San Jose Swing for organizing this workshop, we are excited to learn from the incredible Tasha tonight at 7pm Pacific time! Her experience as an competive performer, artist and personal trainer make her uniquely suited to coach us on how to get the most out of dancing at home. Admission for this event is sliding scale, $5 - $15 depending on self-assessment of... what you can pay, no questions asked. All proceeds go directly to the instructor. #solojazz #latashabarnes #dancinginthetimeofcoronavirus #dancing #oaklandjazz #sfbayarea #sfjazz #jazzdance #vernacularjazz #vernacularjazzdance

After 8 months of virtual programming, next week is The Breakaway's last virtual class and social before we take a break for the holidays and beyond. We're going to round it out with a community Show & Tell! Come share what you've been up to the last 8 months or just come watch! We already have performers, songs, food projects, and arts&crafts projects on the list. Just sign up on FB and fill out the Google Form.... https://www.facebook.com/events/627441797972420 See more

We're collaborating with Wednesday Night Hop to bring you a special guest on Saturday, October 31st afternoon! Breai will be exploring the connection between African roots and Vernacular Jazz in this unique 2hr dance workshop. Breai Mason-Campbell is a Baltimore native, dancer, teacher, community activist, and cultural counselor. For the past two decades, she has been performing and designing curriculum to pass on African American history and culture through dance. Most recently, she trained students who won 1st place in the ILHC Juniors Division in 2019. Tickets are available on sliding scale starting at $5 - come join us and dance!

Tomorrow is our final DJ virtual party night! We'll have DJ Alex Fernandez and DJ Benji Ng from SF, DJ Gary Sharpe from Sac, DJ Steve Yang and DJ Catherine Marvin from the East Bay. Come join us, listen to music, and help us choose different genres for the DJs to play from in a "Riff Off" format. See you all tomorrow!... https://www.facebook.com/events/942202286289897

We have 6 Swing DJs this coming Tuesday spinning up our last Tuesday virtual party! Repping the East Bay are your very own DJ Steve and DJ Cat! Come join our DJs, relax to music, and learn new songs! We are presenting the DJs like a "game show" where it will be SF vs Sac vs the East Bay! We need you to help us decide the genres and who wins each rounds.... https://www.facebook.com/events/942202286289897

October is The Breakaway's last month of doing virtual socials and classes before we take a break for the holidays, with a big community show and tell at the end of the month. Kicking off October, we have a watch party watching "The Genius of Jazz with Wynton Marsalis and Jon Batiste" and solo jazz classes by Lori Taniguchi! Come join us!... https://www.facebook.com/events/2798319187151665

We are so happy to have Chester Whitmore joining us again and this time talking to us about the history of tap! Come join us, learn the history, learn from the legend! https://www.facebook.com/events/247701423217227

Tonight is the night! We are watching Evolutionary Blues: West Oakland's Blues History and director Cheryl Fabio will join us for Q&A after she presents it! This was a hard to get documentary and we're so glad it all worked so we could share it virtually with our community. If you plan on attending make sure to sign up a little earlier in order to get all your tech set up. There's a zoom and a scener this time around!... https://www.facebook.com/events/590434231839978/