Class Description & Bios:

Dance History Lecture: Modern Dance origins & Evolution in America and Europe by Anabella Lenzu

Anabella Lenzu will lecture about Modern Dance origins and Evolution in America and Europe + ADG’s history.

BIO: Originally from Argentina, Anabella Lenzu is a dancer, choreographer, scholar & educator with over 30 years of experience working in Argentina, Chile, Italy, and the USA. 

Lenzu directs her own company, Anabella Lenzu/DanceDrama (ALDD), which since 2006 has presented 400 performances, created 15 choreographic works and performed at 100 venues, presenting thought provoking and historically conscious dance-theater in NYC.

As a choreographer, she has been commissioned all over the world for opera, TV programs, theatre productions, and by many dance companies. She has produced and directed several award-winning short dance films and screened her work in over 200 festivals both nationally and internationally, including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, London, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States & Venezuela.

In 2022, Anabella received the Innovative Dance Educator Award by NYSDEA (New York State Dance Education Association), acknowledging her work as a dance educator who develops innovative pedagogy in the dance field, with an established record of exemplary leadership and groundbreaking teachings that have a significant impact on dance.

Lenzu has written for various dance and arts magazines, and published her first book in 2013, entitled Unveiling Motion and Emotion. Currently, Lenzu conducts classes at NYU Gallatin, School of Visual Arts, and Peridance Center. www.AnabellaLenzu.com

Limón Technique with Sue Bernard

CLASS DESCRIPTION:  Together we will explore the movement principles that form the basis of the Humphrey/Limon technique: weight, breath, fall and recovery, opposition, succession, and rhythm as tools to further our potential as expressive, dynamic, creative and enlivened movers, in an atmosphere of joy and discovery.

BIO: A former member of the Jose Limon Dance Company, Sue Bernhard has taught internationally. She is on faculty at Purchase College Conservatory of Dance and rotating faculty of the Jose Limon Institute. She has set Limon works in workshops and colleges and has also taught at the Juilliard School, Marymount Manhattan College, Hunter College and LIU. She has found Limon technique to be an ongoing source of inspiration, exploration and growth. Sue is Artistic Director of Sue Bernhard Dance works. Her choreography has been shown internationally and

in many venues in NYC. She has created video dance pieces in collaboration with award-winning videographer Penny Ward. As an active member of the American Dance Guild, she enjoys helping to create performance and learning opportunities in the dance community.

East meets West – exploring the works of H.T. Chen  with Dian Dong

CLASS DESCRIPTION: 
The distinguishing characteristics of early American modern dance share similar qualities to the
martial arts, such as the use of weighted movement, asymmetry, and dissonance.
Choreographer, H.T. Chen was born in Shanghai, China, raised in Taiwan where he attended the University of Chinese Culture, received a BFA from the Juilliard Dance Division, and a masters in Dance Education from NYU.
His wife and longtime company dancer, Dian Dong, will lead a warm-up based on principles of
Yin Yang and planal organization. The class will learn a phrase from one of H.T. Chen’s
signature works, then develop their own movement phrase using these principles.
Dian Dong is a graduate of the Juilliard School, a co-founder of Chen Dance Center, and was
recently appointed as the new Artistic Director of H.T. Chen & Dancers. In 2021, she helped develop a K-12 DEL curriculum for the NYC DOE titled “TRACING FOOTSTEPS – Into the Heart of Chinatown – Hidden Voices”.

BIO: A graduate of The Juilliard School, Dian Dong studied with Shirley Ubell, Vladimir Doukodovsky, Alfredo Corvino and Doris Rudko. She has worked with Anna Sokolow’s Players’ Project, Kathryn Posin, Janet Soares, Lance Westergard, Kazuko Hirabayashi, Lincoln Center Institute, the ADF 25th Anniversary Repertory Co, Walter Nicks, and the national tour of The King & I. She has taught at NYU School of Ed., Montclair State College, the Center for Modern Dance Ed. and Chen Dance Center. Ms. Dong organizes and designs the education programs for H.T. Chen & Dancers homebased and residency programs. She has participated in the Kennedy Center’s Capacity Building Program led by Michael Kaiser, and attended the Executive Program for Non-Profit Leaders - Arts at Stanford Graduate Business School. She and H.T. Chen are the proud recipients of the 2012 Mid-Career Award from the Martha Hill Dance Fund. 

Master Class in Erick Hawkins Technique, Aesthetics and Embodiment

CLASS DESCRIPTION:  Gloria McLean’s class will present an overview of the technique and aesthetics of Erick Hawkins, called the poet of modern dance, and how they combine to produce the distinctive qualities of embodiment that are hallmarks of Hawkins dance. Some of these ideas include:

-Core kinesiology based on pelvis and spine.

-“Free-flow” as against “bound-flow”.

-Movement as “pure fact.”

-“New dance requires new music”.

-The Theater of Immediacy;

-“Tight muscles cannot feel.”

-“Just because it is possible does not mean that it is desirable.”

BIO: Gloria McLean (BA Connecticut College, MFA Hollins/ADF) is a choreographer, performer, teacher and artistic director of LIFEDANCE/Gloria McLean & Dancers based in NYC and Andes, NY. Ms. McLean gained critical acclaim as a leading dancer in the Erick Hawkins Dance Company where she toured and performed major roles in the repertory from 1982-1993; was appointed rehearsal director by Mr. Hawkins ’91-93; on faculty at the Hawkins School from 1981 - 2000.  “An exquisite dancer… She fills the stage with lush transcendent movement … an artist in complete command of her instrument.” (Phyllis Goldman, Backstage, 1992)  After leaving the company, she established LIFEDANCE/Gloria McLean & Dancers, with the goal to make dances that speak to the human condition. Ms. McLean has created over 60 distinct works ranging from proscenium to site-specific to dance paintings & video, pushing the boundaries of dance in relation to new music, visual art and the environment. Jennifer Dunning noted her “…intelligent, witty and sensuous choreographic voice” (NYTimes, April’93). McLean has taught fulltime at UW/Madison, George Washington University, Keimyung University in Daegu, South Korea and other residencies. She has been President of The American Dance Guild for the past ten years, helping provide performance opportunities for other dancers. She teaches in NYC and her studio in Andes offering summer workshops in technique and composition.

Forces of Nature/Pomare Technique with Dyane Harvey Salaam

CLASS DESCRIPTION:  As founding member and assistant to choreographer/director Abdel R. Salaam, Dyane has the opportunity to witness, process, and take part in the ever evolving choreographic matrix that is Forces of Nature Dance Theatre. A hybrid fusion of the movement forms of West Africa, the African Diaspora, ballet, Limon, Horton and Graham, the company uses these languages to empower its audiences and continue to bring awareness to the fragile environment we all inhabit. Eleo Pomare, Dyane dance mentor, instilled the value of technical embodiment: USING technique to investigate the myriad ways of bodily expression. He was the Master of sculptural exploration. We will experience both styles through the study of phrases found in existing choreography.

BIO: Dyane Harvey is a founding member and assistant to director Abdel R. Salaam of Forces of Nature Dance Theatre Company; a 42-year-old Harlem based company whose mission is the empowerment of our audiences through relevant works of art some of which respond to the call to preserve our planet. Harvey, a 2019 BESSIE nominee for Best Revival of Eleo Pomare’s ‘HEX’, earned the 2017 BESSIE for Performance in Dance Africa’s/Abdel R. Salaam’s BESSIE Award Winning Outstanding Production of the Year, the Woman of Distinction Award (from the Harlem Arts Alliance and the Harlem Chamber of Commerce), the Walk A Mile In Her Shoes Award (from the Hempstead African-American Museum), the Dance for Life Award (from Better Family Life, a cultural, educational, financial empowerment organization based in St. Louis, Missouri), three AUDELCO Awards, the Monarch Merit Award, the Black Theatre Award, and the Goddesses and Gurus Award. Concert dance experiences include Joan Miller’s Dance Players, the Eleo Pomare Dance Company, George Faison’s Universal Dance Experience, Otis Sallid’s New Art Ensemble, Jelon Vieira’s Dance Brazil and the Trinidad Repertory Dance Theatre. Founder of Ma’at Pilates, she is also a dance educator at Princeton and Hofstra Universities. The Jerome Robbins Dance Division of Lincoln Center Library has chronicled her life path through interview recordings in the Oral History project. Commercial credits include: “Free to Dance” (PBS Special), “The Wiz”(Broadway/film), and “Timbuktu!” (Broadway), “Spell #7”, “Ailey Celebrates Ellington” (CBS Special), and internationally in the Paris Company of “Your Arms Too Short To Box With God Ase to All who have come before.

Technique / Improvisation with Phyllis Lamhut

CLASS DESCRIPTION: 

TECHNIQUE will emphasize: SENSATION OF MOTION, SPACE, TIME and DYNAMICS

IMPROVISATION will explore: SPONTANEOUS CREATIVITY

BIO: PHYLLIS LAMHUT, a choreographer of over 100 works, received her professional dance training from multi-media innovator and pedagogue Alwin Nikolais at the Henry Street Settlement Playhouse located on the
Lower Eastside of New York City. She was a principal dancer with the Nikolais Dance Theater for twenty years and leading dancer with the Murray Louis Dance Company.The Phyllis Lamhut Dance Company was formed in 1970.
As a member of the Nikolais, Louis and Lamhut companies, see performed all over the world on concert stages, television, and participated in the National Endowment for the Arts Dance Touring and Artists in Education programs.
She has directed the National Association of Regional Ballet Craft of Choreography Conference, the Dance and Music Workshop in Israel, TheVenice Biennale “Move Man” project the National Canadian Composer/Choreography Seminar,the Carlyle Project ”New Impulses” choreography workshop and Choreography Advisor/Editor for the Joyce-Soho Residency Program.Phyllis Lamhut is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, awards from the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts. Music grants from the Mary Flagler Charitable Trust and Meet the Composer/Choreography Project. The American Dance Festival Distinguished Teaching Award.
The National Endowment for the Arts honored her with 16 Choreography Fellowships.
As a Faculty member of New York University Tisch School for the Arts {1987-2022] Dance Program she taught “Principles of Dance Composition, Improvisation and Motional Research. In 2022 Phyllis Lamhut received the American Dance Guild “Lifetime Achievement Award "

Isadora Duncan Technique with Catherine Gallant

CLASS DESCRIPTION: 
This workshop will focus on the breath and embodied flow of the Duncan technique and include a close look at one of her works created between 1900 and 1923. Through an acknowledgement of Duncan's time period we re-examine and re-imagine the work making it our own expression rooted in the present. Duncan is quoted as saying that she never taught her students to dance but rather asked them to appeal to their spirits. We will renew and build upon this vision of self-empowerment for a diverse and inclusive dance community bringing 21st century energies and understandings to enliven the work.

BIO: Catherine Gallant is the director and co-founder (with Patricia Adams in 1989) of Dances by Isadora which performs, teaches and collaborates with Duncan dancers throughout the world. She began her study of the technique of Isadora Duncan with Julia Levien, (a student of Anna and Irma Duncan) in 1982. She is a founding member of the Duncan Archive, an online repository for the Duncan legacy. duncanarchive.org. Catherine is the US performer of Jerome Bel’s Isadora Duncan, part of his dancer series. Ms. Gallant is a NYCDOE dance educator and has taught at PS 89 in Manhattan since 1998. She and her students were featured in the Emmy-nominated PBS documentary, PS DANCE! She was on the writing committee for NYC Blueprint for the Arts in DANCE and is on the faculty of Hunter College and the Dance Education Laboratory (DEL) at the 92nd St. Y Harkness Dance Center. Catherine creates fully contemporary works with her company Catherine Gallant/DANCE, recently performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She is a graduate of the Boston Conservatory and holds an MFA in Dance from Temple University. www.dancesbyisadora.com    www.catherinegallantdance.com