Looking for something to do this summer?

There are still a few spots open for summer classes at ACC:

Improv with Darla!

DANC 2245, Dance Improvisation I, is the perfect start for the summer. Offered May 27 – July 2, you get to dance 3 hours a day 4 days a week. You'll work though exercises taken from Pilates, yoga, and Feldenkrais for conditioning and strengthening,  but the best part of the class is learning to move freely and without judgment from yourself and others. It’s one big living room dance party!

Just a little improv outdoors

Be part of a show!

DANC 1251, Dance Performance Workshop with Darla Johnson, is an intense 6 week class that turns 12 classmates into 12 company members. The classes are run like rehearsals, and everyone brings a part of who they are into the choreography. The faculty work created from this class is showcased in the Summer Informance on the Mainstage at Rio Grande.

Faculty work from the Spring Showcase

Find out what dance is all about!

DANC 2303, History and Appreciation of Dance with Jose Bustamante, makes you step back from the studio and learn about the greats in dance that still influence your movement to this day. Share this class with friends and non-dancers too! Everyone needs a Visual and Performing Arts credit and this is a great way to get it.

Brush up on your technique!

DANC 1141, Ballet I, and DANC 1142, Ballet 2, are both great classes to get your pointing and pirouetting again or for the first time! Kathy Dunn Hamrick teaches ballet for all levels so no excuses like “I haven’t danced in ages” or “I don’t have turnout.”

Try out a Modern class!

If ballet isn’t your thing, come to DANC 1245, Modern Dance I with Catherine Solaas. Catherine will have you rolling across the floor in no time. This is a great class in the second half of summer, July 7 – August 12. When you get tired of being a coach potato, end your summer with a burst of energy!

From the Spring Showcase

You have until tomorrow, Wednesday the 21st, at 5 PM to sign up for these awesome classes. For those of you already registered, make sure your tuition payment is in by 5 PM tomorrow so you don't get dropped.

For the Summer 2014 dance schedule click here. 

Top Picture by Anne Wharton; other pictures by José Bustamante

Mind Body Motion at WEST

Last weekend marked the first performance by the ACC Student Dance Company, Mind Body Motion, at the WEST Austin Studio Tour. Directed by Hien Nguyen, five Mind Body Motion company members took to the lawn in front of building 3000 for some fun improvisation. If you missed last weekend, you still have three great showings coming up this weekend, Saturday May 17^th and Sunday May 18^th.

This Saturday at 5:00pm in front of building 3000 on the Rio Grande Campus, Nori Hubert will be collaborating with Mind Body Motion to present a spoken word improv. Nori is a Creative Writing graduate from ACC as well as a published author in ACC’s literary magazine, the Rio Review. Hien will also be directing this performance.

Hien on the right and Nori on the left

Nori will be reading a collection of two poems dedicated to her grandfather. "The inspiration [for the poems] came from having a religious family but not being religious myself. My grandfather was a minister and didn't really get to know me. This is for him," said Nori.

Dancers during last weekend's improv

There are several approaches to a spoken word improv. Some dancers prefer a literal interpretation of the narrative, thinking about the story behind the words as they move. Others take the musicality in the language as a landscape to dance against; feeling a flow as they would if they were listening to a true musical score. For Hien, the connection to the flow of the poem is the inspiration behind her movements. 

One of the spaces Sarah will explore in her piece

Sarah Wingfield will also be presenting a work at 3:00pm on Saturday and Sunday. Her piece will be directed towards exploring the space and letting movements be inspired by the physical canvas of the site. Her site-specific choreography is largely shaped by the urge to find presence in every space; to hear the stories a man-made structure has to offer. "Someone designed each space you ever go into, and if it wasn't a human it was mother nature; either way it deserves examination, appreciation, and to be remembered," Sarah says.

202 (and 203) is ACC's map number for WEST

All three showings are free and open to the public as a part of the WEST Austin Studio Tour. Come watch some dance, shop around the great local art, and paint a square on our community murals. 

Top two pictures by Anne Wharton; third picture by Polly Monear

We're not done yet!

One more show before the summer! The Informance is our informal showcase that highlights our level I choreography students. Directed by Julie Nathanielsz, her four students have a quartet and three solos to perform tomorrow night. The Informance will also include two pieces from Ellen Bartel’s Modern classes as well as presentations from Julie’s Anatomy class.

Eunice during the quartet

This is the first time for all of the choreography students to create dances in an academic class, even though some of them have outside experience. Eunice noted, “I’m used to a do-this-move-on-this-count approach, but this is more like what’s your body telling you to do? There are no counts and it’s much more like improv.” 

Nico has a lot of experience choreographing for drag shows and he noted that the class made him think harder about his work away from the classroom. “I’m trying to work on my next piece and so much of choreography class has been about not letting the music dictate the movement that I’m trying to find that in my choreography. It’s more of a challenge now.”

Nico and Shannon

Shannon, Nico, and Eunice all perform solos based on a personal experience. The solos have a literal quality that can be very challenging for a dancer to execute.

Q: How did you pick your stories?

Nico: Julie wanted a story from our lives that required movement.

Julie: I told them to find a memory that’s composed by movement.

Shannon during her solo

Q: What was the process for finding movement from these stories?

Nico: My story came from a choreographed dance so some of the movement was from that piece and some was improvised with the same style.

Eunice: My story was closer to home [her piece revolves around a living space]. I had lived in that duplex for years so the movement was already in my body. It was closer to my heart.

Shannon: Mine was difficult. It was hard not to just mime the story. Julie had to tell me to really stop and think about it. And Eunice helped with the bird move. She was doing something in class and I was like, that’s perfect! Can I use that?

From the right: Shannon, Eunice, Nico, and Gabbie

The Informance is free and open to the public. It’s in the studio, room 130, at the Rio Grande Campus and starts at 7 pm. Celebrate the end of finals with a great dance show!

Pictures by Anne Wharton