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

The Blending of Yoga and Feldenkrais

An 8-week series with Sarah Baumert

September 26-November 21
Mondays from 6:00-7:15pm CST
Live classes will be taught on Zoom

In this Monday night series, each class will infuse a more traditional yoga asana practice with the Feldenkrais® Awareness Through Movement method. I like to keep the theme for these Monday night series open, as I follow the lead of the seasons and needs of the students who attend.

Each of Sarah’s sessions are an interdisciplinary excursion of yoga, Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement, self-massage, breathing exercises, movement puzzles, and a compassionate mindset to help you feel a greater sense of ease and comfort in yourself. Increase your ease and efficiency in movement, improve your flexibility and coordination, and rediscover your natural capacity for graceful and organized movement through these classes.

This will be a nonjudgemental, unintimidating space to create friends with your body (yourself!), and will specifically focus on helping settle the nervous system during these challenging times. You will train your sensitivity in such a way that you find yourself feeling more alive and vibrant.

Scholarships are available for this series. Please contact Sarah directly at sarah@body-matter.com for scholarship inquiries.

This eight-week workshop is designed for children ages 2-4 and their parent/caregiver who are interested in a shared movement experience that engages the senses of curiosity and play.

Both child and caregiver will participate in developmentally appropriate movement exercises that incorporate elements such as effort, shape, and tempo. Music will play an essential role in the class as students will be asked to respond to sounds as well as make sounds themselves. Participants will be encouraged to join at their own comfort level with the understanding that observation is often the best form of learning with younger children. This class will give children and caregivers the opportunity to learn more about themselves and one another through the art form of dance.

Saturdays, 9:00-9:45am

Session 1: October 1-November 19 (no classes November 21-27)
Session 2: January 14-March 4
Session 3: March 11-May 13 (no classes April 3-15)

Tuition: $120.00 per session

Moving Practice is a weekly class series for professional dancers. Classes prioritize rigor, diversity of contemporary aesthetics, variety of class content and commitment.

Noelle Awadallah teaches this October.
Tuesdays 10:00-11:30am

Professional level dancers of all styles are welcome.
Pre-register at https://www.arena-dances.org/the-arena/
Suggested $17 a class, but ARENA DANCES offers a pay-as-able option on all classes. We would rather you join us than not be able to attend due to financial limitations.

Body Watani (watani means homeland in Arabic) is both an improvisational movement practice and an emerging contemporary dance form developed by Leila Awadallah, a Palestinian American dancer. The practice is a container with soft edges 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 one’s own dancing. Body Watani also manifests as a contemporary form with roots in dances of Arabic / SWANA / Mediterranean lands through specific movement techniques, music of the region, and cultural / political content to engage with that deepens our relation to Body Watani’s context.

Noelle Awadallah نوال (she/hers) is a Palestinian American dancer, maker, and teacher who resides in Mni Sota Makoce. She currently dances with Ananya Dance Theatre, is a member of Slo Dance Company, and is a co-creator for Body Watani. Her work is framed by her blurry identity in all of its honesty and dislocation. Circling themes include  transcendence of time, ancestor imaginings, listening, falling into stereotypes, and storytelling. Improvisational practices guide her movement generating as an honest way to dig and share stories recollected and reimagined from her body rooted in radical imagination of the senses. She holds a BFA from Columbia College Chicago (2018).

Northrop Presents: A.I.M. by Kyle Abraham – Technique and Repertory Masterclass

The A.I.M by Kyle Abraham Technique and Repertory Masterclass invites participants to explore A.I.M’s movement with company dancer Jae Neal, learning excerpts from repertory included in their upcoming Requiem: Fire in the Air of the Earth performance. This 90-minute masterclass is recommended for intermediate/advanced level dancers, and will take place at TU Dance Center in Saint Paul.

Monday, October 10, 4:30pm
TU Dance Center
FREE and open to the public. Registration required.

Space is limited and registration must be received by 12:00pm on Monday, October 10. Participants are required to wear a mask.

For more information and to register, click here.

2023 Spring Apprentice Program running January 1–May 31, 2023

Collide Theatrical’s Apprentice Program is a tuition-based professional training and rehearsal program for advanced professional-track dancers ages 18-25. The course provides the necessary skills for dancers to pursue formal positions within the Company and in the world of theater dance.

Apprentices are mentored by and work alongside Collide artistic staff and Company dancers.

Tuition-based and BIPOC scholarship-based positions available.

Details:

• Technique classes (Theater Jazz, Classic Jazz, Ballet, Contemporary) – Mondays and Wednesdays, 9:00-10:30am from January-May, 2023
• Opportunities to observe company rehearsals and choreography sessions
• Sunday Apprentice Rehearsals, 5:00-7:00pm from February 11-March 12, 2023
• Perform with the professional company in SKOL! from March 23-April 1, 2023 at The Southern Theater
• Audition required
• Monthly tuition – BIPOC scholarships available

To schedule an audition or for more information please contact Grace by emailing admin@collidetheatrical.org.

2023 Spring Apprentice Program running January 1-May 31, 2023

Collide Theatrical’s Apprentice Program is a tuition-based professional training and rehearsal program for advanced professional-track dancers ages 18-25. The course provides the necessary skills for dancers to pursue formal positions within the Company and in the world of theater dance.

Apprentices are mentored by and work alongside Collide artistic staff and Company dancers.

Tuition-based and BIPOC scholarship-based positions available.

Details:

• Technique classes (Theater Jazz, Classic Jazz, Ballet, Contemporary) – Mondays and Wednesdays, 9:00-10:30am from January-May, 2023
• Opportunities to observe company rehearsals and choreography sessions
• Sunday Apprentice Rehearsals – 5:00-7:00pm from February 11-March 12, 2023
• Perform with the professional company in SKOL! – March 23-April 1, 2023 at The Southern Theater
• Audition required
• Monthly tuition – BIPOC scholarships available

To schedule an audition or for more information please contact Grace by emailing admin@collidetheatrical.org.

Save the Date for a New Feldenkrais Series – September 25 to November 13
Pelvic Floor and Deep Core Rapport
An 8-week Feldenkrais Series with Sarah Baumert

September 25-November 13
Sundays at 4:00pm CST
Wednesdays at 6:30pm CST

Available to take via livestream on Zoom or using the self-paced recordings
16 livestream classes
8 Awareness Through Movement lessons in total

A series of lessons to establish a harmonious relationship for your hips, buttocks, pelvic floor, and deep core muscles. Learn to relax and build strength as we relate to the abdomen and pelvis as a center of power sensitivity. This is a whole-body approach to pelvis and abdominal health.

For both men and women, improving the ability to both relax and engage the pelvic floor and the deep abdominal muscles can have positive effects and create a marked improvement for:

• Back pain
• Sensing a deeper and more relaxed breath
• Easier standing and walking
• Improved Balance
• Healing from hip replacements or abdominal surgeries
• Better sex through increased awareness, sensation and control
• More effective bladder control
• Lack of strength, coordination, or sensation in this area after giving birth

A Feldenkrais approach to pelvic and abdominal health:

A secret to this method is to reduce the force we create in our muscles in order to maximize the amount of information we have available for feedback. This means practicing intelligently and reducing the effort to get more refined sensations.

It may seem paradoxical to relax a muscle in order for it to become stronger. However, if a muscle is always contracted it has less ability to contract any further. It has less ability to move through its dynamic range of actions. A habitually contracted muscle is a weak muscle!  We will practice learning how to relax the pelvic floor and deep abdominal muscles in order to engage them when necessary. This will not be a practice of isolating the pelvic floor muscles with exercises like Kegels. These sessions will support you to become aware of and relax compulsive muscular tension in the pelvis and abdominals, so that you can then learn to integrate them into functional everyday movements.

Erin Sheppard offers a great workshop series for new and continuing hip hop dancers who love to move. Students will learn fundamental techniques and choreography while expanding their knowledge of rhythm and movement.

This class is a great foundation for any young dancer ages 7-10 years. All levels of experience are welcome!

Two classes remaining!

Sundays from 12:00-12:45pm:
September 25
October 2

Single class drop-in: $15
In-person only; limited space available.

Register today!