At its core, dance is fun.

AHHHHH!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!! LET’S DANCE!!!!!! WE ARE DANCING!!!!!! THESE BODIES ARE IN MOTION NAVIGATING ONE ANOTHER AND THAT IS MAYBE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THING IN THE WORLD!!!!!!! AND THEY ARE ALSO MORE THAN BODIES THEY ARE PEOPLE WHO HAVE HAD THEIR HEARTS BROKEN AND LOVE SOMETHING REALLY PARTICULAR AND HAVE AN INNER MIND I CAN ONLY DREAM OF KNOWING!!!!! 

Okay, I’ll stop yelling but know that this is the energy I bring into the classroom. I want to help my students build awareness of this sack of skin and bones and muscles and memories that is THE BODY through internal somatic experiences, intentional work with partners, and a relationship to weight and momentum in commitment to big moves. Most of my dance training was in a competition dance setting. While I am quite adamantly against much of this way or working, the rigour of it remains in my pedagogy. So, you will sweat in class and be challenged and likely be sore the next day, but you will also learn to trust your body and be at peace with risk and lean into failure as a gateway to knowledge. This remains true in every form I teach which include Jazz, Ballet, Modern, Contemporary, Improvisation, and Line Dancing. In my teaching of these forms I do not shy away from the historical and political context of their existence, it is at the forefront of my approach. I queer these forms through bastardizing and reclaiming them as spaces that are inclusive and eager for evolution. As a community, we declare their values.