Winter Quarter Workshops
FREE dance workshops
presented by the TAPS Dance Program
Saturdays, 1:00pm - 3:00 pm in the Bartlett Arts Rehearsal Space (BARS)
If you have questions about whether a class is a fit for your level of experience, contact Julia Rhoads, Director of Dance and Lecturer in TAPS, at jrhoads1@uchicago.edu
Moving & Dancing with Vocal Freedom: Access More by Doing Less with Christine Betsill
Instructor: Christine Betsill
Saturday, January 14, 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm in BARS
Description: Explore movement, voice, and singing through the lens of the Alexander Technique. Gain tools to move with greater ease and efficiency in performance and daily life by putting simple skills into practice. Alexander Technique concepts will be explored through experiential, hand-on learning in warmups, games, and improvisation. Open to dancers, actors and movers of all skill levels.
About Christine: Christine Betsill is a dancer, classically trained singer, teacher and choreographer based in Chicago. She was the co-founder and artistic director of Thread Meddle Outfit from 2005-2010 and has taught and presented her work at University of Illinois, Columbia College Chicago, Dovetail, and Chicago City Colleges, among others. She received a BA in Vocal Performance and an MFA in Choreography from University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, and she received her Alexander technique training at LCATT in London and Attic in Chicago. She is also a certified teacher of Pilates. Christine is currently enrolled in the clinical mental health counseling program through The Family Institute at Northwestern University. Learn more about Christine at www.christinebetsill.com.
Mixura Urbana with Anniela Huidobro
Instructor: Anniela Huidobro
Saturday, January 21, 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm in BARS
Description: "Mixura Urbana" is a mixture of different movement techniques: contemporary dance, floor work, improvisation, urban dance principles and Continuum (a technique that sees the body as a moving mass and studies it at a constant speed and acceleration). In this workshop we focus on finding new routes, greater amplitude and displacement in movements based on the possibilities of each individual. We seek to create a permeable body and greater plasticity. Eye contact is very important, as well as dancing and enjoying collectively.
About Anniela: Anniela Huidobro graduated from the Professional Dance School of Mazatlán, directed by the Delfos Contemporary Dance Company. She is part of the Continuum network of teachers, a training system developed by Omar Carrum in Mexico. International leader of JUNTOS Collective (USA). She has 10 years of experience as a teacher and performer giving workshops and dancing in different countries such as: the United States, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala, Panama, Colombia and different parts of Mexico. She has been awarded twice with the grant "Incentive Program for Artistic Creation and Development" in Mexico. Direction and production assistant at different Performing Arts Festivals in Mexico, Panama, Colombia and recently at the Island Moving Company in Newport (USA).
Street Dance: Grooving and Freestyle Concepts with BraveSoul & DJ VADER
Instructor: BraveSoul
Saturday, January 28, 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm in BARS
Description: This workshop explores the important element of connection in Hip-Hop & Street Dance Styles: connection to the music, to one another, and to one’s own inner impulses. BRAVEMONK & K-SOUL will guide students of all levels and experiences to FEEL the music through embodied grooves associated with a range of street dance styles including: Breaking, House and Hip-Hop social dances. Students will be led through a series of freestyle exercises that explore creative impulses, and build connection with others. All of this is done in an engaging, fun, party vibe-like atmosphere led by the sounds of DJ VADER.
About K-Soul: As an educator, dancemaker and curator, Kelsa “K-Soul” Robinson integrates her expertise in social & freestyle dancing, social justice and community organizing. K-Soul currently serves as Assistant Professor of Instruction at The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago where she builds reciprocal and meaningful exchange between Hip-Hop and the academy. She is Co-Founder/Co-Artistic Director of BraveSoul Movement, and a member of the internationally known street-dance crew, Venus Fly. Her movement training is rooted primarily in Afrodiasporan social and underground street dance spaces, including House and Hip-Hop. She has performed and presented work at various spaces throughout the world, including: danceGATHERING (Lagos, Nigeria), B.Supreme (London, UK), B-girl Be (Minneapolis, MN), J.U.I.C.E. Hip-Hop Dance Festival (Hollywood, CA), and the Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago, IL). K-Soul’s current work investigates freestyle as performance as a practice that promotes compassion, equity and justice.
About Bravemonk: Daniel "BRAVEMONK" Haywood is an artist, visionary, b-boy, choreographer, performer, and dance educator based in Chicago. As a cultural ambassador and leader in the Hip-Hop community he has regularly traveled throughout the US and internationally as a guest artist. His credits include danceGathering in Lagos, Nigeria, the International Cultural Festival of Contemporary Dance in Algiers, The Hip-Hop Theater Festival at the MCA, the movie Dreams (Lionsgate Films) and a feature in the anthology Black Theater Is Black Life: An Oral History of Chicago Theater and Dance, 1970-2010. BRAVEMONK is a member of Chicago’s legendary and internationally recognized breaking crew Phaze II Crosstown Crew (est. 1982), and co-founding Artistic Director of BraveSoul Movement. BRAVEMONK’s movement vocabulary is rooted in Original Manifestational “Black” American urban vernacular dance forms including Breaking, Hip-Hop Freestyle + social dances and House. He also draws on his training in martial arts and other embodied Afro-diasporic movement languages. BRAVEMONK is a 2017 recipient of the Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist Award and is on faculty at the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago and previously Hubbard Street Dance. He is a consistently sought-after teaching artist brought into many universities & institutions.
Afro-Contemporary with Vershawn Sanders-Ward
Instructor: Vershawn Sanders-Ward
Saturday, February 4, 1:00 - 3:00 pm in BARS
Description: Come learn about the diversity of African Diaspora dance. Open to dancers of all levels, this upbeat workshop fuses Diaspora dance practices of Chicago House and Dunham-based modern. This class focuses on building a supple spine, a liberated pelvis, and poly-rhythmic movement articulation.
About Vershawn: Vershawn Sanders-Ward holds an MFA in Dance from NYU and a BFA in Dance from Columbia College Chicago. She is the Founding Artistic Director and CEO of Red Clay Dance Company and is currently a candidate for Dunham Technique Certification. Sanders-Ward is a 2022 Dance/USA Artist Fellow, 2019 Chicago Dancemakers Forum Awardee, a 2019 Harvard Business School Club of Chicago Scholar, a 2017 Dance/USA Leadership Fellow, a 2013 3Arts awardee, and a 2009 Choreography Award from Harlem Stage NYC. In 2015, 2018 and 2020, NewCity Magazine selected Ward as one of the “Players 50, People Who Really Perform for Chicago”. Her choreography has been presented in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, The Yard at Martha’s Vineyard, and internationally in Toronto, Dakar and Kampala. Vershawn is currently on faculty at Loyola University Chicago in the Fine and Performing Arts Department and has received choreographic commissions from Columbia College Chicago, Northwestern University, Knox College, AS220, and the National Theatre in Uganda. Her upcoming site-inspired choreographic project, Rest.Rise.Move.Nourish.Heal which is set to premiere June 2023 was selected for a 2021 National Dance Project Award from NEFA with additional support from the NEA. As an arts advocate, she serves on the Board of Trustees for Dance/USA and the Vice-President of the Board of Directors for the African American Arts Alliance of Chicago. Vershawn was selected to attend the inaugural Obama Foundation Summit for Emerging Global Leaders and has had the pleasure of gracing the cover of the Chicago Reader and DEMO, Columbia College Chicago’s Alumni Magazine.
Contemporary Repertory with Robyn Mineko Williams
Instructor: Robyn Mineko Williams
Saturday, February 11, 1:00 - 3:00 pm in BARS
Description: Open to intermediate and advanced dancers, this 2-hour workshop begins with a contemporary-based warm-up and is followed by guided movement exploration and intricate phrase work from Robyn’s work Echo Mine, an independent full evening work that premiered at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance in 2019.
About Robyn: Robyn Mineko Williams is a multi-disciplinary artist, director, and producer. She has made dances for Pacific Northwest Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, & Malpaso Dance Company, among others and works as a creative on an array of projects including music videos, art installation, theater and film. A PGF-USA fellowship recipient and 2014 Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch”, Robyn’s work has been presented at Kennedy Center, Harris Theater, Jacob’s Pillow, MCA Chicago and more. In 2015, she founded Robyn Mineko Williams and Artists with a mission to partner with a variety of dynamic artists to make and create in the many lanes and intersections of performance, design, culture and place. Go to robynminekowilliams.com for more.
Anna Halprin's Life/Art Process with Elliot Gordon Mercer
Instructor: Elliot Gordon Mercer
Saturday, February 18, 1:00 - 3:00 pm in BARS
Description: Developed by Anna Halprin, The Life/Art Process is a movement-based approach to expressive arts that integrates dance, visual arts, creative writing, and self-reflection. In this workshop, Elliot Mercer will draw from Halprin’s methods in a creative practice that investigates metaphoric relationships between emotion, imagination, the natural world, and live experiences that are stored in our muscles, organs, and bones.
About Elliot: Elliot Gordon Mercer is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and performance scholar. His research and creative practice investigate the intersections of dance and visual art, with a focus on postmodernism, queer performance, and somatic expressive arts therapy. A graduate of the Tamalpa Institute, he has staged Anna Halprin’s intermedia theatre works and taught courses on the Life/Art Process internationally. Mercer holds a PhD in Interdisciplinary Theatre and Drama from Northwestern University and is currently an ACLS Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Chicago.
Weekly Quarter Weekly In-Person Technique Classes
Krump with Dion “iCrisis” Randle
Instructor: Dion “iCrisis” Randle
Mondays, 5:00-6:30 pm in the Bartlett Arts Rehearsal Space (BARS)
Description: Open to all levels and experiences. Students will learn movement vocabulary, techniques and concepts associated with Krump, and be guided to develop their own creativity within and through these skills. iCrisis infuses the movement training with his deep knowledge about the history and culture of Krump, and he builds a positive environment where students are able to build a sense of power, freedom, and release through the languages and philosophy of Krump.
About Dion: Dion “iCrisis” Randle is a performer, dance instructor & choreographer based in Chicago. He has traveled throughout the US as a judge and teacher at many dance based events. Over the past fifteen years, iCrisis has dedicated much of his time to researching the origins and mastering the foundations of Krump, in addition to spreading knowledge, culture and providing safe spaces to host sessions in Chicago for the community as well as for visitors outside Chicago. iCrisis helped to build Chicago’s current Krump Community as one of the leaders of Chibuck movement. He is also an active member of Demolition Crew(DCX), a Krump Crew Founded in California, and now serves as a DCX Captain for the Midwest Region. Last but not least, he is a member of The Kastle, a collective of street dancers from Chicago and across the U.S. focused on intention, skill and heart in the art of battling.
Modern-based Contemporary with Erin Kilmurray
Instructor: Erin Kilmurray
Tuesdays, 6:30 - 8:00pm in Logan Center, 701
Description: This class will focus on practice and play in order to build towards becoming autonomous, intelligent, unique movers. Movement approach is rooted in release-based modern techniques, contemporary dance forms, and floorwork while playing with musicality, imagery, intention and aesthetic. As a class, we will activate critical thinking skills to interrogate and celebrate how and why we dance, as well as the ways dancing in the studio is relational to life outside of it. Movement is geared towards intermediate / practicing dancers.
About Erin: Erin Kilmurray is a genre-straddling dance artist drawing on space-making and movement practices found in nightlife culture, theater, and dance practices that relentlessly amplify women, queer folks, the underground and the underdog. She is the creator/director of The Fly Honey Show, a Links Hall Fellow (2022-23), a Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist (2020), and recognized as 50 People Who Really Perform for Chicago (2022 Newcity). Her work challenges traditional relationships between performer and spectator through electric, often political performance that enlivens body and environment, and consequently has been presented by Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Thalia Hall, The Dance Center of Columbia College, Lollapalooza, Empty Bottle, Pivot Arts, University of Chicago, Visceral Dance Chicago, Metro, Beauty Bar, The Chicago Cultural Center, among others.www.erinkilmurray.com
Ballet with Erica Edwards
Instructor: Erica Edwards
Wednesdays, 3:30 - 5:00pm in Ida Noyes Dance Room
Description: Class will begin with a full barre and transition to center work focusing on weight shifting, alignment, spiraling, elongating, expression and gratitude. This class will be catered to an open level, all are welcome!
About Erica: Erica Lynette Edwards joined the Joffrey Ballet after being trained at the Salt Creek Ballet School and attending summer intensives at the School of American Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, American Ballet Theater, Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Ruth Page Foundation. After a rewarding 15-year career as a ballerina at The Joffrey Ballet and five years as the company’s Director of Community Engagement, she founded Cultivating Better Tomorrows, a consulting company with a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Through CBT, Erica offers antiracism training to reshape the dynamics of dance communities, producing environments where all students can thrive.
Choreography Cohort
Fridays from 12:30-2:30 in Logan Center, 701
Led by Julia Rhoads, Director of Dance in TAPS, the Choreography Cohort offers students an opportunity to discuss approaches to creating dance and movement-based work, experiment with new methods alongside peers, and get feedback on choreography-in-progress. No experience with choreography is required to attend.
Contact: jrhoads1@uchicago.edu