Open Classes: Christina Robson & Jenna Riegel

Christina Robson and Jenna Riegel are both members of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company. Read the class descriptions below:
CHRISTINA ROBSON | DEC 19 &  DEC 21

Through a combination of yoga, guided improvisational states, a touch of bodywork and several simple, full-bodied tasks we will build heat in the body and bring awareness to the layers of skin, bone, and muscle. We will fluctuate several times between improvised qualitative studies and technically calculated center floor exercises in hopes to ride a balance of raw spontaneity infused with clarity and precision. Phrase work will be spatially expansive and explore dynamic range. We will attempt to seamlessly blend qualities of boundless risk with polished moments of very specific virtuosity.

JENNA RIEGEL | DEC 20 & DEC 22

Class will begin with floor work, yoga and pilates stretching and strengthening and improvisation to build warmth, ease us into motion, find agility and help us arrive more fully present in our bodies. Introductions to one another will be made with a name circle, contact improvisation exercises or interactive warm-up exercises in order to build a sense of trust and community together. Center standing work will draw upon a combination of release technique and ballet and align, balance and increase awareness of energetic efficiency and ease. Head/tail exploration and spinal articulation will be integrated into more traditional foot and leg exercises. Across the floor phrase-work will oscillate between imagery and task-based veracious improvisational scores and rigorous locomotion, athletic inversions and ambitious lofting. A culminating phrase will challenge the polarities of movement and investigate both off-balance and centered movement, bound and released, sustained and staccato, momentum driven and spatially controlled, on the floor and in the air, and sensation-based and shape-based movement. A friendly, uplifting, non-judgmental class culture will be attended to by steering clear of the binary of right and wrong and instead directing attention to cause and effect, the action and results of our choices. Personal findings will be encouraged to be shared to expedite learning within our community. Individualism will be honored and upheld even as profound body awareness and ability to replicate outside material is practiced. Enjoyment and fun will be contagious and inevitable!