Professional Morning Class

Contemporary with Jessie Garon - This class will be in two parts. The first part will start at a slower pace focusing on finding stability and freedom without sacrificing space in the body. These exercises will gradually build on each other to have us moving in and out of the floor and into the air! Then I will share some improvisation practises I use to touch base with the fullness of ourselves, and attune to our impulses and each other.

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 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.

SENSING/DANCING with Sally Morgan - How might we explore dancing through our muscles and nervous system(s)? A soft dance and somatic movement class exploring the potential in sensing, dancing, sensorimotor organization, touch, patterning, and play through developmental movement, improvisation, and embodied/experiential anatomy. For all movers/dancers.

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.

Dancing with Curiosity: Awareness, Range & Play - This class invites curiosity, play, and embodied inquiry. Through guided imagery, somatic attention, and improvisational scores, we will explore body awareness, range of motion, and movement patterns. Together we’ll shift from standing, to the floor, and out into space—solo, in pairs, and as a group. With relaxed concentration, participants will practice sensing, moving, and discovering new pathways into dance. Open to all with an interest in body mechanics, somatics, and movement exploration. 

Ballet with Hannah Mae Cruddas-  In this open ballet class, we will explore the balance between stability and freedom, allowing our technique to simultaneously ground us, and to give us power to move with abandon. With dynamic, musical exercises, we will focus on strength and length at the barre, and then transfer that focus into our dance-y centre practice.

Contemporary with Marrin Jessome - Through guided improvisation and structured phrase work we will investigate how to move with clarity and complexity—discovering strength in softness. Nuanced dynamics will be discovered through the interplay of muscular tension and release accessing movement that is felt from within. Dancers will develop control through challenging weight changes and transitions that are based on fluidity and momentum. This class welcomes movers looking to deepen their relationship to the floor, challenge their expressive range, and embody an intuitive, grounded physicality.

Ballet with Maria Osende - Maria’s class features an uncomplicated yet thorough barre and a dynamic center that emphasize technique, movement, musicality, and enjoyment of the dance style. With a focus on strengthening technique without stifling creativity and adapting to the dancers in class, Maria's class is a great way to stay in shape, rethink ballet, and enjoy its unparalleled benefits. Having performed for over a decade as a professional dancer in two major European companies, with a diverse classical and contemporary repertoire, Maria understands exactly what contemporary dancers need and look for in a ballet class.

Ballet remains a foundational practice for dancers of all styles, offering tools and principles that can enhance a dancer's performance, regardless of their primary genre. Around the world, it continues to be a cornerstone of dance training, providing a framework that helps dancers move with greater freedom, efficiency, and intention, while developing strength, versatility, and artistry to support their growth in any genre.

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 Lisa Phinney - Revisiting my modern roots, I offer a Graham-based technique class to build core strength, stability, and power. Beginning with the seated exercises and progressing to standing and moving through the space, this class will activate the muscles and build focused body awareness through codified positions and exercises (with some interpretation!). 

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.

Action Theatre with Sarah Bild - Action Theatre is a unique form of improvisational theatre developed by the American performance artist, Ruth Zaporah. Fundamental to the practice is an embodied presence in performance, where the experiencing of the body informs the content of the moment, moment by moment. We work towards this embodiment through specifically guided improvisations focusing on formal tools as well as more abstract imagery, on vocalizations and use of words. These playful and rigorous exercises, which isolate and recombine movement, sound and language, broaden our range of improvisational skills helping us to become open and creative in the present moment. Always working from an embodied state, we develop spatial awareness and access to our imagination, crafting creative impulses into clear images, stories and dreamscapes. This technique turns the mind inside out, examines existing habits and opens up new possibilities. Working in solos, duets, trios and also as an ensemble, we bring attention to the details of our physical choices, to the quality and range of our vocalizing. We approach speech and words as physical actions in building narratives.

Dance + Music Lab with Susanne Chui - In this lab we will explore various improvisation practices including sensory tuning, moving, singing, sounding; and working with form, space and pulse, towards solo and group playing. Dancers, musicians, and anyone interested in improvisation are welcome - feel free to bring an instrument!

Contemporary with Darryl Tracy - The Contemporary Center Class is a physical and sensorial adventure taking the participants from a more internal landscape and then delving into building physical task-based relationships with gravity, with space, with music and musicality and challenge habits and tendencies. Darryl facilitates the class to give participants the permission to explore within one's comfort level. Participants will have set exercises and also facilitated improvisational scores. The class progresses from floor work to robust travelling phrases exploring agility, coordination, articulation, expressivity and sensory awareness through classical modern to more contemporary aesthetics. Discovery and fun at the heart of the class.

BodyWise with Natalie Abdou - BodyWise is an opportunity to connect with movement and dance as "birth right" practices and as a portal to our profound inner wisdom and knowing. We will begin by awakening our bodies, senses and innate connection to earth and ether. In exploring various movement patterns and forms we will play and notice the information and insights that arise from our body-spirits in the process. Rooted in the improvised, creative practice of InterPlay (www.interplay.org) this will be an opportunity to discover what offers more joy, ease and grace in our life and practice on and off the floor. These sessions are well suited to everybody and the profound wisdom that resides within us all and our embodied lineages.

Contemporary with Zoe Davidson - Class begins with an energizing warmup to awaken the senses and prepare the body for its creative and physical potential. Moving into center and across the floor with core principles for the final combination. It is a space to let loose, challenge yourself, and push your physicality.

Contemporary with Chris Van Green - This contemporary class emphasizes fluid movement, with a lot of focus on floor work. We explore heavy use of the floor for transitions and movements, incorporating spins, extensions, and gliding through space while staying grounded and connected to our bodies.

Contemporary with 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 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 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.

Animal Flow with 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/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.

Contemporary with Marie-Josée Chartier - This contemporary technique centre class 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.