A
little history:
In 1990 I co-created (with my wife at the time, Nancyanna)
Living Traditions Dance in Seattle, WA, (as well as two
beautiful daughters.) What began as a small grass roots
organization steadily grew until, at its peak, it was
serving over 1000 people at a time. In its 14-year history
Living Traditions Dance (LT) served over 14,000 people,
mainly from the greater Seattle area, with classes, dances,
and workshops. Numerous dance instructors in the Northwest
took their first dance classes with LT.
Additionally I produced a collection of Swing videos and a
music compilation (see Frankie Manning Collection -
http://www.nwdance.net/manning_collection.html) that are
distributed worldwide, along with two other Swing dance
music compilations (Roll Up the Rug, volumes 1 & 2)
which are now out of print.
Wild Week: One of the hallmarks of LT was a major dance
event called Wild Week. For nine years, starting in 1990,
200-250 attendees and from 4 sets of instructors from all
over the country and world, traveled to Port Townsend's
Fort Worden during the week after Christmas to be dancing
fools for a week. We stopped running this event when
Nancyanna was stricken with MS and our girls were very
young.
In 2004, Living Traditions Dance was turned into a
nonprofit organization called Northwest Dance Network, and
we returned to the small town of Port Townsend, WA where I
first began to dance in my early twenties. The intention
was to help create a little dance haven. It turns out that
Whidbey Island has been much more receptive to this idea,
so we have moved to Freeland, on Whidbey Island, to focus
our creative efforts.
Our two daughters, Twyla, 15, and Celina, 13, have become
avid dancers and have helped teach the dance classes for
over few years. They both are excellent leads and follows
in all dance forms. In January 2007 we taught for two weeks
in Homer, Anchorage, and Fairbanks Alaska, both in schools
and evening classes for the local communities. We recently
taught at Stanford University, and are planning more
teaching trips around the world. I am proud that the girls
are both top students in their schools.
We are very lucky to be assisted by our good friend, Janice
Eklund, a very talented dancer and great human being, who
lives in Port Townsend.
My formal education was in art and design - attending UC
Berkeley, San Jose State University, and California
Institute of the Arts. See the WD Furniture and WD Graphics
pages for
examples of recent
work.
Walter