Ballroom dance club creates Elvis dance festival
April 20th 2014
The Associated Press
TUPELO, Miss. — For three days starting Friday, the Tupelo Ballroom Dance Club will go all-Elvis.
Since Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo, the club is holding a new festival called Dancing with the King.
"I learned to dance to Elvis music. We learned to bop," said festival organizer Rubye Del Harden told the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal. "If you can't dance to Elvis, who can you dance to?"
The three-day festival, which starts Friday, includes a variety of workshops and competitions. A shuttle will run between the festival and Presley's birthplace. Tickets are $10 a day for children, $25 or $50 for adults; contestants pay entry fees from $25 to $75 per couple.
Workshops and contest dances are not limited to Presley's swivel-hipped style. But whether contestants waltz, foxtrot, rumba or tango, it must be to an Elvis vocal.
Harden hopes the event will get a new generation interested in Presley.
"These kids weren't around for him, so who's Elvis to them? We want his legacy to continue," she said.
Another organizer, Charlise Latour, said that idea is the heart of the weekend.
"He recorded 738 songs," she said. "That's 738 opportunities to dance."
source: http://www.kansascity.com
April 20th 2014
The Associated Press
TUPELO, Miss. — For three days starting Friday, the Tupelo Ballroom Dance Club will go all-Elvis.
Since Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo, the club is holding a new festival called Dancing with the King.
"I learned to dance to Elvis music. We learned to bop," said festival organizer Rubye Del Harden told the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal. "If you can't dance to Elvis, who can you dance to?"
The three-day festival, which starts Friday, includes a variety of workshops and competitions. A shuttle will run between the festival and Presley's birthplace. Tickets are $10 a day for children, $25 or $50 for adults; contestants pay entry fees from $25 to $75 per couple.
Workshops and contest dances are not limited to Presley's swivel-hipped style. But whether contestants waltz, foxtrot, rumba or tango, it must be to an Elvis vocal.
Harden hopes the event will get a new generation interested in Presley.
"These kids weren't around for him, so who's Elvis to them? We want his legacy to continue," she said.
Another organizer, Charlise Latour, said that idea is the heart of the weekend.
"He recorded 738 songs," she said. "That's 738 opportunities to dance."
source: http://www.kansascity.com
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