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Moving Practice is a weekly class series for professional dancers. Classes prioritize rigor, diversity of contemporary aesthetics, variety of class content, and commitment.

Leila Awadallah teaches Moving Practice in February; last opportunity February 28.
Tuesdays, 10:00-11:30am

Professional-level dancers of all styles are welcome.
Pre-register here.

Suggested $17 per class; however, there is a pay-as-able option on all classes – we would rather you join us than not be able to attend due to financial limitations.

Class description: Body Watani (“watani,” homeland in Arabic) is 1) an improvisational movement practice and 2) a space for experimental Arabic-rooted dance research developed by Leila Awadallah in collaboration with Noelle Awadallah.

The improvisation time is a container with soft edges, where participants are called into movement research through reflective prompts and somatic/collective tasks that guide practitioners into exploring the terrain of their personal ‘body watani’. The work is currently guided with particular intentions around relationships to land and water, ancestral contemplations, bodily archives, and communal weavings.

Movement materials inspired by Arabic dance forms such as Dabke, Baladi, and Raqs Sharqi invite participants to engage in the rhythmicalities of traditional/experimental/current Arabic music. This part of the Body Watani practice conjures physicality rooted in an offering of contemporary dance that locates within contexts of cultural, social, and political content of Palestine, Lebanon, and the greater SWANA region.

Posture Matters
Change Your Posture, Change Your Mood!
An 8-week Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement Series with Sarah Baumert
Beginning March 1, 2023

Everyone’s posture, or how they “use” themselves, isn’t always optimal, with the help of the Feldenkrais method, your postural habits can improve to make everyday movements more enjoyable and easy. Your posture, or, how you navigate being upright with gravity, profoundly affects not only your physical comfort, but your overall health and emotions too.

With awareness, specificity, and practice, we will free the muscles of the neck, shoulders, spine, and face. As one moves towards more freedom in the neck, lower back, and jaw, one also moves towards a more easy, elegant, and upright posture. Our aim is not a perfect posture, but a place of less tension and conflict in the body where our posture is fluid, not rigid.

Available to take via livestream on Zoom or using the self-paced recordings.

Classes begin March 1, 2023
Sundays, 4:00-5:00pm CT
Wednesdays, 6:30-7:30pm CT

$175 for the 8-week series.
Pay-as-able available for this series.
For full scholarship, please inquire directly with Sarah.

This eight-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 own 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.

March 11-May 13 (no classes April 3-15)
Saturdays, 9:00-9:45am

To register, please complete the four-step registration process:

1. Please find the online pre-registration below under the specific level you are interested in and select a payment option
2. Make a tuition payment (in full or by selecting a payment plan)
3. If requesting a payment plan, please submit the 2022-2023 Payment Plan form
4. Click here to submit the 2022-2023 Children and Teen Program Online Registration form