Company Class
Join the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company for Open Company Class. Dance along-side the company dancers in this professional level class taught by Artistic Director, Daniel Charon and Various Guest Artists.
Intermediate/Advanced level.
All classes are from 9am-10:30am
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Guest Teachers:
Melissa Younker is an artist with a multifaceted dedication to dance; using an interdisciplinary approach that blends her experience in dance performance, choreography, costume design and film to craft collaborative centered experiences and productions. Originally from Southern California, Melissa received her BFA from California State University, Long Beach. She has toured in Croatia, France, Mongolia, Poland, South Korea and throughout the U.S. as a dance and teaching artist.
Website - www.melissayounker.com
Class Description: This contemporary class incorporates improvisation and momentum building sequences that explore efficiency, thoughtful dynamics and individual expression. Melissa believes that nothing the body does is wrong and that the practice of dance is the process of awareness and intention. Class will offer geek-out details as we look at functional anatomy, dive into curiosities and celebrate our unique dance approaches. Music matters in this playful class that moves through a curated playlist that gets our hearts pumping and bodies jumping.
Natalie Desch, a BFA graduate of the Juilliard School and an MFA graduate of the University of Washington, performed for five seasons with the Limón Dance Company and eleven seasons with Doug Varone and Dancers in NYC. She additionally danced in various productions at the Metropolitan Opera and other regional opera companies around the US. Natalie has restaged the works of José Limón, Doug Varone, Jirí Kylián, and Daniel Charon on performing groups around the world, and her choreography has been presented at venues throughout the country. In 2014 Natalie relocated to Salt Lake City, UT and became an Assistant Professor in the University of Utah’s School of Dance in the fall of 2019.
Class Description: This class explores the individual’s greater understanding of and capacity for movement as a means of effective communication and evocative inspiration. Primarily drawing from my experiences of the Western concert dance canon, class will focus the mind and body on a progression from simple movement combinations to more voluminous, complex, and dynamic dance. Proper alignment, core support, technical proficiency, and both internal and external rhythms will be addressed. Our practice means to explore how the body’s mechanical functions can be made efficient while still informing qualitative choices. It hopes to challenge the mind, body, and spirit but not overwhelm them. I encourage an environment where everyone celebrates their own uniqueness in order to inspire the artistic evolution of the self and the community.