The Arizona Dance Festival provides a warm-up class for participants prior to each show on stage at the Tempe Center for the Arts. Here are details about the classes and instructor bios.
Thursday, September 19, 2024 at 6:00pm-6:45pm
Warm-up Class by Shauna Meredith
(Scottsdale Community College Dance Program, Scottsdale, AZ)
Warm Up Class Description: The warmup class will consist of a gradual, full body movement utilizing dance vocabulary from ballet, modern and jazz. The class will consist of movement in the center, as well as traveling across the floor. Dancers can expect to be warm and juicy by the end of the class!
Instructor Bio: Shauna Meredith is a performer, choreographer and movement educator who is based out of the Phoenix area. She received her Master's of Science in dance science from Trinity Laban in London, UK, which has allowed her to work with dancers in performance enhancement and injury prevention, as well as spark her interest in the psychological aspects of dance. Her technique classes tend to focus on efficiency and ease of movement, as well as utilizing strength and conditioning exercises to prepare the body for the ever-increasing physical demands of contemporary choreography. Shauna currently serves as adjunct faculty and resident choreographer at Glendale, Scottsdale, and Chandler-Gilbert Community Colleges and faculty associate at Grand Canyon University. She has performed professionally for various film and live performances with MAC&Co, Rosenkrans Dans, Mary Fitzgerald, JordanDanielsDance, and her own company, Vital Motion.
Friday, September 20, 2024 at 6:00pm-6:45pm
Warm-up Class by Janell Burgess
(Jazz Spectrum Dance Company, Lake Forest, CA)
Warm Up Class Description: JSDC Artistic Director, Janell Burgess, leads dancers through a detailed, core-focused warm-up that draws on classic jazz technique. Her grounded, raw, and powerful teaching style builds strength and intensity in movement, encouraging dancers to find freedom by fully committing to the form, technique, and style. The class begins with a standing center warm-up, transitions to deep floor stretches, progresses through across-the-floor exercises, and culminates in rhythmic, soulful choreography set to fun, upbeat music.
Instructor Bio: Janell’s passion for the arts began at a very young age with her commitment to the study of dance guiding her to professional training with focused studies in the Ballet Pacifica School, DeFore Foundation of the Arts, Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance, Giordano Dance Chicago, and Limon School. She is the recipient of the Tremaine Scholarship, Giordano Merit Scholarship, and American Legion Award for her advocacy and commitment to arts education. She has been a professional choreographer and performing artist for over 20 years, teaching, choreographing, and performing worldwide working with top artists and companies, including Heineken, Universal Studios, Caesars Entertainment, and served as resident choreographer for the Sands Hotel in Macau, China. Her film & television credits include The Travel Channel, The Disney Channel, PBS, AXS TV, and four years on West Africa's longest-running dance reality television show, "Maltina Dance All," which focused on bringing families together through culture & dance.
As an educator, Janell’s teaching career, spanning over the last three decades, has included; Debbie Reynolds Dance Center, ABT Gillespie School, Jimmie DeFore Foundation for the Arts, LA Choreographers & Dancers, and the Los Angeles & Orange County Unified School Districts. She is has served as an Educator for ArtsTeach through the Segerstrom Performing Arts Center and as a guest speaker and performer at Orange Coast College and UCLA. She is a certified Zena-Rommett Floor Barre Instructor, Certified Yoga Instructor, Certified Food'n Sport Fitness Instructor, and Holistic Healthcare Practitioner.
Most recently, Ms. Burgess retired from touring with legendary KC & The Sunshine Band, where she served as dance captain and maintenance choreographer for over a decade. She is the founder & director of Spectrum Dance Center in Lake Forest, California, housing a professional studies program for college students, youth conservatory, adult, and professional dance programming. She is a presenting member of the California Dance Educators Association, National Dance Educators Organization, serves on the board of Jazz Dance Alliance and is the Artistic Director of Jazz Spectrum Dance Company. Her mission: to help develop artists and projects that will inspire healing, bridge cultures, create unity, and ignite a passion for life!
Saturday, September 21, 2024 at 6:00pm-6:45pm
Warm-up Class by Anandha Ray
(Absoluta / Quimera Ritual Dance, San Francisco Bay Area, CA)
Warm Up Class Description: Intuitive Technique: A gateway to profound performances There are ancient secrets of performing dance that are not taught in words, but garnered through the osmosis of experience. Anandha Ray has created a form that provides access to this intuitive knowledge. She teaches these secrets in a unique class called “Intuitive Technique”. Moving with totality, fullness and joy this class will reveal a unique perspective of dance performance, readying the body to dive deeply into authentic expression through dance, and dancers will come to understand the complete expression of their body through dance. It creates opportunities for dancers of any form, at every stage, expanding each individual’s athletic capacity, artistic expression, and illuminating dance as a language that communicates with audiences.
Instructor Bio: Anandha Ray, MA, MA, DTR, has dedicated her life to dance for over 40 years. Her work often brings expression to those things for which words are inadequate, shining light on the shadows of our humanness, making visible those things that are so difficult to talk about. An award-winning choreographer with an expansive career in dance, Ray was the Artistic Director of Moving Arts Dance for 3 decades and has received standing ovations on international tours of nine countries, served as a Cultural Ambassador on tours sponsored by the US Embassy and UNESCO called “Dance without Borders”, and led tours of the United States in over 30 cities. She has created an innovative approach to teaching dance that immediately expands dancers’ expressive and athletic abilities.
