Archive: Workshops, Intensives, Master Classes, and Open Houses

Mental health is as important as physical health for healthy, happy dancers. Minding the Gap presents a workshop curated in five sessions, each presented by an accredited professional.

Last session: April 3, 2022
How to support an injured dancer. Best practices to get the dancer back into the studio strong both mentally and physically.

Presenter: Marissa Schaeffer, PT, DPT, CSCS – licensed physical therapist and NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist in New York City.

Come join me for four weeks of Alexander Technique at Zenon!

Mondays, March 2-April 18
11:15am-12:15pm
Drop-ins welcome!

The Alexander Technique teaches skills that are foundational to healthy movement, whether it’s an ordinary task like reaching for something on a shelf or a complex dance phrase. It teaches us how to move with a greater degree of ease and coordination. Alexander Technique provides space for being present, available, and adaptable in our dancing and our daily lives. Together we will build awareness around how we are moving, thinking, and interacting with ourselves. Alexander Technique can provide dancers with tools for exploring dance technique on more subtle levels of sensory experience and artistry, tap into abundant sources of somatic material to draw from creatively, let go of tension and breathe better for energy and flow. We will apply principles of the Alexander Technique in movement explorations, sequences, and games, leaving time for discussion for a fun and playful approach to exploring the Alexander Technique. I’m looking forward to facilitating a space where we can experience the benefits of the Alexander Technique for ourselves together!

This class is open to all levels of experience and to movers of all practices and forms. Touch feedback will at times be offered from the instructor and will always be optional.

Registration is open through Zenon’s MindBody portal and closes ten minutes before class.

Moving Practice is a weekly class series for professional dancers. Classes prioritize rigor, diversity of contemporary aesthetics, variety of class content, and commitment. Professional level dancers of all styles are welcome.

Tuesdays, 10:00-11:30am at The Arena
Da’Rius Malone teaches throughout April!

Drop in rate is $17 with flexible pricing and free parking!

Register here: https://clients.mindbodyonline.com/classic/mainclass

Da’Rius Malone, from Chicago, IL, began his training under the direction of August Tye at Hyde Park School of Dance. Da’Rius is a 2014 graduate of The Chicago High School for the Arts (ChiArts), where he had the privilege to perform works from leading Chicago dance companies such as DanceWorks Chicago, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Muntu Dance Theater, and Joffrey Ballet. Da’Rius continued his training at The Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Da’Rius is a 2018 graduate with his BFA in Contemporary Dance Performance with an Emphasis in Ballet. After his time at the conservatory Da’Rius was asked to join Jon Lehrer on his European Tour as a guest artist. After, Da’Rius then became a company member with the James Sewell Ballet. In 2021, becoming James Sewell Ballet first Resident Choreographer.

Da’Rius has performed works by Doug Varone, Joshua Manculich, Merce Cunningham, and Danny Buraczeski. He has also danced in several world premieres of choreography by Gabrielle Lamb, MADBOOTS and Yury Yanowsky. Da’Rius has performed excerpts of Don Quixote and Raymonda restaged by former Boston Ballet principal dancer Adriana Suarez and Gianni DiMarco. Da’Rius has also trained with the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company (Israel), Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, NW Dance Project,  Alonzo King Lines Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Ballet Austin, Deeply Rooted Dance Theater and 10 Hairy Legs. Da’Rius wants to use his dance education and experience as a professional concert dancer to create a platform to make a positive impact in life.

Gabby “The Baddie” Abram teaches a limited workshop series in All Levels Hip-Hop this spring at Zenon Dance School!

This class is open to all levels! Class material is tailored to the mix of students!

Gabrielle Abram is a Gary, Indiana native, and a 2020 Momentum New Dance Works fellow. She is a self-taught, multi-lingual Hip Hop artist and has received training in Ballet, Modern, West African, and Jazz at The Perpich Center for Arts and Education, TU Dance Center, and received a scholarship to attend the ARENA Dances Summer Intensive. Abram attended Columbia College Chicago for one year then returned to the Twin Cities to work as a professional Dancer, Choreographer, and Producer. Gabrielle is a member of STRONGmovement, directed by Darrius Strong, and Atlantis13 Dance Collective, directed by Peace Madimutsa and Johnathan Van Arman. In 2018 Abram co-produced Listen at The Lab Theater, a collective of nine choreographers sharing Pan-African perspectives and personal stories of black identity. Abram continues to produce, dance, and create work in the Twin Cities.

Wednesdays, 7:00 – 8:00pm | April 6 – April 20

Register today! | In person only.

Body Watani (body-as-homeland) is both an improvisational movement practice and an emerging contemporary dance form. A site where improvisational research guides practitioners into their personal ‘body watani’ through spending time with ancestries, contemplating our complex relations to land / water / home, and activating embodied memories into dancing. Developed by Leila and Noelle Awadallah, two Palestinian American dancers, this contemporary form also finds roots in dances of Arabic / *SWANA (South West Asia North Africa)/ Mediterranean geographies through specific movement techniques, music of the region, and cultural / political content to engage with that deepens our relation to Body Watani’s context.

The first half of the workshops will begin with writing prompts, conversations, and improvisation research. Participants are invited to choose how they physicalize the material (dancing, sitting still, everything in between). In the second half, we will share more about our new work, TERRANEA, through teaching movement materials that incorporate elements of our technique and we will teach repertoire from the upcoming performance, premiering May 5-7 at the Candy Box Festival. Participants are welcome to witness or participate as they see fit.

In Collaboration with TU Dance, Body Watani will host a workshop focused on WATER. Ancestral waters, fluid memories, relations to bodies of water as we ourselves are bodies of water. The material will move through the following: What memories are held and carried by waters? What can we learn from the water? What is it to depart and return via waterways? Grappling with the histories and also ongoing realities of bodies moving across water, the imposition of laws and lines on a fluid space, and the loss amongst waves. We will sink into the many complexities and swim together – through.

These workshops are for all levels, all abilities. We welcome everyone from professional dancers, to anyone who wants to deepen their relationship to the movement inside their particular body.

April 16, 2022 | 11:00am-2:00pm

Cost: $10

Dance teacher Tamiko French has developed a program centered around revitalizing creativity of storytelling with the building blocks of dance creation that infuses the visual and literary arts. https://vimeo.com/685038137

The 8-week workshop is designed to be sequential for participants, with each class building on the previous class. From a first class in which participants will use poetry, prose, dramatic writing, spoken word, or other writing as a stimulus to create movement, participants will learn about modern and jazz dance techniques and choreographic practice, collaborate and share results with others, study facilitated improvisation and play in dance, and refine their work for a sharing event for family, friends, and the community.

This program is for adults 55+. Pre-registration required as in-studio space is limited!

Thursdays, 10:00-11:30am CST | In-person only. $45 per workshop.

Session 2: May 26–July 16

There will be a showing on last day of each workshop from 12:30-2:00pm.

Proof of vaccination and masks are required at the door for all participants.

TU Dance will offer tuition and transportation subsidy upon request. Please contact us at education@tudance.org or (651) 724-9708 to inquire.

Discover dance with a week-long camp for young artists! Not sure if your dancer has a style they like best, or looking for a way to try out something new? We’ll explore a variety of dance styles and creative movements in this one-week camp. There will be an informal showing on the last day. All abilities and levels of experience are welcome. In-person only at the Zenon Dance School studios.

July 18 – 22, 2022
Session 1: Ages 4-6 with Philip Hommes, 9:00am-12:00pm
Session 2: Ages 7-10 with Hannah Pierce, 12:30pm-3:30pm

Tuition: $195
Need-based scholarships are available for full or partial tuition.

Register online today!
Registration closes one week before each camp begins.

6:00 – 7:15pm | Beginning/Intermediate Modern Workshop w. Mary Willmeng (IN PERSON)

The Alexander Technique teaches skills that are foundational to healthy movement, whether it’s an ordinary task like reaching for something on a shelf or a complex dance phrase. It teaches us how to move with a greater degree of ease and coordination. Alexander Technique provides space for being present, available, and adaptable in our dancing and our daily lives. Together we will build awareness around how we are moving, thinking, and interacting with ourselves. We will apply principles of the Alexander Technique in movement explorations, sequences, and games, leaving time for discussion for a fun and playful approach to exploring the Alexander Technique.

This class is open to all levels of experience as well as to movers of all practices and forms. Touch feedback will at times be offered from the instructor and will always be optional.

Registration is open through Zenon’s MindBody portal and closes ten minutes before class.