Season Intensives are offered during the regular
dance year (September - June) and are usually offered on weekends. Each
intensive is different, but most of the time they last 4 - 5 hours with an
Intermediate level (ages 8 - 12) in the morning and an Advanced level (ages 13
and up - teachers are welcome to participate and often do) in the afternoon. Lunch is provided.
Generally, we invite one or two professional
artists to teach per intensive. At all times, biographies of our Visiting
Artists and Guest Instructors can be found through
the "Instructors" link above.
With every intensive, we try to give students a
varied set of classes. For instance, our first intensive of the 2007-2008
season headlined Tracie Stanfield as our Visiting Artist. She taught two
classes per intensive, one of Jazz and one of Contemporary Lyrical. We
also invite local and regional dancers in to teach as Guest Instructors.
For the intensive with Tracie Stanfield, we brought Jamie Maggio in as a
Guest Instructor to teach Hip Hop.
In some instances, our Guest Instructors may
have been in our area for a long period of time and have gone on to continue
their studies or teach in other areas of the nation. One such case is our
Guest Instructor Phil Turay. He is originally from Brooklyn and came into
the area to study at Binghamton University. Since then, he has graduated
and now works and studies in Los Angeles. We had the opportunity to bring
him back to teach at a previous summer intensive.
We hope, in the future, that many of our
students and members will be able to come back to us to teach as Guest
Instructors!
Intensives are just that: INTENSE!
Come prepared for a workout and to learn lots of new things!
At times, we bring in a Visiting Artist that will be the only
teacher for that session. When this happens, we call it a Workshop
instead of an Intensive. Why? Because the student is working with
only one instructor for a long period of time. Throughout the time with
the workshop instructor, each student receives more one-on-one attention from a
professional in the field. During the Workshop, they will work together
on specific problem areas and aspects the student excels at as well as new
steps and styles. The Visiting Artist gets to know the students on a much
more personal level because they are not confined to teaching a set number of
classes with strict time limits.
Because this can be more expensive to put together, many times
we will only do a workshop when we are assured enough students to warrant at
least two Workshops, if not three or four, to spread the cost to the students
out as much as possible.
We also offer Closed Studio Workshops
that bring the Visiting Artists directly to your studio! Many teachers
and students like this option because it cuts down on travel costs and allows
the studio to design their own Workshop. A popular option available with
Closed Studio Workshops is Performance Consultation. Many competitive
dance studios find it helpful to have an outsider view new dances. With
this option, the Visiting Artist can give feedback and work with groups, as
well as soloists, on specific phrases and technique before it is performed on
stage. They can also offer feedback to the choreographer and teachers if
it is requested.
