Right now we need to feel good and move for change more than ever, therefore I’m taking on a personal challenge to dance every day in December and inviting you to join in, too!
Thus we will move mindfully and joyfully through the winter holidays and into 2025. Or you can take the challenge and repeat as desired at any time of year.
Hard times come to us all, so how can we bounce back and recover? Here are the tools that work for me when I need to cope with difficult developments and which I share with clients and students to support their commitment to what’s important in their lives despite setbacks.
Leaning on them now and curious to hear what you find works best for you!
Folks often ask why I mostly wear socks to teach and dance these days, and what they themselves should wear to beginner ballet or other styles of dance classes.
This year I’ve been studying Argentine Tango for the first time, and that requires different considerations in terms of footwear, due to the type of flooring and the technique.
I’ve recently been sharing my creative supplies and EDC/Everyday Carry essentials, so along those lines, here is an informal chat with more information about what dance shoes I regularly use and what is appropriate for a first movement class for adults or children.
This is a resource roundup to relish a couple of important annual celebrations of dance movement! National Dance Week, an annual celebration of dance that takes place from April 19 to 28 this year is specially set aside to spread the delight and joys of dancing, and to create awareness about its impact and benefits.
May you feel inspired to move by these offerings and others being shared by dancers the world over!
In celebration of International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, I’m offering a complimentary online Beautiful Ballet Barre+ class!
We will kick off a new season of mindful movement with a delicious, gentle, adaptive beginner and beyond level online ballet barre to lovely music with one or two dancey, optionally-freestanding exercises.
Joyful and suitable to all levels and genders. Dancers will be encouraged to express themselves through classical dance movements, taking their own appropriate variations of standard ballet steps.
In this workshop, we will devise a collaborative choreography using our existing ballet and dance vocabulary, universal Elements of Dance, and a supportive structure that can be applied to future dancemaking.
We will begin with a simple dance phrase, developing varied interpretations, integrating our individual viewpoints, and emerging with a new work-in-progress. The process will generate more nuanced transitions and fuller expression in technique and performance practice, choreographic exploration, and bridging dance tradition and contemporary issues.
The following bite-sized movement explorations can help build a habit of joyful exploratory movement and creative expression. Originally created in celebration of National Dance Week, you may use these five prompts and responses to inspire your own improvisation and choreographic research anytime!
We will develop a joyful daily creative dance practice that is accessible to a variety of abilities and experience levels and achievable in minutes a day. Be amazed at the far-reaching impacts such a practice can have in your life.
Joyful movement in general, and ballet in particular, is one of the great passions of my life. I find the movements of the arms particularly captivating, and in recent times it has become more relevant than ever that they are accessible with little available space. As I age, I also appreciate how I can continue […]
I can’t possibly provide an exhaustive account of such a dancing phenomenon as “The Nutcracker” ballet, but I’d like to share some of the history and my own fascination with the music, dancing, costumes, and magical story. Hopefully it sparks a bit of your own childlike wonder, dreams, and fantasies as well as your grown-up appreciation of music, storytelling, and the art of dance.
In October around Halloween time, I like to teach the story of “Hansel and Gretel,” or as I like to think of it, “Gretel and Hansel,” since alphabetically it follows, and Gretel is the real hero of the tale.
Including a range of expression and emotional content, beautiful music, natural and supernatural characters, it is rich with possibilities for dance improvisation, choreography, and education.
This story fits in well with witch dances and other spooky themes like ghosts, bats, cats, etc. and can be related to dreaming and courage in “Cinderella” (for which I also have a podcast, video, and blog), the Land of Sweets and Clara/Marie’s bravery in “The Nutcracker” (coming soon!) and tie in music appreciation from the opera and other sources.
