A Brief History of Recess
Recess Productions was founded by Justin Riley in 2007 as Blues Recess, was later changed to Alt-Blues Recess (2011), then to Recess Productions (2014 - 2018), was under Justin Riley Dance (2018 - 2023), and now currently known as "Recess" Unbound from 2024 onwards.
Recess emerged from after-hours house parties in the Lindy Hop and Swing Dance scenes of the early 2000s. The events were aspirational, courageous, audacious and radical. Blues Recess and Recess Productions were seminal in bringing the underground fusion house-party scene into a festival setting. (Long standing dancers will remember that the Fusion Exchange and Aspen Recess happened in 2007 within months of each other.)
Fusion dances and scenes worldwide are deeply influenced by the structures, culture, music, dance aesthetics and community practices of Recess events.
In 2011, the term “switch dancing” was coined and heavily promoted at Urban Blues Recess (Portland, Oregon), creating a role-neutral and gender-inclusive Fusion dance culture overnight. (Do you still have your patch?)
After 136 festivals held in the United States and worldwide, the existing organizational structure disbanded. When Recess stopped in 2017, it was host to the three largest annual Fusion dance events around the world (Northwest Recess, Cali-Creek, and Recess Massive), including Radical Organizer and Instructor Trainings in The United States and Europe and an an UnSchooling Teen Youth Program, with a total of 12 events a year. The vast majority of Recess events were unique, one-off events, and were never repeated.
In some ways, Recess and Fusion Dance became synonymous. Thank you to everyone involved in making Recess and Fusion Dance possible for all of us to enjoy.
Recess emerged from after-hours house parties in the Lindy Hop and Swing Dance scenes of the early 2000s. The events were aspirational, courageous, audacious and radical. Blues Recess and Recess Productions were seminal in bringing the underground fusion house-party scene into a festival setting. (Long standing dancers will remember that the Fusion Exchange and Aspen Recess happened in 2007 within months of each other.)
Fusion dances and scenes worldwide are deeply influenced by the structures, culture, music, dance aesthetics and community practices of Recess events.
In 2011, the term “switch dancing” was coined and heavily promoted at Urban Blues Recess (Portland, Oregon), creating a role-neutral and gender-inclusive Fusion dance culture overnight. (Do you still have your patch?)
After 136 festivals held in the United States and worldwide, the existing organizational structure disbanded. When Recess stopped in 2017, it was host to the three largest annual Fusion dance events around the world (Northwest Recess, Cali-Creek, and Recess Massive), including Radical Organizer and Instructor Trainings in The United States and Europe and an an UnSchooling Teen Youth Program, with a total of 12 events a year. The vast majority of Recess events were unique, one-off events, and were never repeated.
In some ways, Recess and Fusion Dance became synonymous. Thank you to everyone involved in making Recess and Fusion Dance possible for all of us to enjoy.
2017 Website Description of Recess
A Recess event is a break from constraints: a recess from traditional obligations, a recess from the uninspiring, a recess from constraints (in music, movement, convention, expression), a recess from the creative-voids of the everyday. We've called it Alt (short for Alternative) because that's what we are, that's the music we prefer, that's the experience we strive to create—something outside of the ordinary. Many of us are blues dancers and a part of the larger blues community. We dance with the creative brilliance of blues dance and other styles of partnered connection, technique, and musicality; sometimes to blues music. . . and often to something else. We believe in an inclusive and expansive idea of what the our community "is" and what it can become.
We believe in dance as a living, breathing, evolving cultural movement: borne out of the time-honored traditions of the past and inspired by the sounds, movements, styles, rhythms, and progressive social revelations of the present. We are a community of students and teachers, of lovers and fighters, of wonderers and wanderers, of magicians and healers. We are a community of dancers. We are the Recess Family.
We believe in dance as a living, breathing, evolving cultural movement: borne out of the time-honored traditions of the past and inspired by the sounds, movements, styles, rhythms, and progressive social revelations of the present. We are a community of students and teachers, of lovers and fighters, of wonderers and wanderers, of magicians and healers. We are a community of dancers. We are the Recess Family.
Mission: Recess strives to create participatory arts and dance events for the purpose of enriching and strengthening our community around our core values: Radical Inclusion, Liberatory Politics, Localism, Empowerment, Building Networks of Community Support, and Expression.
Radically Inclusive Pricing: Sliding Scale and Need Blind
All Recess events are need blind. We are committed to making sure no one is excluded from our community due to finances. If you want to come, but feel held back by your financial situation, fill out a scholarship application so that we can work together to make sure you are able to join us.
Co-Created Events
Recess events are run by a value driven team, but they are also run and produced by you! At (most) Recess events, everyone who registers will work a volunteer shift during the event. You will get to choose where you plug in: working in the kitchen, building a structure, helping folks register and find their way around, creating an enchanted ambiance for the dances, supporting all our hard-working volunteers…whatever you decide, you’ll be helping to make the Recess magic happen.
Participants consistently tell us that their volunteer shift was a highlight of the event. You’ll get to hang out with people you may never have otherwise met, and most importantly you'll be helping to actively create your community.
Participants consistently tell us that their volunteer shift was a highlight of the event. You’ll get to hang out with people you may never have otherwise met, and most importantly you'll be helping to actively create your community.
Be Respectful and Expect Respect
Recess believes in the creation of safe spaces and community empowerment. We welcome everyone into our community regardless of race, gender, sexuality, class, age, ability, or any other metric of discrimination. We also hold consent and the creation of consent culture as an important project in our community. We encourage everyone to take initiative in respecting, setting, discussing, and defending boundaries. Let's work together to create the community we all deserve.
Role Fluid Partner Dancing
At Recess we strive to challenge, encourage, and empower social dancers to step outside their traditional roles on the dance floor. We seek to introduce tools, ideas, and cultural norms that empower choice of dance role and personal expression over assignment.
Skills Proliferation
We recognize that our current economic system not only protects a monopoly on space and resources, but also access to training and skills. An important social project of Recess is to help skill proliferation in our community, whether that be cooking, building, team leading, creative endeavors or otherwise.
Accessibility
We acknowledge that the venues we utilize are not accessible to all bodies. At our events we will do our best to adapt the limitations of the venue to the needs of the people who would like to attend. We post accessibility information for each event on the event website. If you don’t see the information you need, please help us understand the things that would limit your access to an event and we will try to help. We will have a venue accessibility statement detailing the accessibility of each event as well as choose one annual event striving to meet increased accessibility goals.
Recess Is Our Art
By coming to a Recess you are opting in to a unique participatory artistic experience. If our artistic creation at certain times is not for you, we encourage you to step out or seek support in making changes that you need for yourself.
Re-Invisioning Work
We believe that serving community and ourselves through our labor is worthy of celebration. We strive to create plug-in/volunteer experiences that make giving our labor and celebration inseparable.
Space Priority to Survivors
Recess gives space priority to survivors of sexual assault and abuse. If attending a Recess involves sharing space with someone who has transgressed your boundaries and you do not feel safe, we want to know. Email [email protected]. We will do the best we can to make our event an accessible space for you.
Diversity in Leadership
We actively seek to promote diversity in leadership. Recess utilizes affirmative action for the purpose of diversifying leadership in our community.
