Professional Training

Marie-Josée Chartier offers a contemporary technique centre class that integrates different approaches to movement, musicality and brain integration. The class covers elements of floor and centre work, focusing on fluidity, strength, endurance and balance with short choreographic variations that play with intricate rhythmic patterns. She also encourages the dancer to find their own expression and interpretation within a particular kinetic variation. 

The Crossover Indian Classical Dance workshop, led by Yamini Kalluri, offers a unique fusion of Kuchipudi, Ballet, Modern, and Contemporary Dance—a style Yamini has organically developed through her extensive training in Kuchipudi and at the Martha Graham School. This workshop is designed to introduce western dancers to the rich, intricate rhythms, hand and eye articulations, sculpturesque poses, and dynamic footwork inherent in Indian classical dance, and how these elements can be woven into their own artistic practices. Beyond technique, the workshop delves into the origins of Indian movement, offering insight into the cultural significance and the conversation around cultural appropriation. It encourages dancers to view movement from a holistic and spiritual perspective, fostering a deeper connection with their craft to heal and uplift through dance. This workshop is co-hosted by Sangeeta Raju.

Richard Ramcharan- Animal Flow is ground based movement, made fun, challenging and effective. This system is designed to improve strength, power, flexibility, mobility, and coordination for all levels of fitness enthusiasts.

Contemporary with Lisa Phinney - Beginning with a gentle body flow to prepare and increase joint mobility and ease, and progressing through exercises that include shaping pathways and spatial design, musicality, dynamic shifts, and centering/strengthening, this class aims to begin the morning as the body needs, and build to feeling energized, fully engaged, somewhat spent, and ready for what the day brings. The class includes both prescriptive exercises encouraging play within technical boundaries, and prompts to engage individualized exploration through one’s own creative impulses.

Shion Skye Carter- This contemporary dance class will involve both improvisation and choreographed movement sequences, with an aim to feel good in the body while using functional mechanisms of movement. We'll explore motions that contrast between tension and control, and fluidity, release, and length at the joints, while discovering different qualities and dynamics in our dance. Moving to music that drives us, let's set a tone together that prepares us to take on the rest of our day.

Contemporary with Emma Kerson - Sensing our way through a familiar framework of contemporary floor and standing exercises, attention will be placed on softening and energizing our bodies and exploring the potential for this intersection. This class is offered as a skeleton of movement proposals (exercises) to be fleshed out with offered imagery or your own individual curiosities. We will work our way up to larger dynamic phrases travelling into and up above the floor, with space to play with and relate to one another.

Contemporary with Solène Bernier -  This class includes a warmup that will activate muscles, create mobility in the joints, find fluidity, and wake up our senses. The class will move through a combination of floorwork and standing exercises, mixed with improvisational tasks. There will be an emphasis on musicality, and we will play with coordination, rhythm and timing. We will work our way up to upbeat traveling sequences leaving room for individual freedom and expression.

Contemporary with Sarah Hopkin ~ Sarah’s class is an upbeat modern dance technique class with a focus on moving big and relating to space. Her exercises emphasize traveling through space and dynamic movements. There is often a José Limón influence in her class, sometimes with a dash of Martha Graham. The goal is always to leave feeling energized and connected to the other dancers in the room.

Contemporary with Meredith Kalaman  ~ The dancers will find themselves moving through a standing centre class that invites them to work with speed, direction, and precision. Using a familiarity of lines in space, and elements of extension to orient the body on various axis points. The class culminates in finding elevation and ease with working in and out of the floor from the feet while travelling through space.

Contemporary with Sara Coffin - Using the Bartenieff Fundamentals as a framework, this class will start with a slow flow floor-based warm-up. We will explore bony landmark relationships throughout the body as well as yield, tensegrity, and coil and release. Class will progress into standing work that aims to prime and free the spine as the motor engine, working with sustained juicy strength. Sara’s class draws from her experience in release technique, BMC work (Body-Mind Centering), contact improvisation and working through the lens of Laban’s BESS (Body, Effort, Shape, Space).

Contact Improvisation (CI) - Exploring CI as a question in motion we will explore the principles and practice of contact improvisation through physical skill work, perceptual tuning, body puzzles and practice time for focused dancing. We will tune our bodies to the physical forces and with each other, finding release and new discoveries in the point of contact, falling, following, leading, changing level, and flying. Unlock your potential and adaptability within the unknown, and discover the dance that is already there.

Contemporary with Sam Penner ~ Sam’s contemporary class moves back and forth between improvisational explorations and set exercises designed to warm up both the functional moving body, and the creative senses. Starting on the floor, we will wake up our breath and full body sensation to find our flow and coordination. Easing into our strength and dynamic capacities, we will find our feet to move through space, building up to bouncing, jumping, joyful expressions of our fullest dancing potential.

Contemporary with Anastasia Wiebe - Anastasia's class is a contemporary floor work based class that combines strength-building, stretch and cardio exercises that support the intense physical demands of a floor work practice. The class also incorporates improvisation techniques that focus on developing an understanding of one's own quality of movement.

FLUID BODIES
An embodied exploration of fluid systems! We will meet ourselves and others through fluid qualities, movement, tone, rhythm, and approach the fluids through a combination of embodied/experiential anatomy, developmental movement, and improvisation.

Contemporary with Gillian Seaward-Boone ~ This contemporary/modern technique class combines a variety of styles and disciplines with the goal of using the entire body, getting your blood pumping and your muscles warmed up! The class progresses in a familiar format with plenty of space and freedom to deepen your own personal investigation throughout. We will explore both floorwork and standing work culminating in dynamic moving and jumping phrases that encourage dancers to "go big". The overall goal is to create a joyful class that celebrate the shared experience of movement.

Contemporary/Improv with Kate Holden - A class to slow down and soften - connecting to weight and fluidity to cultivate an open and responsive body in motion. Breathing, Yawning, Folding, Connecting, Swinging, Bouncing... Using Somatic techniques and improvisational play the class will develop into a more vigorous movement exploration, bringing the participant to a place of possibility for full physical expression.