Students / Attendees

Here's the information you need as an attendee.

How do I sign up for this workshop?

Our workshops are designed to be brought into a local community or organization and our prices are based on group classes, not individual ticket sales. We do not host our workshops at our own location or studio.

In order to attend a Simple Steps workshop, you will need to find a studio, a membership club, an event, a venue, or a dungeon who is hosting us or who is willing to host us. You will then purchase tickets through that organization for the date and location that they host the workshop.

If you are an individual who does not have connections with an organization to ask them to bring us in, don't worry, you can host us yourself! You can gather a few friends to share the cost and bring us to any space with a hard floor and enough room for everyone to dance.

So first look around at your local community to see if there is an organization or venue that caters to the sorts of things that we teach and reach out to them to ask them to host us. If there are no organizations in your area like this, then contact us to organize a Simple Steps workshop yourself!

What do I get in the workshop?

You will get several 1-hour sessions that break down our unique method for hacking your brain to improve your connection and communication and spice up your relationships and add a bit of elegance to your kink scenes.

You will get hands-on instruction in how to move your body in tune with your partner(s) in a variety of exercises that can be practiced at home for long-term results.

You will get handouts and digital aids to assist your at-home practice for continued connection improvement.

We have a list of each variation of our workshops available on the Workshops page. Please contact the venue or event organizer who is hosting us to see which workshop variation they have invited us to teach. For a breakdown of each section and its contents, visit the Sections page, under the "Workshop" heading.

Do I need a partner?

Yes, you will need a partner by halfway through the workshop. Most dance classes do not require you to come with a partner because they rotate the students around the room so that everyone dances with everyone else. This is the best way to learn how to partner dance, and we will be doing this in Parts 2 and 3.

However, because this is not truly a dance class, but a relationship communication workshop that is only using dance as a tool, and because we will be exploring some elements of kink, you will need a dedicated partner that you trust and feel comfortable exploring kink and intimacy with in this class by the time we reach those sections. And since each section builds on the previous one, your dedicated partner will have needed to go through all the previous sections too.

If you do not have a dedicated partner, you may be able to wait until the course sells out, and then attend as a "voyeur", which is a non-participation option that allows extra attendees to "audit" the class as an observer only. More on this in the Frequently Asked Questions page.

What do I need to bring and what should I wear?

Treat this like a workout and come prepared for physical activity. Please do not wear heavy scents like perfume or cologne, and instead rely on good hygiene, deodorants, and mouthwash or gum. You should bring water, snacks, a hand fan, and wear clothing that is comfortable for movement. You should also bring the proper shoes!

Whatever you do, don't bring rubber-soled shoes! Sneakers are comfortable and boots have the aesthetic so many of us like, but this is the least helpful footwear available.

Also, please do not plan to dance in your socks. There is no protection from getting stepped on and socks are slippery enough to be dangerous on smooth floors.

Shoes should be close-toed and low-heeled. No sandals or flip flops. They should be held securely on the feet with laces or ankle straps. You will be standing for several hours and heels or strappy shoes will cause fatigue faster than flats and closed-toes.

The best option is to bring actual dance shoes with leather or suede soles. These are made for the kind of movement we will be doing and have the proper amount of traction on the bottom to enable you to do the movements comfortably and safely. Ballroom shoes, dance shoes, jazz shoes, and hip hop shoes with spin spots are all excellent options.

If you do not have dance shoes, then any close-toed shoes with a leather or resin sole with NO "safety" grip or tread on the bottom. Standard dress shoes often work fine as long as they do not have an added "safety" sole.

If you have absolutely no options with the proper sole, then a pair of Dance Socks over a low profile sneaker or other low-tread, closed-toe shoe will also work.

We may have some Dance Socks and fans available for sale at the workshop for those who forget theirs. Please do not rely on obtaining the proper footwear once you get to the workshop.

For more detail on what good dance footwear is, please read this article on shoes for dance classes and dancing.

Will there be food and drinks there?

We do not provide food and drinks because each venue has their own rules about outside food and drinks, and we have a variety of scheduling options so the workshop in your area may or may not be an extended time period in one or two days.

We encourage all attendees to bring water and high-protein, filling snacks like mixed nuts, and to contact the event organizer or venue to ask about food options.

What if I am polyamorous and have multiple partners?

Tickets should be sold per person and our attendance cap is per "partnership", rather than per "couple". The course is easier to go through with one person to focus your attention on, and partner dancing tends to be based on dyads so our exercises reflect that, but if you have more than one partner who you want to take the workshop with, you can do so.

All of our instructors are non-monogamous or in non-monogamous relationships, so the workshop is built on the idea of individuals working with partners, rather than being "couple-centric". We will even have some important lessons on the dangers of being too couple-centric, while working with the basic dyadic building blocks of intimate relationships.

What if I want to be both lead and follow / I don't know what role I want?

Switching lead and follow is a totally normal thing to do in partner dancing! Although some would have us believe that tradition says men are always leads and women are always follows, the fact is that once a dancer reaches a level of proficiency or begins teaching, dancers have a tendency to learn both roles, even if they have a preferred role. And, historically, same-sex dancing and queer dancing has always existed.

And there is a growing interest in the ability to not only choose which role a dancer might dance in for a given song, but for dance partners to switch roles right in the middle of a dance! Going back and forth in a single dance is challenging, but dancers of all genders and dance styles are embracing the challenge everywhere these days!

In Part 2 - The Mechanics, we will be mixing things up so that everyone gets a taste of each role, because we believe that experiencing the other role makes dancers better at their chosen roles. We will cover these roles in depth throughout the workshop, so you will have a chance to understand and choose a role if you do not come to the course knowing which role to take.

However, after Part 2, we will encourage the participants to choose a role for the duration of the course to focus on. Since the benefits of this course are realized after long-term practice, switching roles at home on your own time after you have had a chance to learn the exercises first is not only an acceptable thing to do, but it is encouraged!

If you would like to go through the course in both roles, we would recommend taking the course twice - one for each role. But if you really want to switch back and forth during the workshop and you and your partner are able to keep up while switching, you're welcome to!

This is all very interesting but I was looking for something a little less involved / less structured / not sure what I want just not this.

That's OK! We have other options! Head on over to our other page, Dance Party Starters, to see what other kinds of dance options we can bring to your events and parties. And if you still don't see what you're looking for, contact us either through Simple Steps or through Dance Party Starters and talk us through what you're looking for and we'll see if we can't come up with something that works for you, your event, or your community.

We have a variety of services, performances, and activities, and we can work with a diverse group or community. We have done keynote lectures and team-building in corporate settings, we have done line dance lessons for disabled and neurodivergent children, we have done 1920s flapper parties as entertainment, we have done church events, we have promoted live bands, we have hosted and DJ'd themed parties, we have performed at art festivals and weddings - we can find a way to incorporate dance into almost anything! We can also work with a range of budgets.

In addition, we give non-dance related workshops and presentations as well, mostly centering around relationships and communication. We have a talk on how to compassionately break up, Love Languages for non-traditional or non-monogamous relationships, Love Languages and trauma, personality type systems, the intersection of polyamory and skepticism, the sociopolitical history of dance styles, a whole slew of costume and historical fashion lectures and workshops, and we even offer media training with a full workshop on how to give a presentation from a professional conference technician.

So if you don't see what you want, let us know and we'll see what we can do.