Archive: Workshops, Intensives, Master Classes, and Open Houses

Join us for an upbeat class with working dancer/actor Emma Halleen that will teach you how to transfer your dance skills to music videos, television, and film. Students will get the chance to work with an actual camera and learn about different frames, how to remain in the frame, and how to adjust your movement to the needs of the camera.

Emma is originally from Minnesota and has trained with Ballet Royale MN and performed with Twin Cities Ballet and Collide. She was chosen to dance in Pink’s “Never Gonna Not Dance Again” music video and starred in American Horror Story season 3 episode 1 “Bestie,” which included a dance.

Thursday, December 28
10:00am-12:00pm
Price: $55

Pre-registration is required. For more information and to register for class, click here.
Please sign the liability waiver found on our website before attending class.

All Welcome
Our welcoming environment stands up to our values of inclusivity and accessibility. Work-study and BIPOC scholarships available. 

Our space is located in the Can Can Wonderland building in St. Paul. Parking is free in front of the building (the BLUE lot is closest to our space), in the lots across the street, and in the underground parking garage (follow the Can Can Wonderland arrow).

Join us for a day of free classes at Zenon’s Winter Open House! This is a great chance to get a sneak peek at some of the classes to come in the Winter Session, running January 8-March 17, at no cost to you. Class card discounts will also be available the week of the Open House. Let’s dance!

Saturday, January 6, 9:00am-2:00pm
9:00-10:00am – Beginning Jazz with Jennifer Glaws
9:30-10:30am – Contemporary with Sarah McCullough
10:30-11:30am – Horton-based Modern with Anna Pinault
11:00am-12:00pm – Musical Theater Jazz with Xan Mattek
12:00-1:00pm – Ballet with Ben Johnson

Pre-registration encouraged but not required. All classes will take place in person only.
More classes may be announced soon. All levels welcome!

Open House Week Discounts – January 1-8 only
20% off single class winter enrollment code: OHENROLL
$10 off one 10 class card code: OH10OFF

The Dancing Together Workshop is a child and parent/caregiver Creative Movement class. This 8-week workshop is designed for children ages 2-4 and their parent/caregiver who is interested in a shared movement experience that engages the senses of curiosity and play.

Both child and caregiver will participate in developmentally appropriate movement exercises that incorporate elements such as effort, shape, and tempo. Music will play an essential role in the class as students will be asked to respond to sounds as well as make sounds themselves. Participants will be encouraged to join at their comfort level with the understanding that observation is often the best form of learning with younger children. This class will give children and caregivers the opportunity to learn more about themselves and one another through the art form of dance.

Saturdays, 9:00-9:45am at TU Dance Center.
January 20-February 24

To register, please click here.

Learn ballet at any age! This 8-week Ballet Fundamentals Session will teach adult students the basic steps of ballet, how combinations in class are built and the history and roots of ballet terminology. No ballet or dance experience necessary!

Spring session starts February 2024:
Thursdays, 6:15-7:30pm
February 8-March 28, 2024

Pre-Teen Ballet is an 8-week session where dancers will cultivate a strong ballet technique and coordination in a weekly class. Part of our Recreational Youth Program, this session is geared primarily towards students ages 10-13 who have 0-3 years of previous dance experience.

Spring session starts February 2024:
Thursdays, 4:45-6:00pm
February 8 – March 28, 2024

Special holiday gift for the dancer in your life? Or a “treat yourself” holiday gift?

March 6-April 24, 2024
Wednesdays, 8:00-9:30am
Pre-registration required – no drop-ins.

Early bird registration now open: $120
After February 6: $160
Registration closes: February 25
Register here.

Contemporary Forms
The core themes of this practice will include sensory exploration, movement as meditation, and engaging with the body’s intuition. In each class, we will move through improvisation and phrase work to engage the senses and awaken the body. Movement material will have an expansive, animal-like virtuosity. Over the course of the series, we will extend phrase work, using imagery and prompts from our research to explore individual choice-making. This series is designed for intermediate/advanced movers who are interested in researching their unique movement modalities in a space based in curiosity and joy.

Sarah McCullough (she/her) is a Minneapolis-based movement artist and educator. Originally from Virginia, she attended James Madison University and earned her BA in Dance and Mathematics. Since joining Minneapolis’ dance community in 2018, she has performed the works of Carl Flink, Mathew Janczewski, Alexandra Bodnarchuk, Berit Ahlgren, Helen Hatch, Marisol Herling, and more. Alongside her performance work, Sarah is an educator in contemporary forms. While at JMU, she served as Co-Director of JMU’s Associate Dance Ensemble where she led a weekly company class and mentored 20 first-year dance majors in the early stages of their collegiate dance journey. She has led classes at the Limón Twin Cities Intensive, ARENA DANCES’ Instinct Summer Intensive, The University of Winchester (UK), North Carolina State University, as well as several high school dance programs and studios across Minnesota and Virginia.

December 18-21
11:30am-2:00pm
Join for one, two, three, or all four days!
Discounts apply for multiple days.

James Sewell Ballet hosts a movement workshop series geared toward adult dancers (18+) with intermediate/advanced technique who are:

• Interested in “trying out” the movement vocabulary of various dance-makers.
• Committing to their movement practice ahead of a holiday break.
• Looking for a friendly creative environment without commitment to a long-term project.

Move with emerging leaders in the Twin Cities contemporary dance scene!
Featuring Javan Mngrezzo, Berit Ahlgren, Jarod Boltjes, and Elayna Waxse.

The goal of this series is pure process. The leaders get to see ideas actualized on movers in the room, and movers get to experience a single-day choreographic workshop with each leader.

Join Berit Ahlgren of HoneyWorks for a Winter Intensive before the holidays, hosted by Zenon Dance School!

Monday, December 18 – Wednesday, December 20
9:30-11:00am daily

The Intensive
We will start class slowly, warming up the muscles, joints, fascia, and mind through sensation-based movement research and creative multi-tasking within the body. Based in the Gaga Movement Language, this entry point will support the phrasework taught from the HoneyWorks repertoire, as well as time for generative engagement amongst the participants in the room. Students should expect a supportive environment, a class that meets them where they’re at, and a fun, inspirational time to move both independently as well as in unison, whether in guided improvisation or shared choreography.

About Berit
Native to St. Paul, MN, Berit Ahlgren trained at Minnesota Dance Theater with Loyce and Lise Houlton, and was a founding company member of TU Dance, performing between the years of 2006-2016. Receiving Metropolitan Regional Art Council’s Next Step Grant in 2011, Ahlgren studied the Gaga Movement Language in Tel Aviv, and shortly thereafter moved to Israel to pursue an intensive, yearlong teacher certification. Ahlgren transitioned to New York City in 2014 to obtain her MFA in Dance from NYU/Tisch School of the Arts, developing ties in the community while teaching Gaga at both Gibney and Mark Morris Dance Centers. Returning to Minnesota in late 2016, Ahlgren has been working as a dance educator, performer, choreographer, and collaborator across the U.S. and abroad, using her relationship with Gaga as a lens to define her artistic process. Ahlgren established the organization HoneyWorks in 2019 to house her creative work, and most notably co-created “Live at the Shed” in 2020 with Helen Hatch (Hatch Dance), an annual, summer, outdoor dance production with a rotating cast of 25+ dancers from the community.

Generating Room Artist Body Watani presents EMBODY PALESTINE: Solidarity, Resistance, Liberation

Thursday, December 21
5:30-6:45pm: For anyone who wants to embody Palestinian solidarity. No dance experience necessary.
7:00-8:30pm: For dancers and folks with movement experience who want to embody Palestinian solidarity!

Registration required: email bodywatani@gmail.com.
Donation: $10-30. All proceeds will be donated to support Palestinian artists. More specifics to be announced.

Notes:
Feel free to come to both sessions if you’d like. Know that the second workshop will have more advanced movement material.
For our safety, you must pre-register at bodywatani@gmail.com, and if we do not know you, please introduce yourself.
Know that we are happy to welcome ways to adapt to you and your body’s needs, and we invite you to also take the initiative to connect with us on how we can support you.
There is an elevator and wheelchair accessible entrances and bathrooms.

Please join Erin Thompson for a “Ring in the New Year” contemporary dance class in honor of the turning of the year on Thursday morning, December 28 from 10:00am-11:45am.

Before you make your New Year’s resolutions, come find peace with internal awareness, thrust your holiday limbs into the ground, and fly across the floor flinging 2023 away!

Intermediate-Advanced Contemporary/Modern
Thursday, December 28
10:00-11:45am
In-person only!

Registration is open through Zenon’s MindBody portal.