On Friday, October 19th, 2018 Tisch Dance Students have the opportunity to take special master classes with these four talented dance artists in celebration of Community Day! Our recent alumni are also invited for pizza afterwards to share their experience at Tisch and beyond.
Kristin Damrow
Kristin Damrow: creative process
Kristin Damrow is a San Francisco-based choreographer and instructor. She received her B.A. in Dance from Columbia College Chicago then founded Kristin Damrow & Company in 2010 after moving to the Bay. Her work is said to be “charged from beginning to end; an intoxicating contemporary dance.” (Critical Dance) Damrow has been selected as one of the top emerging artists in the Bay Area by ODC's Pilot Program and she has been featured in Backstage Magazine and Fast Company. She serves on faculty at ODC Dance Commons and Dance Mission Theater, and has taught master classes at Gibney Dance (NYC), Mark Morris Dance Center (NYC), Columbia College (Chicago), Bodyvox (Portland), University of San Francisco, Sonoma State University, City College of San Francisco, and LINES Ballet. This fall Damrow is a Guest Artist at Iowa State University.
Kristin’s class is a highly physical and rigorous exploration of contemporary technique. Class will begin with a meditative body scan and improvisation exercises; first finding articulation of the spine, pelvis, and torso bringing focus to the alignment of the body, then moving with ease and dynamic energy. Large energetic phrase work will have a constant play with gravity; going in and out of the floor, upside down and traveling though the space with fierce abandonment.
Duncan Cooper
Duncan Cooper: Ballet
Duncan Cooper is a Master Dance Teacher and Choreographer, dedicated to excellence in dance arts education & performance. Born in Denver, Colorado, Mr. Cooper currently living in San Francisco. He received most of his training in the San Francisco Ballet School and later spent 5 years dancing in the company. He then joined The Dance Theatre of Harlem as a Principal Dancer in 1995, until 2004. During Mr. Cooper’s nine years with Dance Theatre of Harlem, he danced leading roles in such ballets as Balanchine’s Apollo, Prodigal Son, Agon, Allegro Brillante and Stars & Stripes; Albrecht in Giselle; Robbins’ Fancy Free; Ashton’s Thais pas de deux; Glenn Tetley’s Sphinx & Dialogues; Smuin’s A Song For Dead Warriors and St. Louis Blues and many others. His travels touring with these companies have taken him all over the world. Cooper’s list of guest artist appearances includes lead roles for New York City Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Washington Ballet, the 12th International Ballet Festival of Miami and more. Former member of New York City Dance Alliance and currently a member of the faculty at Alonso King Lines Ballet, Mr Cooper is also Director of the MODAS Dance Summer Intensive and International Workshops.
Richard Rivera/Courtesy of Gibney Dance
Richard Rivera: contemporary
Richard Rivera is a Bronx-born, New York City-based artist. He has experience performing, teaching and choreographing both in the United States and internationally. Richard was a member of Ailey II under the direction of Sylvia Waters and has since worked with Sean Curran, Kevin Wynn, Donald Byrd, Reggie Wilson, Shen Wei and Arthur Aviles. In 2002 Richard founded PHYSUAL – a dance company that uses movement as a catalyst for developing ideas and innovation in performance. PHYSUAL has been presented and granted awards to create new work and perform at: Jacobs Pillow Inside/Out series, Tribeca Performing Arts Center, Harlem Stage / E-Moves, Pepatian, New York Mix Festival, Topaz Arts, Queens Museum, Dance New Amsterdam, Ballet Builders, Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, Tokyo School of Music. Recent dance/work affiliations are with Hope College in Michigan and as choreographer for the Pregones musical NEON BABY.
PHYSUAL is a Contemporary / Modern dance practice developed to awaken, warm up and train the body in efforts to have a visceral physical movement experience. Through a combination of movement progressions we will address topics of anatomical alignment, shift of weight, rhythm, muscular strength and movement dynamics. These experience are composed with aim to bring an awareness to the “Self.”Class commences in center, then migrates across spatial planes embracing gravity and visiting all levels from the floor to the air. All practices conclude with phrase work that combines technical elements and principles experienced in center. Full body, self immersion movement drawn from my repertory work or dance vocabulary that is unique to my movement style. Come twirl and leave it on the dance floor.
TaraMarie Perri
TARAMARIE PERRI: YOGA
Tara Marie Perri: Educator/Holistic Health Practitioner; Founder/Director, The Perri Institute for Mind and Body and Mind Body Dancer®. M.F.A. Dance, New York University; B.A., Visual Arts History, College of the Holy Cross, MA. Faculty, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Steps on Broadway, and Namaste New York in New York City. Guest teaching engagements at Harvard University, University of Iowa, DeSales University, Vassar College, College of the Holy Cross, Goldsmiths and Queen Mary Universities in London, among others. Past faculty positions include Joffrey Ballet School, Dance New Amsterdam, and American Dance Festival.
Perri is founder and director of The Perri Institute for Mind and Body, an international community of educators, researchers, and holistic health practitioners based in New York City and Upstate NY. She has implemented and customized Yoga, yoga therapy, and mind/body wellness curriculum/programs in commercial studios, gyms, performing arts schools, and higher education environments. Perri has been consulted for her expertise and her writing has been published in periodicals such as Dance Teacher Magazine, Elle, Women’s Health, Dance Informa, Dance and Pointe Magazines. She writes regularly for MindBodyBrew.
Perri performed professionally with ballet, contemporary, and dance theater companies in NY, PA, and MA. Her choreography and costume designs have been critically acclaimed in The New Yorker and The Village Voice, among other publications. Concurrent with her work in the arts, education, and research, Perri was Senior Account Manager at Siemens Healthcare Services where she developed her passion for healthcare (1998 – 2006).
Perri enjoys the balance of city and country living with homes in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and Callicoon, NY. She maintains private practices in NYC, Brooklyn, and Upstate NY. Perri’s private practice honors the ancient tradition of one-to-one study and integrates Yoga, yoga therapy, movement therapy, meditation, Ayurveda, holistic medicine, Reiki, Alchemy Energetics, and healing arts. Perri continues to deepen two decades of study under the one-to-one tutelage of her own beloved circle of teachers and colleagues in a variety of disciplines thus exploring an ongoing integration of Eastern and Western healing arts and sciences.
