December News

This month, I had the opportunity to attend JUMP Dance Convention in Montreal, Quebec.
The faculty consisted of Katy Spreadbury, Mike Minery, Nick Lazzarini, Doug Caldwell, Lyle Beniga, Teddy Forance and Bobby Newberry.

As always, the JUMP workshop is lots of fun. The faculty are very talented dancers and they each share unique choreography with workshop participants. In each one hour class, we were taught a combination and would run through it adding on counts as more and more dancers were comfortable with the combo.

With Bobby's class we danced to "I Whip My Hair"...we ALL had sore necks after two days of whipping our hair around like "crazy bananas".  Bobby's classes are always fun and he pushes you artistically to find your inner "pussycat doll".  It was "tres chaud!!!"

In Lyle's class we danced to the new Usher track entitled "More" ... I had a blast battling my friend Bailey in a dance-off. His choreography was fun and upbeat...it was my first time taking class with Lyle and I look forward to seeing him again soon!

In Doug's class, we danced to Katy Perry's "Firework" and did a lyrical combination. In his classes he focuses on happy, positive messages for all dancers. He knows how to spot technical dancers but he gives just as much attention to younger dancers who may be at their first workshop. He focuses on spirituality and talks to his class like we're friends. He is an approachable, inspirational person who always makes you smile...even while you're dancing!

In Teddy's classes, on day one he taught us six techniques for improv. This was really interesting since many dancers are not comfortable with improving. The techniques helped to break down inhibitions many have by providing a 'concept' to follow. Each improv concept aimed to make your mind and body work within the concept and provide purpose to movement .  On Day 2, we did a contemporary combo that was challenging and fun...I loved it.

In Katy and Nick's classes, we focused on technique. We did center work with Katy and jazz progressions with Nick. On Day two with Nick, we did a musical theatre combo to a track from "Shrek The Musical".

In Mike Minery's class, we did some technique work and a short combination. Many dancers opted to not take his class...I think this is a huge mistake! Not only is it disrespectful to the choreographer, it is important to train in all genres of dance. In today's dance world, you need to be versatile and it is important to learn from as many masters as possible. Even if tap is not your strong suit...you can still learn something from taking a class. How else will you ever get better?

Check out my movie of class highlights.  JUMP is an awesome experience and I highly recommend you attend one of their tour dates. Go to www.jumptour.com for more information.

I also had the opportunity to interview Katy Spreadbury and Mike Minery. They are both very highly regarded dancers and nice people. I asked them questions about conventions and how important they feel it is to be versatile. Please click on the videos to see the interviews.

Merry Christmas to all my dance friends, to my dance teachers and to the dance professionals who have given me amazing experiences! Thanks for making 2010 a great year. I can't wait to share with you everything in 2011!

"Move it" with Ivan and Juliette

In November, I had the opportunity to attend day two of a two-day "Impact" Workshop hosted by Juliette Irons. Some of you may know Juliette from her appearance on "So You Think You Can Dance" Canada Season Two. She is originally from St. Catharines, Ontario but currently lives in Los Angeles. She teaches at Millenium Dance Complex and is on faculty with "Move". I asked her questions about her unique style and view of music and dance.

Her contemporary choreography was comprised of unique, quirky movements that coincided with accents in the music. She focused less on 'technique' and more on 'musicality'. This was an interesting change as it allowed me to emulate her style of dance more easily. I learned to listen to the subtleties in the music and that not every accent in the music has to be hit or be hit hard.

At Impact, I also took two hip-hop classes from Ivan Koumaev. Ivan appeared on several seasons of SYTYCD, made top 6 of Season Six and is on faculty with JUMP, NUVO and ihollywood dance.

I've taken class from Ivan before but at Impact due to the smaller class size, I was able to watch him more closely as he danced. He has a fluidity to his movements almost as if he skates across the dance floor. We danced to a "Maroon Five" song and the choreography was a lot of fun. Ivan was able to break down his movements so that they were easy to pick up.

Click on the link to see choreography highlights from the weekend!



I asked Ivan how he selects music...he said for kids my age; he likes to pick something we can easily recognize. It certainly helped to pick up choreography since we knew the song, liked the song and were given something fun to dance. Although I loved learning Ivan's choreography, the important lesson I took away from his class was how cool it is to be humble. Ivan sees many kids and attends many conventions...yet he took the time to sit in on our classes when he wasn't teaching, cheer us on and support me with my idea for a blog.




Thanks to both Juliette and Ivan for being my first interview subjects!

Impact was a great workshop and offered classes with Tokyo, Jillian Meyers and Eryn Waltman as well.

I wish I could post Jillian's choreography but she specifically requested it not get posted to youtube. You should check out her videos though...she is an amazing dancer and great choreographer.

Eryn Waltman did a cool lyrical combination where we had to pretend we were old, looking back on our life when we could move our bodies more freely. I really liked the combo because you had to have good technique to pull it off and musicality.

Impact offered hip hop, lyrical, contemporary and jazz. Can't wait for the next workshop....