Tag: Contemporary Classes

DITA, Falling and Rolling with guest artist Kristi Faulkner

January 5, 2019

Join us in welcoming Kristi Faulkner / Kristi Faulkner Dance
Falling and Rolling
Sunday March 24th, 2019
4-5:45 pm
Meijer-Royce Center for Dance
341 Ellsworth Ave SW
Grand Rapids, MI 49503

Class Description: Falling and Rolling

Explore sensation and surrender while learning to make friends with gravity. Dance is physics – we will explore the ways in which momentum and surface area can help us achieve efficiency moving in and out of the floor. While maintaining a continuous flow of energy and efficient use of muscle tone, we will hover on the edges of suspension and surrender to impulse.

Kristi Faulkner is the Director of Kristi Faulkner Dance – a queer-identified contemporary dance company based in Detroit that dares to be different. Performing everywhere from warehouses to community centers, from museums to the middle of the street, Faulkner believes in making dance accessible and empowering audiences to connect with their world. Her work has been commissioned and presented throughout Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Kentucky and New York. Faulkner is a 2018 Maggie Allesee Choreography Award finalist for “Women’s Work” and a 2016 finalist for “OBject/obJECT”. She received the 2017 MCACA New Leader Award. Her winning Knight Arts Challenge project to engage and inspire LGBTQ youth through performance and storytelling titled “Not In My House” premiered October 2018. KristiFaulknerDance.com

Pre-registration
$17 Advanced General
$15 Advanced Professional/Dance Educator
$13 Seasonal advanced ($65)
Pre-registration provided by ArtPeers: https://artpeers.org/pre-registration/
Day of Class
$20 Drop-in
For dancers 16+ years old ~ for more information contact Amy Wilson at [email protected]

DITA, Open Improvisation w/Marlee Grace wsg. Fiona Dickinson

December 14, 2018

Join us in welcoming Marlee Grace and Fiona Dickinson
Open Improvisation (all levels, all movers)
Sunday January 27th, 2019
4-5:45 pm
Meijer-Royce Center for Dance
341 Ellsworth Ave SW
Grand Rapids, MI 49503
Pre-registration
$17 Advanced General
$15 Advanced Professional/Dance Educator
$13 Seasonal advanced ($65)
Pre-registration provided by ArtPeers: https://artpeers.org/pre-registration/
Day of Class
$20 Drop-in
For dancers 16+ years old ~ for more information contact Amy Wilson at [email protected]

Open Improvisation
composition and choice making through movement

Join Marlee Grace for a workshop in improvising as a tool for performance, choice making, and composition. We’ll work through solo movement, duets, and group work – playing with space and generosity, spontaneity and thoughtfulness, solitude and togetherness.
We’ll look at different ways to discover your own movement vocabulary as well as collaborate with others

Soundscapes from other planets provided by Fiona Dickinson 

No dance experience required, just a willingness to move your body
No moves to learn! All movement generated from your self

Marlee Grace is a dancer and a writer who uses improvisation as a method for creating new works, hosting artists at her residency and studio CENTER, and being in the world.
Marlee has a BFA in Dance from the University of Michigan and documents her dance practice on the Instagram account @personalpractice which has been featured in the Huffington Post and the New York Times

Fiona Dickinson is a British songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and music educator currently residing in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Along with her work arranging strings for the ambient noise project, Saltbreaker, Fiona has a lengthy list of collaborations on stage and in the studio. She also has a background in composition for independent film and live score for site-specific performance with dance, video, and analog projection.

DITA, Int/Adv Afro Modern, w/Dasan Mitchell

August 30, 2018

Join us in welcoming Dasan Mitchell 
Int/Adv Afro Modern Technique
Sunday November 18, 2018
4-5:45 pm
Grand Rapids Ballet
341 Ellsworth Ave SW
Grand Rapids, MI 49503
$17/$15 Professional/Dance Educator
$13 Pre-registration provided by ArtPeers:https://artpeers.org/pre-registration/
For dancers 16+ years old ~ for more information contact Amy Wilson at [email protected]

Class Description: Afro-Modern
The Katherine Dunham Technique is used as the foundation of this class. Students will explore both classical modern and contemporary movement through an African Diaspora lens. Finding clarity in movement and rhythm is achieved in this class through a series of foundational movement sequences and fully embodied movement. The students of this class will allow themselves to activate the mind, body, and spirit.

Dasan Mitchell:
Dasan Mitchell has trained and studied at Wayne State University, receiving his bachelor of science in dance. He has trained with many artists/companies nationally and internationally for over eight years. Some of these include Bakalama Dance of Senegal and Deeply Rooted Dance Company. His dance training is rooted in African Diaspora dance, classical modern, and more contemporary movement approaches. He currently studying the philosophy, pedagogy, and theories of Katherine Dunham, in the process of receiving the Katherine Dunham teaching certification. He continues to establish a wholesome approach to dance education that includes cross-cultural communication. He is currently a dancer for Wellspring / Cori & Dancers and a teaching artist for Education for the Arts in Kalamazoo, MI.

DITA+Calvin College, Workshop w/Molly Shanahan / Mad Shak

August 30, 2018

Join Calvin College and DITA in welcoming 
Molly Shanahan / Mad Shak
October 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 2018
Calvin College
3201 Burton St SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546
FREE

Workshop:
Diving into Spirals with Molly Shanahan / Mad Shak
Sunday October 21st, 3:15-5:00pm
Spoelhof Fieldhouse Complex Dance Studio HC251/252
For dancers 18+ years old
**Space is limited – to reserve your spot in this workshop or for more information please contact Amy Wilson at
[email protected]

This dance phrasework experience will offer participants an embodied glimpse into choreographer Molly Shanahan‘s current movement research, which emphasizes whole body lusciousness, the incorporation of a mobile pelvis, articulation of the juicy ball and socket joints, and articulate movement phrases that feel so easy and yet challenge the body-mind to find ease within precision, vigor within rigor, and forgiveness within discipline.

Performance:
Mad Shak
Monday, October 22, 8pm
Covenant Fine Arts Center

Lecture:
Molly Shanahan
Tuesday, October 23
(time and location pending)

Choreographer Molly Shanahan has based her work in Chicago since 1994, after receiving her Master of Arts in Dance at The Ohio State University. Sustaining a lifelong focus on movement practices in and out of the studio, long-term creative processes involving multiple iterations, and inquiry into the philosophies and theories that touch her work, Molly is recognized as a “singular voice in Chicago dance,” (TimeOut Chicago) who has been “distilling the essence of performance—the relationship between audience and artist—for years, exposing the honest beauty of the body in its natural state: fluid, organic motion” (New City Chicago).

Molly’s work has been supported by two National Performance Network Creation Fund Awards, a Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist Award, an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship for choreography, and a 2010 Meier Arts Achievement Award, among others. In 2012 Molly received a Presidential Fellowship from Temple University (Philadelphia) to pursue a PhD in Dance. She is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance at Denison University; and has taught at Wayne State University, Bryn Mawr College, Temple University, The University of Chicago, and Columbia College Chicago, among others, and was a Lecturer in the Dance Program at Northwestern University from 2008-2012. www.madshak.com.

DITA, Int/Adv Contemporary Tech w/guest artist Amy Cova

August 29, 2018
Join us in welcoming Amy Cova
Int/Adv Contemporary Modern Technique
Sunday September 16, 2018
4-5:45 pm
Grand Rapids Ballet
341 Ellsworth Ave SW
Grand Rapids, MI 49503
$17/$15 Professional/Dance Educator
$13 Pre-registration provided by ArtPeers: https://artpeers.org/pre-registration/
For dancers 16+ years old ~ for more information contact Amy Wilson at [email protected]
 
Amy Cova, (MFA in Dance, U of M) is Artistic Director of Amy Cova Dance (ACD), contemporary dance ensemble splitting time between NYC and Michigan, often working in collaboration with musicians and visual artists. Cova is on faculty at the University of Michigan and The Roeper School. She is an Artist Associate at Room Project, a space for women and non-binary writers and artists. Cova’s movement vocabulary punctuates the highly physical with a quiet gestural sense evoking worlds of turmoil, confusion, hope, and happiness in a single theatrical experience. Cova is interested in embodied text, oral histories, subjugated knowledge and personal reflections as they dialogue through evocative movement languages.
Amy Cova has been presented at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival Inside/Out, and throughout NYC at Dance New Amsterdam, the Manhattan Movement and Arts Center, Triskelion Arts, The Flea Theatre and The Irondale Center. Her work has been showcased at the Alvin Ailey Studio Theater, The Alchemical Theater Laboratory, the John Ryan Theater, Studio AIR, Dixon Place, Spoke the Hub, the Green Space, and the Detroit Institute of Art.
 
Cova has performed in works by Laura Dean, Daniel Gwirtzman, Rennie Harris, Alex Springer, Paul Taylor, and Ginger Thatcher, amongst others. She has most recently performed at WestFest All Over WestBeth (NYC) with compositional, improve dance cooperative, The Lovelies and Grand Rapids Ballet as part of Michigan Dance Festival’s Maggie Allesee Choreography Competition.
 
Cova has been a faculty member/guest artist at numerous institutions, including University of Michigan, Manhattanville College, Eastern Michigan University, Grand Valley State University, Oakland University, Wayne State University, Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, DITA, Gibney Dance Center (NYC) and Dance New Amsterdam (NYC). Her choreography has been presented internationally in Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica and Italy. She enjoys continued collaboration with musician, David Vaughn.
 
This class celebrates freedom in movement; big, juicy moves alongside quiet gestural shifts. With a focus on an organic, personal way of moving, students are encouraged to tap into their physical, intellectual and emotional history throughout class. We begin with an easy, rhythmical movement pattern gently waking the muscles and brain, uniting the bodies and energies in space in order to create a fresh community for learning. Together we move in and out of the floor with the aim of priming the body for more vigorous movement tasks. We explore the space through dynamic and often virtuosic movement patterns. Finally, extended phrase work invites students to couple their emotional and physical self in order to articulate their performative voice.

DITA, Int/Adv Contemporary Modern w/guest artist Matt Farmer

May 7, 2018

Join us in welcoming Matt Farmer 
Int/Adv Contemporary Modern Technique
Sunday May 20, 2018
4-5:45 pm
Grand Rapids Ballet
341 Ellsworth Ave SW
Grand Rapids, MI 49503
$17/$15 Professional/Dance Educator
$13 Pre-registration provided by ArtPeers: https://artpeers.org/pre-registration/
For dancers 16+ years old ~ for more information contact Amy Wilson at [email protected]

Int/Ad Contemporary Modern: Using a variety of elements of modern and contemporary dance techniques, this class requires dancers to push themselves both physically and artistically. Building on the long fluid lines and posture of contemporary dance, while simultaneously implementing the strength and stamina of classic modern and post-modern floorwork, this class is sure to challenge dancers from all training backgrounds.

Matthew Farmer is currently the Chair of the Dance Department at Hope College, the Co-Artistic Director of R.G. Dance Productions and the Co-Artistic Director of H2 Dance Co. Formerly the Head of Dance at Anderson University, Farmer has had great success as a director, educator, choreographer, performer, and author; co-authoring the book Introductory Modern Dance: A Teaching Manual. Formerly the Associate Director and company member of LehrerDance, Farmer has appeared in Dance Teacher Magazine, Dance Magazine Online, and Dance Magazine. Prior to dancing with LehrerDance, Farmer danced with Peter Sparling as a company member of The Peter Sparling Dance Co. While dancing for Sparling, Matthew received his MFA from the University of Michigan, and he received his BA in Theatre and Dance from Hope College. As a soloist and guest performer he has performed in multiple cities throughout the United States and Europe, and has had the privilege of working with and/or performing works by Avi Kaiser, Sergio Antonino, Merce Cunningham, Laura Dean, Matthew Thornton, Doug Varone, and many more. As a master teacher and choreographer his works and classes have been produced by Eastern Michigan University, Anderson University, Western Kentucky University, Chicago National Association of Dance Maters, Southern Association of Dance Masters, Dancer’s Inc., On Tour dance conventions, Blue Lake International Ballet Ensemble, Interlochen, Wellspring/Cori Terry an Dancers, Fort Wayne Dance Collective, Hope Summer Repertory Theater, Next Step Dance, Musiker Productions, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and many more.

DITA, Int/Adv Contemporary Modern w/guest artist Rachel Miller

October 5, 2017

Join us in welcoming Rachel Miller to the Annex
Sunday October 22nd
4-5:45pm
Wealthy Theatre Annex
1110 Wealthy St Se
Grand Rapids, MI 49506
$15/$12 students w/ID
For dancers 16+
Email [email protected] for more information

Contemporary Modern Technique
A contemporary release-based technique class, which is informed by the Normative technique created by Erick Hawkins. The class will begin with a somatically informed improvisational warm-up, continue to floor work, center, and across-the-floor work, and end with a large sweeping movement phrase. 

Rachel Miller is a company dancer, instructor, choreographer, and Midwest Regional Alternative Dance Festival (RAD Fest) Curator for Wellspring/Cori Terry & Dancers. She attended The Ohio State University as a Dance Major, holds a BA in Creative Writing through Western Michigan University, and an MFA in Dance through Hollins University in partnership with the former Forsythe Company of Frankfurt, Germany. Miller has performed all over the country, and her choreographic and screendance works have been presented in the Midwest RAD Fest in Kalamazoo, Detroit Dance City Festival in Detroit, Big River Dance Festival in Huntington, South Bend, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Fringe Festival Praha (Prague), and Indianapolis. She is a 2005 recipient of the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation Emerging Artist Grant and a 2010 recipient of the Kalamazoo Artist Development Initiative grant. Miller has sat on the adjudication panels for the Motor City Dance on Film Festival, RAD Festival, and Screen. Dance. Now. She is also a certified Pilates instructor, has been an Aerial Artist for ZFX Flying Effects in Louisville, has taught in the Western Michigan University Dance Department and for Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. She is currently on faculty in the dance department at Grand Valley State University.

DITA, Int/Adv Modern Tech w/guest artist Penny Freeh

June 27, 2017
Join us in welcoming Penny Freeh to the Annex
Thursday July 20th
7-8:45pm
Wealthy Theatre Annex
1110 Wealthy St SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49506
$15/$12 students (per class)

Penelope Freeh – Biography 2017
As a contemporary ballet and modern dancer/choreographer, Penelope Freeh honors and manipulates classicism and traditional vocabularies. Tension and emotion build through structure, relationship and rigorous formality. Images layer, amassing a history of gesture and dramatic intent. She acknowledges a balletic spine and makes room for the luscious. Lines erase as quickly as they form.

Freeh has played a vital part of the Minneapolis / St. Paul dance community since 1994. She is a two-time McKnight Fellow for Choreographers, a McKnight Fellow for Dancers, and a Sage awardee for Outstanding Performer. Her work is in the repertoires of Zenon Dance Company, James Sewell Ballet, Alternative Motion Project, Minnesota Ballet, and Gem City Ballet among others. She receives commissions and residencies from performing arts high schools, universities and regional companies; she works with opera and musical theater groups; she self-produces and seeks presenters for her personal works, working frequently with live musicians and original music.

Test Pilot, a chamber dance opera she created with composer Jocelyn Hagen, won a 2015 Sage Award for Best Overall Design and enjoyed a state-wide tour of Minnesota in the Fall of 2016.

She danced for James Sewell Ballet for seventeen years, serving as Artistic Associate from 2007 – 11. She teaches at the University of MN, the Saint Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists, Zenon, and TU Dance. She is summer faculty at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp and co-director of the 2017 International Ballet Ensemble.

Formative training includes: the Dayton Ballet Dance Center, the Joffrey Ballet School and two years on full scholarship at The Ailey School.

Penelopefreeh.com

DITA, Summer Workshop w/guest artist Kristi Faulkner

May 26, 2017

Join us in welcoming Kristi Faulkner to the Annex
Monday June 19th & 26th
7-8:45pm
Wealthy Theatre Annex
1110 Wealthy St SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49506
$15/$12 students (per class)

June 19th
Contemporary Floor Work
Based on the idea that the floor is an active partner in our dancing, we will seek to “make friends” with the floor and embrace the unwavering support it can offer. Participants will connect with a sense of weight through earthbound phrases and guided improvisation, developing an intimate connection to the floor by investigating multiple points of contact for achieving efficiency moving in and out of the floor.

June 26th
Falling and Rolling
Explore sensation and surrender while learning to make friends with gravity. Dance is physics – we will explore the ways in which momentum and surface area can help us achieve efficiency moving in and out of the floor. While maintaining a continuous flow of energy and efficient use of muscle tone, we will hover on the edges of suspension and surrender to impulse.

Kristi Faulkner (Founder/Artistic Director of Kristi Faulkner Dance) is a choreographer, performer, educator and arts advocate. Based in Detroit, she creates highly physical and humorously theatrical work that embodies difference and challenges gender roles. Community engagement is integral to her artistic practice. Through workshops, lecture demonstrations, and community-based projects, Kristi pursues her mission of making dance visceral, thought-provoking, and accessible. Her work has been commissioned and presented throughout Michigan, Ohio, Illinois and New York. She holds an MFA in choreography/performance from SUNY Brockport and is part time faculty at Bowling Green State University.

DITA, Int/Adv Modern Tech w/guest artist Carrie Brueck Morris

May 9, 2017

Join us in welcoming Carrie Brueck Morris to the Annex
Sunday May 21st, 2017
4-5:45pm
Wealthy Theatre Annex
1110 Wealthy St Se
Grand Rapids, MI 49506
$15/$12 students w/ID
*for dancers 16+
for more information contact Amy at [email protected]

Carrie Brueck Morris is currently Associate Professor of Dance at Grand Valley State University. Originally from Minnesota, she graduated from Kenyon College with a B.A. in Dance and earned her M.F.A. in Dance at Temple University. Prior to her time in Michigan, Ms. Morris taught at Western Kentucky University, University of Southern Mississippi, and Temple University. She has been fortunate to perform with choreographers such as Lou Antonini, Marianela Boán, and Meghan Durham Wall, performing in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New York. Carrie has also produced her own choreography professionally in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, and Civitavecchia, Italy.

Drawing on a wide range of styles and traditions, this class will weave together principles from several different techniques, but focus most heavily on select aspects of Bartenieff Fundamentals, Humphrey-Limon, and release techniques. The class will use elements of these techniques to support the study of movement efficiency, weight shifts, breath, momentum, and dancing off-center to further total body awareness and commitment while dancing.

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