Ongoing classes, private lessons, and performances for the stage and for specific sites.  I am available for choreographic commissions and collaborations with artists, scientists, businesses, and community organizations.  Contact me if you have an idea! 

MODERN DANCE GROUP CLASSES

Contemporary Dance Winter Workshops in Ithaca, NY
January 2012

A mini-series of two workshops to facilitate your dancing body to bend, stretch, roll, leap, and spin. Using a foundation of somatic techniques*, yoga, breath work, jazz, and modern dance, we will develop awareness and technical skill. We dance to a soundtrack of motivating world music. We dance in our own space to build strength and flexibility. We dance together to build community. For all levels.

Start the year off with Dance!

*somatic techniques are those that are designed to integrate body and mind usually through slow, gentle movement targeting the interaction of your nervous and musculoskeletal systems. This series we will primarily draw on Alexander Technique.

Foundation of Light, 391 Turkey Hill Road  Ithaca, NY 14850
Monday Jan 9, 4:00-6:00pm
Wednesday Jan 11, 6:30-8:30pm

$22 per workshop
$39 for both
Email: lkp8@cornell.edu to pre-register.

The first 15 min of class are for arrival, check in, self warm-up, and greetings. Cash or check at the door, advance online payment with credit cards available here (scroll to the bottom of the page for Custom Payment Amount and enter "Winter Dance Workshops 2012").

After spending the past few months working with beginning dance students at University of Colorado, my belief in dance to heal, transform, inspire, and release has been confirmed over and over. Won't you join me and give your body, mind, and spirit the gift of dance?

PRIVATE AND SEMI-PRIVATE LESSONS

Available in Boulder, Colorado! 

Modern/Contemporary Dance
West Coast Swing
East Coast Swing
Stretching
Wedding Couples

LEVEL AND STYLE DESCRIPTIONS

Absolute Beginner For teens and adults with NO dance experience at all. We will start at the absolute beginning. Also open to yogis and other movers who want to explore dance. Safe, supportive environment to overcome fears and give form to your dance dreams.

Intermediate/Advanced For teens and adults with 2 yrs of modern dance training, or 5+ years of other dance technique.

Modern Dance In class we play with dance technique, improvisation, body awareness, and choreography. Breath, coordination, rhythm, & musicality invites creativity, expression, and fun! Warm-ups build organically on principles of anatomy, preparing the body to move safely and freely. Movement phrases and choreography draw on a variety of modern dance principles, often incorporating themes from jazz and social dances. World music, jazz, and popular music provide our inspiring soundtrack.

West Coast Swing It’s hot.  It’s funky. It’s smooth, West Coast Swing has earned fame when featured on So You Think You Can Dance.  Detailed beginning instruction builds the groundwork for becoming a powerful partner dancer.  If you really want to be a dancer, or already are and want to try something new – this dance is for you. We dance to blues, pop, funk, R&B and hip-hop and we move!

Perfect for: High School students ·  College students · Social groups looking for a fun activity · Dancers looking for a new dance , Ages 16 and up

Private, Semi-private, or small groups.

East Coast Swing Learn the most simple and popular swing dance of all!  Fun, jazzy East Coast Swing, a.k.a. Jitterbug, has a bouncy, playful style and is danced to a swingin' beat. You will learn basic steps, partnering skills essential for all social dances, and fundamental movement technique.  A great dance for beginning dancers.

Perfect for: High School students · College students · Social groups looking for a fun activity
Ages 16 and up

Private, Semi-private, small groups, parties.

CHOREOGRAPHY

Maren’s choreography has been performed on stages including Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) & Loop Dance Festival (Kent, England), as part of community events including Rochester’s ArtWalk (Rochester, NY) and Art in the Heart (Ithaca, NY). She has collaborated with chamber musicians, visual artists, and is currently developing a project on the intersection of dance and physics.

Maren is accepting new commissions for choreography.  If you have ideas for collaboration that are not listed below, please contact Maren with your ideas!

Current Dances Available:

Presence/Opening (solo) 3:30
Suite: I-How to Watch Dance 10:00 
         II-Untitled  6:00 
        (4 dancers, Tango-infused music)
Dance of Scales: Dance & Physics collaboration (3 dancers, 1 physicist) 60 minutes

Areas of interest for collaboration:

PERFORMANCES 

Previous:

September 22-26, 2010
Dancing in the Kitchen with the CCO
The Kitchen Theatre 
417 W. State Street/MLK, Jr Street
Ithaca, NY 14850

June 25-26, 2010
Michael Jackson Tribute Flash Mob!
various surprise locations around Ithaca

June 11, 2010
Informal Student Showing, 6pm
Community School of Music and Arts, Ithaca, NY 

January 23, 2010
Dance of Scales at Light in Winter, 2:30-3:30pm
Statler Auditorum, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 

November 22, 2009, 2pm
Rhythm in Dance and Music with Music's Recreation
CSMA, 3rd Floor
330 E. State Street/Martin Luther King Jr St.
Ithaca, NY 14850

September 14-16, 2009
Dance of Scales
NISEnet Informal Science Educators Annual Meeting,
San Francisco, CA    

July 2009
Suite: How to Watch Dance & Untitled
LoveShoe III Summer Dance Festival
Schwartz Center for Performing Arts, Cornell University
Ithaca, NY

Suite: How to Watch Dance & Untitled
Moving Landscapes II
CRS Barn Studio
Ithaca, NY