The life of a Dance Company Member is quite different than others in a multitude of ways. One of my favorite ways is that we actually have to “warm-up” for our job. It’s a quintessential part of our day – a 75-minute dance class that gets our blood pumping, muscles warm and active, and flexibility on.

In seasons’ past we’ve had incredible line ups of guest teachers, including the wonderful Patti Eylar, Tracey Franklin, Craig Black, and so many more!

The most exciting part of Season 9’s warmup classes, in my opinion, is that every Tuesday we now have a rotating guest instructor! Each week someone new enters the space to give us warm-up class and I think it allows us to learn from as many perspectives as possible, broaden our training, and meet more of the community!

A couple of highlights from this season include:

Class with Homer Bryant. Homer is an essential part of Chicago Dance and he teaches an incredibly challenging Floor Barre class. We lay down and focus on ballet technique foundational skills at a granular level. It’s SO humbling and the push for technique we need.

Countertechnique classes with our own Faith von Atzigen! Faith was recently certified as a Countertechnique instructor and her amazing class allows us to approach movement in a visual and abstract way. I’ve been thinking about my body and movement so differently since we’ve had class together.

Contemporary with Kara Brody. Kara’s Contemporary is release based. It’s a gorgeous compliment to all of our athletic repertoire we have – her class reminds me when to breathe, save my energy, and rely on my body’s momentum and natural patterns.

MORE TO COME! Throughout the season we have more guest teachers arriving in the space and I’m so thrilled to learn from more of them. It makes our day feel sort of like a dance intensive where you are soaking up information from all different instructors! Super informative and I’m so grateful to SCDT for providing us with so many avenues of training.