The classes are focused in establishing the connections through our skeletal structure and into the floor, in order to release the most superficial muscles. By working in this manner, the students are able to partner and manipulate their own bodies as well as expand and isolate their range of motion. After the warm-up, students will learn sections of the company repertory. Some sections will be reworked with the student’s inputs, following the same improvisation structures used to create the original movements of that section.

Emphasis in this class will be put on bringing seemingly incongruous materials together. Technique and warm-up exercises will be drawn from a variety of movement styles ranging from ballet and post-modern to street/club styles and martial arts. Phrases in the Elkins idiom will be introduced, emphasizing dynamic physicality and self-expression.

Technique Class
The goal of this class is to teach the dancer how to be an interpreter of movement, constructing a store of tools used to approach performing. The class is centered on O'Connor's dance language, which incorporates ballet, modern, ethnic and historical forms, both real and invented. Concepts of body architecture, locomotion through space and body centering are explored. These are combined with a unique system for phrase structures derived from a physical stream of consciousness. This is characterized by an exaggerated density of steps and inorganic step sequencing transformed into logic. Musically the class concentrates on extreme tempo change and dynamic finesse.

Sequential Momentum
A daily technique class that will begin focusing on our anatomical alignment, lubricating our joints while warming and stretching our muscles. Moving from our centers through our extremities and back, we will emphasize a fluid spine and grounded weight. We will use improvisation and weight sharing to further and personalize our kinetic explorations. The class will build dynamically from subtle exercises into large athletic phrases that move in and out of the floor, on our hands, and through space with easy exciting sequential momentum.

Classes will draw upon an athletic background to develop an ease with moving in and out of the floor in the most efficient effortless ways possible, and to develop a comfort with utilizing the hands as a weight bearing source. With these skills we will investigate various ways to effortlessly suspend and up-end the body in space, while remaining thoroughly grounded to the floor. Dance phrases will emphasize the use and thrill of momentum and gravity as a means to full-bodied, risky dancing, and at times challenge the body to defy those qualities.

The class focuses on the possible relationships between technique and interpretation. The development of stylistic and expressive range is encouraged by a simple, function oriented approach to movement, and by guiding participants to expose their imaginations physically. Improvisational exercises are used as an approach for exploring technical and expressive possibilities.

Class is designed to prepare the moving body through awareness and to increase the functional knowledge of our bodies (skeletal and joint systems, release with direction, weight and momentum) so that we may move with more efficiency. sensitivity, specificity and focus. Particular attention is paid to the initiations of movement and to extending the bounderies of those initiations, through a balance of physicality, intention, expression, and interpretation. Attention to detail will be explored through set material as the individual comes into his/her own way of seeing, translating and experiencing movement. Other than that, we’ll also set out to...well...MOVE.

David will lead a thorough technical warm-up class that will range in styles from release-based work connecting with the floor to an eclectic standing modern class. Concepts such as a weighted and grounded approach to movement, harnessing the body’s momentum and force, varying approaches to partnering and composition choices through improvisation may be included.

Moving in Space with Clarity and Ease
The class begins on the floor applying principles based on Bartenieff Fundamentals, then moves to standing exercises, touching upon principles of the Alexander Technique. We look at joint range, dynamic alignment, muscle efficiency, body part initiation, and dancing with spatial and dynamic clarity. How are our bodies’ spatial organizations affected by the space primarily in two dimensions or three? The class incorporates improvisation to explore one or many of the principles we touch upon.

Class begins with a soothing and sensual warm-up, realizing and utilizing the muscles and the joints to their fullest potential. Exercises become more complicated as the body becomes more prepared. Class will use Mr. Leichter’s blend of gesture, hip-hop, funk, and modern dance to achieve physical and spiritual ecstasy.

This class seeks to prepare an articulate, alert and neutral body, ready for precise dancing with intricate coordinations that we will work on together. There is a simple straight- forward continuous warm-up that relies on the use of release, alignment, momentum, weight, and strength. Clarity, simplicity of movement, attention to detail and concentration will be our goal.

The classes are focused in establishing the connections through our skeletal structure and into the floor, in order to release the most superficial muscles. By working in this manner, the students are able to partner and manipulate their own bodies as well as expand and isolate their range of motion. After the warm-up, students will learn sections of the company repertory. Some sections will be reworked with the student’s inputs, following the same improvisation structures used to create the original movements of that section.

These contemporary dance classes are strongly influenced by Nelson’s thirteen years of continuing study with Susan Klein and Barbara Mahler in New York. The warm-up focuses on our skeletal structure to access the power of the deep supporting muscles of the body. We work particularly with our connection to, and use of the floor. We take this information and apply it to phrases of movement that involve moving boldly, covering lots of space, taking chances off-balance and finding an ease and strength in our dancing.

The Athletics of Intimacy, Improvisations
Classes combining skills and practices of Contact Improvisation, applications of Body Mind Centering and tutoring of somatic improvisational approaches in solo, duet (strong emphasis on partnering) and ensemble dancing. I am interested in the very physical, the very sensorial and the very imaginative and in discovering new challenges and risks within our movement vocabulary. Series recommended, single classes available as well. All levels of experience welcome.

Klein Technique is a dance/movement technique, a process that has 2 basic goals-first, to articulate and integrate body parts, and secondly, to-develop the internal and spatial connections which support the body both at rest and in motion. The result-clarity and sureness of movement. Klein Technique began in l972 developed by Susan Klein’s journey from injury, through healing, and into health, working with the belief that the requirement of movement of daily life and dance are basically the same. The purpose is to re-educate the dancer’s body, interweaving theory and practice on a deep, physical and organic level. From this comes the potential for students to discover a range of intelligence in their dancing, as well as to help them discover and develop their own choreographic vision. While learning this technique, it is most beneficial for students to attend class as consistently as possible.

Contact Improvisation
Contact Improvisation is a partnering dance form. Skills such as rolling, releasing, giving and supporting weight, expanding range of spatial concentration, lifting, catching, and falling help one move with and through gravity, share weight in motion, and use momentum and flow in physical contact for joyful dancing. These weekly classes are open to all levels with teachers rotating monthly.

Contact Improvisation
Contact Improvisation is a partnering dance form. Skills such as rolling, releasing, giving and supporting weight, expanding range of spatial concentration, lifting, catching, and falling help one move with and through gravity, share weight in motion, and use momentum and flow in physical contact for joyful dancing. These weekly classes are open to all levels with teachers rotating monthly.

Contact Improvisation
Contact Improvisation is a partnering dance form. Skills such as rolling, releasing, giving and supporting weight, expanding range of spatial concentration, lifting, catching, and falling help one move with and through gravity, share weight in motion, and use momentum and flow in physical contact for joyful dancing. These weekly classes are open to all levels with teachers rotating monthly.

Contact Improvisation
Contact Improvisation is a partnering dance form. Skills such as rolling, releasing, giving and supporting weight, expanding range of spatial concentration, lifting, catching, and falling help one move with and through gravity, share weight in motion, and use momentum and flow in physical contact for joyful dancing. These weekly classes are open to all levels with teachers rotating monthly.

Contact Improvisation
Contact Improvisation is a partnering dance form. Skills such as rolling, releasing, giving and supporting weight, expanding range of spatial concentration, lifting, catching, and falling help one move with and through gravity, share weight in motion, and use momentum and flow in physical contact for joyful dancing. These weekly classes are open to all levels with teachers rotating monthly.

Contact Improvisation
Contact Improvisation is a partnering dance form. Skills such as rolling, releasing, giving and supporting weight, expanding range of spatial concentration, lifting, catching, and falling help one move with and through gravity, share weight in motion, and use momentum and flow in physical contact for joyful dancing. These weekly classes are open to all levels with teachers rotating monthly.

Contact Improvisation
Contact Improvisation is a partnering dance form. Skills such as rolling, releasing, giving and supporting weight, expanding range of spatial concentration, lifting, catching, and falling help one move with and through gravity, share weight in motion, and use momentum and flow in physical contact for joyful dancing. These weekly classes are open to all levels with teachers rotating monthly.