Post-Secondary and High School

There are offerings for the pre-professional student, as well as for groups looking for a positive creative experience without an emphasis on precise dance technique. Please contact me for pricing. Also, I am happy to help find grant sources for groups with little funding.

Dance It Up!
This class celebrates the fun of just moving! We all love to dance and to be creative, and Dance It Up! provides the opportunity to do both of these things. Geared specifically to pre-teens and teenagers, I use contemporary hip-hop and dance music for this offering. The ninety-minute class culminates in a short movement phrase that the students can perform for one another in groups. No formal dance training is necessary; each student’s physical comfort-level is honored.

Master Class
In this contemporary dance class, I work with students on technical fundamentals such as pelvic alignment and rib placement. However, I also focus on more subtle skill sets. From the warm-up sequences to the center combination, each class is designed with emphasis on efficient energy flow and awareness of weight shifts. The students are encouraged to hone their performance energy and stage presence during all stages of the movement experience. The class is an exhilarating journey in very athletic and expressive dancing.

Dancing Together: Introduction to Partnering
Gender-neutral partnering is part of most contemporary dance work. This class introduces students to the technical and energetic underpinnings of partnering. We do exercises to increase body listening—heightening awareness of the dancers around us and how we work together. Beginning with simple contact and then weight sharing, the students learn two to three lifts, and incorporate them into a larger movement phrase.

What’s Your Story? 
This unique creative experience combines dance and creative writing for a minimum of three sixty-minute sessions. After some ice-breaker movement games, the participants will explore the two art forms as creative and appropriate outlets for self-expression. Through structured creative writing exercises around themes such as “A time I felt empowered,” or a theme that is relevant to the group, they create at least two writing samples. Then, we experiment with “physicalizing” their work. These sessions greatly emphasize each participant’s unique voice. They are a great introduction to composition, or can really deepen the exploration for students who have choreographic experience. Because of the comprehensive nature of What’s Your Story?, at least three sessions are required, with no more than fifteen participants.

Original Choreography
I am an active choreographer, and love working with students to explore movement ideas. In the past I have created dances for both high schools and colleges. Drawing on various sources of inspiration, from text to visual art to music, I create works that are highly physical while tapping into the students’ gifts. The length of the piece can be determined based on the parameters of your particular concert.