Dance Trance Fitness

Dance Trance (DT) is a dance fitness class that offers the excitement of moving with the rhythm, and attaining total mind & body deliverance through dance! It incorporates funk, Latin, jazz, hip hop, and other types of rhythm movement to the beat of music from all genres. People of all ages are welcome to come and groove and sweat your worries away.  DT can help members lose weight, tone & shape, improve dance skills, and meet lots of really cool people. 

Dance Trance began in Birmingham in 1993 and has since spread to locations all over the country. DT Birmingham offers classes 6 days a week (mornings and nights), performs for community events, and strives to provide a workout experience like no other. Class times, membership, and location information can be found at www.dancetrancefitness.com; click on the Birmingham link.  Join the hottest dance fitness class in Birmingham and let DT Rock Your Body!

Rinsel McIntosh and Pat Abbott
Birmingham Swing Dancers

Rinsel McIntosh is the founder of the Birmingham Swing Dancers, a social dance organization that exists solely to promote swing dance in the Birmingham area. BSD is a membership dance group with more than 200 members and holds monthly live music swing dances at the BSDA Friendship Hall in Fultondale on the second Friday evening of each month. While BSD's primary focus is on jitterbug, east coast and lindy styles, dancers of all swing dance styles are welcomed to events.

BSD has a group of volunteer dancers, the Dance Ambassadors, whom volunteer time to do swing dance demos and short exhibitions to promote swing, the swing social dance organization, and general social dance overall. The primary instructors, Rinsel McIntosh and Pat Abbott, teach regular weekly group style lessons. They have taught swing at numerous dance events and festivals including the well-known local music festival, City Stages.

Solomon Adeyinka Sholanke is the founder and creative director of the Osumare African Drum & Dance Ensemble. He was born and reared in the city of Abeokuta in Ogun State, Nigeria. He learned to dance and play drums at the age of 7 as a rite of passage within the Yoruba culture. Solomon moved to the United States in the 1970s to attend college; he received a Bachelor’s degree in Management and a Master’s degree in Business Administration. In 1988, he founded the Osumare African Drum & Dance Ensemble, and has since then become widely known for his stimulating and educational seminars, classes, and lectures on drumming, dance, drum-making, songs of the Yoruba, and culture of his native Nigeria.

Osumare (oh-shoo-mar-eh) means "rainbow" in Mr. Sholanke’s native Yoruba language. The name is fitting for the ensemble, as it comprises members and cultures from all over Nigeria, the United States, and other countries across the globe. All of the members -whether they are singing, drumming, or dancing - are masters of their arts due to intensive and rigorous training and performance experience. During any of the group’s performances and lectures, audience members will get a good taste of traditional music and dance from the Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa and other ethnic groups of Nigeria, as well as from other countries on the African continent and in the African diaspora.

Winston Strickland, Artistic Director
M.A.D. Skillz Dance Company

Winston Strickland is Artistic Director of M.A.D. (Music and Dance) Skillz Dance Co, a dance troupe comprised of young dancers of all ages. Winston’s style combines hip-hop, jazz, ballet, African, and modern dance. His company won New York's "Showtime at the Apollo," the National Battle of the Dancers' Dance Competition, and were featured in a MTV reality dance show pilot.