Event

Hedwig Dances' Company Class

Hedwig Dances opens the company's modern dance technique classes to professional and pre-professional dancers. Taught by artistic director Jan Bartoszek, company members and guest teachers, the classes focus on the development of the whole dancer. Classes are taught on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, October 14 to November 20, 2009 from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at the Chicago Cultural Center Dance Studio, 78 E. Washington, first floor, Chicago, IL 60602. (No class on Veteran's Day, Wednesday, November 11, 2009)

Class Descriptions:
Victor Alexander teches a modern technique class that is based on his African and Spanish roots and his career as a principal dancer for the Danza Contemporanea de Cuba. Alexander elaborates his class with personal experience and influences, training the body from the inside out to amplify corporal expression. Jan Bartoszek focuses her class on embodiment and the exploration of imagery to shape dynamic movement. Her class emphasizes moving through space with command and awareness. She applies principles of alignment, breath flow and the body's relationship with gravity to all movement. Bartoszek is a veteran dance teacher who has taught dance at Northwestern University, the School of the Art Institute Chicago, the University of Chicago, Roosevelt University and a host of dance studios. Michel Rodriguez teaches a class based on "low flying technique" developed by David Zambrano and other elements from modern dance and contact improvisation. The class explores how to move and use the body on the floor. Originally trained as a gymnast, Rodriguez performed and taught dance in Cuba and Spain. "I am a hammer, the floor is crystal and I cannot break it."