Particular attention will be paid to barre work: placement of pelvis and spine, clean footwork, musicality, epaulement, performance quality, and dance conditioning. Adagio steps may include promenades, balances, grand rond de jambe, fouette and penche arabesque. Turns include pirouettes of all kinds, pas de bourre turns, soutenu turns and pique turns. Petit and grand allegro may be given as well. There will be time for discussions about the ballet theories, styles, history and terminology. Ballet is a cultural form; correct ballet class etiquette and customs will be used at all times. Assessments will occur regularly to document improvement. 

 

 

 

The study of modern dance is imperative in technical training, as it encompasses codified and highly specific movement techniques, with specific focus placed on sensation, imagery, momentum, texture, abstraction, and energetic intention. American Modern dance can be broken up into 5 essential time periods: Early Modern Dance (1880-1923), Central Modern Dance (1923-1946), Late Modern Dance (1946-1957), Post Modern Dance (1946-1957), which paved the way for Contemporary dance styles seen today, which all maintain applications to Ballet, Jazz, Hip Hop, and other dance genres. It is also worth mentioning that “Black dance” (combining standard modern dance training with Afro-Diasporic vocabularies and principals; Afro-Contemporary), pioneered by Katherine Dunham, Alvin Ailey, and Pearl Primus, helped to contribute to the Africanist components seen in contemporary dance today, such as the undulating spine, segmented isolations, musicality, and pelvis articulation.

 

The content of this class will draw primarily from Horton/ Graham/ Cunningham/ ballet-based technique, as well as referencing Hip Hop, Jazz, and African Dance traditions as they concern musicality, weight shifts, and isolations, with special attention paid to release technique as it concerns momentum and when moving in and out of the floor.  The class format is generally as follows: floor warm up exercises, standing spinal configurations, standing barre, progressions and floor patterns, small and big jumps - building with increasing intensity and complexity with and revolving choreographic phrases. Assessments will occur regularly to document improvement.

 

 

Training in Jazz dance is imperative, as it examines the convergence of Black dance aesthetics with those of American Modern Dance and its effects on global popular culture. The class is structured in a way that optimally warms up the body, challenges the dancer's center of gravity, and develops the muscularity of the student through expression and detailed progressions on the floor, standing, and in the air. This class is highly rhythmic and relies heavily on work ethic, imagery, and curiosity. Emphasis will be placed on proper anatomical alignment, weight shift, angularity, virtuosity, and rhythmicity. Assessments will occur regularly to document improvement.

 

 

 

 

 

Hip Hop will endeavor to learn standard hip hop philosophy and choreography whilst exploring how it may have been contextualized over time. Students will be asked to think critically and reflect upon modern hip-hop influences, freestyle, play with texture and musicality, as well as isolate their bodies in ways that may align OR not with Ballet, Modern, and Jazz forms. 

 

 

 

Body Conditioning is a mandatory class for all dance track students at OSA. Through this course, students will gain an awareness of their bodies with special attention placed on their perceived limitations concerning strength, flexibility, alignment, coordination, agility, and injury prevention.