Get your body moving with an array of dance and somatic classes by local teachers!
Classes are pay-what-you-can, $10 suggested. Open to all experiences and abilities. Recommended for ages 16+.
Saturday, July 22:
12–1pm: Feldenkrais Method® with Lila Hurwitz
1:30–3pm: Cunningham Technique with Joshua Tuason
3:30–5pm: Contact Improvisation with Stephanie Turner
Sunday, July 23:
12–1pm: Gyrokinesis® with Katie Moorhead
1:30–3pm: Contemporary Dance with Heidi Henderson
3:30–5pm: Action Theater with Michelle Erard
CLASS DESCRIPTIONS & TEACHER BIOS
Feldenkrais Method® with Lila Hurwitz
A subtle and powerful system of neuromuscular re-education that evokes changes in muscular tone, flexibility, coordination, attention, and the comfort and efficiency of movement. We'll delve into a classic Awareness Through Movement® lesson, exploring issues common to dancers and non-dancers alike, and experiencing the amazing ways our bodies are designed to move with economy and grace.
Lila Hurwitz has been teaching movement since 1987, and is a Guild Certified Feldenkrais® Practitioner. She’s performed with Shura Baryshnikov, Ann Carlson, Heidi Henderson, Nina Martin, Bebe Miller, Karen Nelson, Cathy Nicoli, Mary Oslund, Stephanie Skura and many others. Lila was graphic designer for Contact Quarterly magazine, co-produced the Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation and now is a co-producer at Motion State Arts, supporting contemporary dance in and around Rhode Island. Lila runs Doolittle+Bird, specializing in management, communications and grant-writing for the arts and sciences—favorite clients include Bebe Miller Company and Feldenkrais Trainer Jeff Haller.
Cunningham Technique with Joshua Tuason
Come participate in the post-modern dance form of Merce Cunningham Technique. Dynamic and invigorating, this technique is built to create strength and flexibility in both body and mind. Through a progression of standing exercises and intricate movement sequences you will engage the range of the torso, footwork, leaps and floor patterns to explore clarity of movement and rhythmic accuracy. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced dancer, this class offers a welcoming and inclusive environment to deepen your understanding of Merce Cunningham Technique and expand your artistic horizons.
Joshua Tuason is a recent transplant from San Francisco via NYC. His dance artistry began in a public school dance outreach program run through San Francisco Ballet. He later obtained a BFA in dance from Marymount Manhattan College and soon joined the Martha Graham Ensemble. Eight years as a member of the Stephen Petronio Dance Company and a freelance career led him to work with modern dance notables such as Yvonne Rainer, Mark Morris, Pam Tanowitz and the Merce Cunningham Trust. He is on faculty at Boston Conservatory and Rhode Island College and is training to be certified in Alexander Technique.
Contact Improvisation with Stephanie Turner
We will primarily use improvisational scores and games to inspire playful ways into moving with a partner that include sharing weight and working with momentum and gravity. We will also look at creative strategies to activate the inherent wisdom our bodies possess: physical instincts for safety and spontaneous expression.
Stephanie Turner is a dance artist based in Brooklyn, CT, and is currently on dance faculty at Roger Williams University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has been practicing contact improvisation for over 15 years, teaching as well as producing dance performances and events.
Gyrokinesis® with Katie Moorhead
We will articulate the joints and work the entire body through six natural elements of spinal movement. By the end, one's entire system is awakened and brought into greater balance. Focus on the breath stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system resulting in a sense of calm, well-being, and mental clarity. You will move your body in ways that feel wonderful while reaping some pretty incredible benefits. Any one posture will not be held for long periods of time. Instead, they are smoothly and harmoniously connected through the use of breath, making exercises appear and feel more like a dance or swimming. In addition to increasing mobility and building a strong musculoskeletal system, all of the movements stimulate the body's internal organs, fluids, glands, muscles, and bones.
Katie Moorhead has a professional career of over 20 years dancing with multiple national dance companies, as well as coaching and teaching. A Gyrotonic and Gyrokinesis trainer for over a decade, her expansive background in movement and music brings a focus on integrity, timing, and alignment.
Contemporary Dance with Heidi Henderson
Intricate sequences, large loopy phrases, paying deep attention, and finding joy.
Heidi Henderson, choreographer for elephant JANE dance, a pick-up company in Rhode Island, is a four-time recipient of the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Choreography Fellowship. elephant JANE dance has performed at the South Bank Centre in London, New York City, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Bates Dance Festival in Maine, Connecticut, Jacob's Pillow Inside/Out Festival and The International Festival of Dance in Taegu, Korea. Heidi has danced in the companies of Bebe Miller, Nina Wiener, Peter Schmitz, and Paula Josa-Jones and in works by Colleen Thomas, Sondra Loring and others. Heidi has been a contributing editor at Contact Quarterly, a vehicle for moving ideas. Heidi received her BA from Colby College and her MFA from Smith College and is Professor and Chair of Dance at Connecticut College. She teaches frequently at the Bates Dance Festival and has been in residence or on the faculty of numerous other universities.
Action Theater with Michelle Erard
Fundamental to the practice of Action Theater is an embodied presence in performance, where experiencing ourselves informs content moment by moment. Acting from a sense of play, we will explore exercises that develop skills of strong, clear, spontaneous, artful communication, thus expanding our expressive palettes of movement, vocalization, and speech. We will examine our perception and response process by bringing awareness to and thereby disempowering distracting thoughts of self-obsessions, fears, judgments, and analysis. We will dance with our own poetry, recover lost personal material, venture into transpersonal realms, and access intelligence more encompassing and boundless than personal experience.
Michelle Erard is a dance artist and educator trained in physical theater and non-western dance forms, the traditions of which underpin her artistic work. Her work has been presented at Smith College, University of New Mexico, Tricklock Company, and other US venues. Michelle has performed in works by Angie Hauser, Marilyn Sylla, Barbie Diewald, Rujeko Dumbutshena, Bill Walters, Tomaz Simatovic, Sonia Olla, Alejandro Granados, and with the companies Los Flamencos, Alma Flamenca, and Afriky Lolo. Michelle trained at the Conservatory of Flamenco Arts, received her BA from University of New Mexico, and her MFA from Smith College. She is a certified teacher of Action Theater and Open Source Forms and is currently on faculty at Keene State College.