What a great start to the year we’ve had. By popular demand, in February, we commenced 2 NEW Beginners programs (Level 1), on Tuesday evenings and Thursday mornings. ZOOZ now conducts in total, 5 adult dancing classes per week. Registration in our classes continues to grow, thanks to so many of you who have introduced your friends to our classes.

In all of our ZOOZ classes, the emphasis is on teaching our dancers how to learn how to dance, rather than how to learn how to follow: not only is dancing so much more enjoyable and fun this way, but it will also allow you to become very competent, advanced dancers in the future.
Dancers in our 2 NEW Beginners classes (Level 1) and our 2 Beginners to Low-Intermediate (Level 2 -3), are learning identical repertoire. Please try to keep in mind that we encourage members of these classes to come to both classes occasionally, if they happen to be struggling with a particular dance or step, or if they have missed a few classes. It is the best way to catch up and to reinforce all the basic steps that they have already learned. Some of our dancers choose to come routinely to both sessions as they find it helps them learn the dances quickly and with ease.
The repertoire for the Tuesday morning and Thursday evening classes at the intermediate levels (Level 3-5) however, is now slightly different. We wanted to add more variety for the many dancers who dance in both sessions.

TUESDAY MORNING CLASS: Level 2-5- Beginners to Intermediate Plus
The Tuesday morning group at Birch St  South Caulfield is a close knit  group that is always friendly and welcoming to any new dancers. The repertoire for the Tuesday group continues to grow whilst maintaining a very high standard of dancing. Their repertoire has almost reached 100 dances. We are currently adding to the repertoire a number of dances that were introduced through our recent workshop (April 9th) Rak Beyachad Nenatzeach, (Only together we will win), Metuka Ve’raka (Sweet & Soft), both choreographed by Dudu Barzilay.

TUESDAY EVENING CLASS: Levels 1: New Beginners and  Levels 2-3 Beginners – Low Intermediate
Tuesday evening starts with new beginners for the first hour and progresses to beginners to low intermediate in the second hour. The NEW Beginners have already mastered 11 dances, learning new dances quickly and easily. They are hungry to learn more and more!  Likewise, our Level 2’s who commenced in October 2005 are going amazingly well, with their repertoire having now grown to 22 dances.  It is a real pleasure to watch our dancers dance these dances with such confidence and joy.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT PARTNERS  CLASS: (Level 1: New Beginners and Levels 2 – 4 Beginners to Intermediate)
By popular demand, in February we also commenced partner classes. For Level 1 dancers, no prior dancing experience is needed. In this class, we teach the basics steps, combining them with fun, easy Israeli dances to enjoy. We teach the class basic rhythms and how to dance meringue, waltz, cha cha cha, and soon, salsa & tango as well. They have already mastered 7 dances and are eager to learn more. Newcomers are more than welcome.
This session is then followed by a low-intermediate to intermediate partners class (Levels 3 -4), who are learning more intricate rhythms and dance skills. They have recently learnt the challenging and beautiful romantic dance, Shir Mekomi (choreographed by Rafi Ziv), and the fun and fast DIneros, choreographed by (Israel Shabtai) and Korason, by Avi Perez, both Latin style dances. Their repertoire has grown to approx. 30 dances, and we are pleased to see how well they are progressing and how much they are enjoying the sessions.
Remember that in Israel and in all parts of the world, partner dancing is becoming as equally important as the circles & line dancing. In some sessions there is a 50/50 mix of circles & partners. The more advanced you become, the more likely it is that you will need to learn some partner dancing so that you are not sitting for half the night watching everyone else participate or have to go home early whilst everyone else is enjoying the partners bracket at the end of the night!
If you attend workshops or camps in Melbourne or overseas, there will be at least 1/3 of the sessions devoted to partner dancing. We therefore STRONGLY encourage you to try it.
If you would like to learn partner dancing but don’t have a partner, please speak to either Belinda or Richelle & we will see what we can do to help find one for you.
ZOOZ teachers are the leaders in teaching beginners partner dancing in Melbourne.  We are extremely patient, caring and dedicated and have a very good knowledge of various ballroom and Israeli dance styles. It is never too late to try it. You will find it to be lots of fun……guaranteed.

THURSDAY MORNING CLASS: Level 1 - New Beginners
Cindy has started teaching the NEW beginners class (Level 1) on a Thursday morning at the Scout Hall in Miller Street, Elsternwick.  The class has now learnt 8 circle dances and 3 line dances.  It is great to see this group of dancers improve their skills from week to week. The dancers are now learning their new dances quickly and with greater ease. The numbers in this class are growing and we look forward to teaching more exciting dances in the forthcoming weeks!!

THURSDAY NIGHT CLASS: Levels 2-5 - Beginners to Intermediate Plus
Thursday night class at the Finch St. E. Malvern Hall starts with beginners (Level 2) and progresses to intermediate plus (Level 5).  We are so pleased with the progress of the Thursday evening class, where it is thrilling to watch the class members able to enjoy learning dances quickly and to dance them with great competency. There is always such great energy and “ruach” in this evening class - the class always has that “party” atmosphere!! The repertoire (which encompasses circles, lines and partner dancing) has grown to 121 dances.
A big favourite at this class (and the Tuesday morning class) is the circle dance “Sonata” (We were the world’s first to learn this beautiful dance choreographed by Ira Weisburd! This is but one of the dances Richelle took back from her trip to Florida last December, having learnt it directly from Ira himself.  We are currently adding to the repertoire a number of dances that were introduced through our recent workshop (April 9th) including  Rak Beyachad Nenatzeach, (Only together we will win) by Dudu Barzilay, and Ba’ah Elechem (Coming to You) choreographed by Itzik Ben-Dahan.