Modern

Class Review: Intro to Horton

by Carolyn M - Intermediate: dance/fitness
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The Ailey Extension: The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater


CLASS LEVEL: INTRO/BEGINNER

Engaging the core is as essential to Horton as plies are to ballet. A strong abdomen is important because many of the steps showcase the torso, but also because everything really begins with the core. The instructor taught laterals, (i.e., 8, 4, 2, and 1 count repetitions of arms up, flat back, rotate, swing to the other side, plie, releve) which forced you to use your stomach or your lower back would ache after the first set [...]

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Class Review: Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Comany – Intro class

by Carolyn M - Intermediate: dance/fitness
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Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company


CLASS LEVEL: INTERMEDIATE

I walked into a small mint green room and was greeted by a six-foot forever tall and lean man (Daniel) and two Italian-speaking dancers (boy and girl in their early twenties). The class was held in Washington Height’s YMCA, but I felt transported to another world with Daniel’s unique choreography and captivating style.[...]

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Class Review: Beginning modern

by Carolyn M - Intermediate: dance/fitness

Brooklyn Ballet


CLASS LEVEL: BEGINNING MODERN

The class began with center combinations that taught the differences between ballet and modern. The instructor, a recently retired member of David Parson’s Dance Company, choreographed combinations that required the students to alternate between precise ballet positions to relaxed modern moves (i.e., passé transitioned into full contracted collapse). She made the students pair up and hold onto each other’s wrists while doing a combination of tendus and lunges in order to show the authentic interaction that is allowed in modern dance.

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Class Review: Open Rehearsal

by Carolyn M - Intermediate: dance/fitness
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Marie-Christine Giordano Dance NYC


CLASS LEVEL: OPEN REHERSAL

I understood the choreography better after I talked to the founder of the company. Marie-Christine studied Graham for many years but felt the style was missing a crucial aspect, the total abandon. Graham’s emphasis on control and strength needed the balance of lyrical dancing’s collapse. You cannot go through life tense, at some point you have to trust and let go. A rubber band can only be stretched so far until it breaks. Marie-Christine developed her own genre of dance and began teaching it to students at Broadway Dance Center in the early 2000s[...]

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