2024 Summer Programs at The School of Ballet Co.Laboratory

The School of Ballet Co.Laboratory offers the finest dance education to artists of all ages and abilities in a nurturing and welcoming environment. Our summer programming gives students the opportunity to train with locally and nationally acclaimed dance professionals who are dedicated to the growth of each individual student. 

Our offerings include:

  • Pre-Professional Summer Intensives,
  • Young Dancer Summer Camps and Sessions,
  • Youth Summer Workshops,
  • Adult Workshops and Sessions.

Dance Church PopUp With Kate Wallich Presented by Liquid Music and Northrop

Dance Church® PopUp is an all-levels movement class taught by choreographer Kate Wallich that offers a fun and inclusive approach to dancing. Designed for people of all shapes and sizes, backgrounds, and identities, Dance Church is a communal space for people who want to move their bodies.

Wallich will lead this 70-minute class in a series of movement cues, accompanied by a curated playlist of multi-genre pop music. The format is open but guided throughout. No prior dance experience necessary, but open-mindedness is a prerequisite.

Dance Church classes are offered in dance spaces across the country with a mission to bring the joy and release of dance to every body while supporting dance artists and partner organizations and making connections between class takers and the dance world.

Thursday, May 23
7:00pm

This PopUp class with Dance Church founder Kate Wallich was made possible through Liquid Music and Northrop alongside Kate Wallich + Perfume Genius technical residency at Northrop.

Parking is available in front of TU Dance Center and along the parking lot entrance. Do not park in the Subway lot.

National Tap Dance Day: Workshops at Keane

Join Keane Sense of Rhythm for two days of workshops taught by Acia Gray, Katherine Kramer and Jeanne Hill! Saturday and Sunday, May 25-26. Choose from beginner/intermediate or intermediate/advanced! $40/workshop.

Saturday
10:00-11:15am: Acia Gray, Beginning/Intermediate
10:00-11:15am: Katherine Kramer, Intermediate/Advanced
11:30am–12:45pm: Jeanne Hill, Intermediate/Advanced
11:30am–12:45pm: Katherine Kramer, Beginning/Intermediate

Sunday
10:00-11:15am: Jeanne Hill, Beginning/Intermediate
11:30am–12:45pm: Acia Gray, Intermediate/Advanced

Feldenkrais Walking Series: Methods for Mindful Movement with Sarah Baumert

Walking From Your Spine: Fluid Torso and Weightless Limbs is an 8-week Feldenkrais® Guided Awareness Through Movement Series with Sarah Baumert.

May 29-July 21
Wednesdays, 6:30pm CST

Sundays, 4:00pm CST
Live classes will be taught on Zoom.
All lessons are recorded. Registering for the series gives you access to the recorded lessons indefinitely.

While we often credit our legs for walking and running, the spine actually plays a more central role than we realize. This series of lessons is designed to build awareness and skill in how the spine and torso initiate and help control our gait during walking.

Through gentle, mindful movement explorations, you’ll learn how to improve balance, coordination, and range of motion, all leading to a more enjoyable and effortless walking experience. Feldenkrais is different than gentle yoga, but similar in the way that the lessons are like a mindful movement meditation. Each lesson builds upon the next lesson so that the students can feel how the practiced movement patterns benefit each other.

Most lessons in this series will be done on the floor, lying on the back or the side, with short explorations in standing, walking, and chair sitting. This gentle somatic program is suitable for anyone, including those recovering from hip or back surgery, or managing chronic pain in their walking. Gaining more freedom and confidence in your walking is key to an independent life. Come explore mindful movement that is targeted to improve walking, flexibility, balance, and coordination, leading to a smoother, confident, more enjoyable walking experience.

Blended Yoga: Cultivating Strength, Balance, and Stability

Blended Yoga: Cultivating Strength, Balance, and Stability is an 8-week series guided by Sarah Baumert that blends the mindful movement of gentle yoga with the awareness of the Feldenkrais method.

June 3-July 22
Mondays, 6:00-7:15pm CST
Live classes will be taught on Zoom.
All lessons are recorded. Registering for the series gives you access to the recorded lessons indefinitely.

In this blended class, attention is focused on treating your body as a connected system, moving beyond isolated exercises. The first part of the class will focus on functional mobility and strength as we practice balance and stability exercises. The last half of class will bring us into a softer place, with mindful movements for releasing tension, and pain management.

Each class is an original, innovative creation of Sarah’s teaching. She blends a more traditional gentle yoga practice with the novel Feldenkrais® awareness practices. But that’s not all, she incorporates joint-specific training, functional range exercises, self-massage, breathing exercises, and a compassionate non-competitive mindset. It’s a true experience of movement therapy!

For all of you who have been joining Monday nights, this whole body reset is like a maintenance plan! We will zoom our focus in for eight weeks on improving our balance, stability, and connection with the earth’s surfaces. For newcomers, come with no expectations. Allow your body to be your guide. All levels are welcome. This will be a nonjudgemental, un-intimidating space to create friends with your body (yourself!). You will train your sensitivity in such a way that you find yourself feeling more alive, vibrant, and spacious.

Come explore mindful movement that is targeted to improve stability, balance, and strength. Experience this novel way to improve your joint health and functional mobility in a holistic way led by a passionate movement educator.

TU Dance: “an experiment” with Leslie Parker and Collaborators

The public offering of an experiment is a live collaborative improvisation performance drawing from Blackness in experimental music, storytelling, visual art, and dance. This is a Twin Cities Jazz Festival event.

The Twin Cities Black Dance Improvisation Intensive 2024 is an extension of CtR methodology centering on Black, Native, Indigenous, and Artists of Color narratives. The focus is on creatives who are steeped in dance and performance practices to provide more opportunities to deepen awareness of improvisation. BDI Intensive 2024 is open to all bodies and ethnicities including artists, organizers, activists, and co-conspirators of varied dance experiences. All participants of the BDI Intensive are encouraged to perform.

In partnership with Northrop, Twin Cities Jazz Festival, The Cedar Cultural Center, TU Dance, and Barbara Barker Center for Dance. Performances by Black Dance Improvisation Intensive participants and Music Collaborative with Michael Wimberly, Farai Malianga, Dameun Strange, and DeCarlo Jackson. Produced by Leslie Parker Dance Project.

June 22, 2024
Free. At the Cedar Cultural Center.

Intensive Workshop Schedule
Leslie Parker Dance Project brings together improvisers in the Twin Cities who practice various models of improvisation from around the world to participate in three weeks of practice.

June 3-6, 2024
Workshop Session with Ishmael Houston-Jones
TU Dance Center, 2121 University Avenue West, Saint Paul, MN 55104

June 10-13, 2024
Workshop Session with Merián Soto
Northrop Dance Studio, 84 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455

June 17-20, 2024
Workshop Session with Leslie Parker and Cynthia Olive
Barbara Barker Dance Center, 500 21st Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55455

More information and registration.

Dance for a Cause | Jazz with Jennifer Glaws of Jagged Moves

Dance for a Cause | Move for Soiled Dance Series | Jazz with Jagged Moves

Monday, June 3: 6:30-8:00pm
Pick your price: $18, $28, $38, $65. Cash or Venmo @jaggedmoves.
Join in-person, online, or on demand!
Drop-in or email jagged9@hotmail.com to pre-register or for in-person and online information.
At Zenon Dance School, located in the Hennepin Center for the Arts, at the corner of 6th Street and Hennepin Ave.

Join Jagged Moves’ Artistic Director Jennifer Glaws in a donation based Jazz class for mixed abilities in support of Soiled Dance Series. All money raised will go directly in supporting the presenting and creating artists in producing a second series of this great event that elevates dance, the land, animals, and agriculture.

Soiled Dance Series is a summer dance festival hosted by Jagged Moves in rural Minnesota dedicated to bringing awareness to radical dance and agriculture farming. Presented on a real working farm and the stunning grounds of Gale Woods Farm in Minnetrista, the inaugural series welcomed 30 performing artists, dancing works of 7 MN choreographers that energized the land and spoke towards the locations for where they were performed.

Move your Monday and dance with impact!

Intro to the Suzuki Method of Acting with kt shorb

Saturday, June 8
12:30-3:30pm

Connect with “the invisible body”! Having recently participated in a two-week intensive at the Suzuki Company of Toga, kt shorb will offer a one-day workshop to share some basics of the Suzuki Method of Actor Training, which was developed by acclaimed director Tadashi Suzuki and the Suzuki Company of Toga.

Suzuki focuses on developing control of three elements of “the invisible body,”—breath, center of gravity, and energy production. Intensely physical, the Suzuki Method is built around what Suzuki calls the “grammar of the feet,” emphasizing a powerful connection between the lower body and the ground. Suzuki draws from traditional Japanese theater, as well as ballet, martial arts, and ancient Greek theaters.

Suzuki Method, which incorporates adaptations of Mary Overlie’s viewpoints, is a unique method of performance training for dancers, choreographers, actors, and directors that prepares the body, breath, and voice for the challenges of performing onstage.

This class is designed for working or aspiring BIPOC artists who are 16 years or older. Participation is limited to 20 artists. Registration deadline is Monday, June 3, at 11:59pm CT.

Minnesota Dance Theatre & School Summer Intensives

Join us for the Minnesota Dance Theatre and School Summer 2024 Dance Intensives and Themed Camps, running June 10-28!

Training with MDT&S is designed to meet the needs of today’s dancers with a curriculum based in classical ballet technique and incorporating contemporary dance forms for all ages 4-18.

Our Performing Arts Division (PAD) Summer Intensive aims to build upon the MDT&S curriculum and is aimed at dancers who have mastered the fundamentals of ballet technique. Classes will include Ballet Technique, Contemporary Technique, Conditioning/Strength, and Creative Workshops.

The Young Children’s Division (YCD) Intensive and Camp Classes emphasize the joy of dancing and creative movement while helping students enhance their coordination and develop the fundamental skills of dance.

Register here. Full session and week-by-week registration available. Class sizes will be limited.
Visit our website for more information.

TU Dance Center: Children and Beginner Summer Programs

The TU Dance Children and Teen Program introduces the joy of creative movement and beginning dance technique. Classes, divided by age, provide a comprehensive base on which to expand by developing body awareness, coordination, balance, flexibility, strength, and musicality. Click here to download the 2024 Creative Movement Daily Schedule and the 2024 Beginning Program Daily Schedule.

Youth Beginning Level: June 17-29
This 2-week program is entry level for students typically aged 9-12 and will focus on the techniques of Modern, Ballet, Hip Hop, and African Dance. Students will learn basic fundamentals of dance technique along with exploring their individual artistic expression.
Registration Deadline: June 12, 2024

Teen Beginning Level: June 17-29
This 2-week program is entry level for students typically aged 13-16 and will focus on the techniques of Modern, Ballet, Hip Hop, and African Dance. Students will learn basic fundamentals of dance technique along with exploring their individual artistic expression.
Registration Deadline: June 12, 2024

Creative Movement: July 22-26
During this 1-week program, students ages 5-8 will experience the connection between movement and creativity through rhythmically driven classes aided by live percussion.
Registration Deadline: July 17, 2024