Encinitas West African Dance

Encinitas West African Dance Classes are in Encinitas (North San Diego County) some Sundays @ 11am & some Saturdays @ 7pm. Rotating teachers so check for flyers. Always all levels.

DM contact info to get added to text or email list. Total beginners welcome! West African dance classes based in Encinitas, California (San Diego County.) Live drummers play the rhythms while we practice traditional steps with choreographic embellishments. Great community, full-body workout and FUN! Beginners always welcome.

09/04/2026

It’s fun to see how the step is shown with basics and then more nuance, and then how it’s interpreted by different bodies. This was class with Alseny Soumah of Layhdi Dance Collective .

09/03/2026

What a great weekend with ALSENY SOUMAH! Oakland is very lucky to have him living up there! A lot of people prepaid for just one class but they had so much fun on Saturday that they came back on Sunday. Dance now, sleep/adult/save $ later! 🤣🎉

08/18/2026

ALSENY SOUMAH is coming to town at the end of the month! He will teach to the level of the room, so come as you are and let’s find some freedom in movement.
Sat. Aug 29 @ 12:30pm at Performing Arts Workshop
Sun. Aug 30 @ 11am at Dance North County
Prices:
Single class $25 if registered by Aug 24, $30 drop-in.
Both classes $50. No advanced registration needed.

Here's an updated flyer for Alseny's class. There are 2 ways to get classes for $25. Either take both classes, or sign u...
08/14/2026

Here's an updated flyer for Alseny's class. There are 2 ways to get classes for $25. Either take both classes, or sign up by Aug 24. WHY? Because bringing master teachers is expensive and we need community support. Talk to us about cost details if you're curious! If you need financial support, also talk to us. We want everyone to dance and enjoy, AND we want our teachers to be paid for their mastery of their craft.

Yay!!!! The last weekend of August is gonna be gooood! Alseny of the Lahydi Dance Collective will@be coming down from Oa...
08/04/2026

Yay!!!! The last weekend of August is gonna be gooood! Alseny of the Lahydi Dance Collective will@be coming down from Oakland to teach all levels dance classes. Saturday is at Performing Arts Workshop and Sunday is at Dance North County , both in North County SD.

08/04/2026

Dele Husbands from Forces of Nature Dance Theatre goes into technique. We slowed it way down so folks could feel what the hips/pelvis should be doing. Learning and practicing the foundations is essential to being able to fly with a faster pace or harder steps. On the djembe is Nigel Zuniga who always adjusts his playing to what the teacher needs at the moment.

07/31/2026

Thanks to Dele From Forces of Nature Dance Theatre for teaching and to Nigel Zuniga for drumming! There were 4 students who have never danced before and they were blown away. Our next classes will be the last weekend of August (Saturday & Sunday) with Alseny Soumah. Flyer will be out soon but mark your calendar NOW!
There are tons of classes organized by other folks. Make sure you follow Daunte Fyall Studio K Dance And Fitness Afrofusion DanceHouse Afrobeat San Diego El Flow Juan Carlos Blanco Riera Cybele Ozi Boms . These are only a smattering. I post stories with class info when I see it. But wedge yourself into the community. If we can all level up, we’ll have even more fun!!

Yes, a controversial and potentially exclusionary book is the first book in our Book Club Where We Talk About Race & Rac...
07/21/2026

Yes, a controversial and potentially exclusionary book is the first book in our Book Club Where We Talk About Race & Racism. It will give much to think about and much to discuss. If you want to add books to the Future Reading list or specify which month you want us to do a certain book so that your schedule will allow participation, just send a DM. Here are some of the Future Reads:
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
Do Better by Rachel Ricketts
What If I Say The Wrong Thing? By Verna A. Myers
White Rage by Carol Anderson
Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad
Things That Make White People Uncomfortable by Michael Bennett and Dave Zirin
Why I am No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Edo Lodge
What White People Can Do Next by Emma Dabiri
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
Witnessing Whiteness by Shelly Tolchuk
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
Fatal Invention by Dorothy Roberts
Stamped From the Beginning and How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
The Place We Make by Sarah Sanderson
Locking Up Our Own by James Forman
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
Autobiography of Malcolm X
Redefining Realness by Janet Mock,
Eloquent Rage by Brittney Cooper
Heavy by Kiese Laymon
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Fire This Time by Jesmyn Ward

07/17/2026

Did you know the oldest surviving African American sacred performance tradition in the United States is still practiced today in the praise houses of the South Carolina and Georgia Sea Islands? 🙏
The Gullah Geechee ring shout is a counterclockwise shuffling ceremony combining call-and-response singing, handclapping, and stick-beating rhythms, performed in praise houses that served as the spiritual and community centers of Sea Island life for generations. Musicologists and historians trace the ring shout directly to West and Central African ceremonial traditions, making it one of the clearest surviving cultural connections between African American sacred practice and its pre-slavery African roots. The tradition also influenced the development of American gospel music, blues, and jazz in ways that shaped the entire arc of American popular music, making those Johns Island praise houses arguably one of the most musically consequential spaces in American cultural history.
There is almost nothing in American cultural life whose roots are this deep, this specific, and this directly traceable to a place and a people. 🎶 Have you ever witnessed a ring shout ceremony? Tell us about it, and tag someone who needs to understand what was carried across the Atlantic in these rhythms.

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1465 Encinitas Blvd. A102
Encinitas, CA
92024

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