Friday, October 28 - One Flat Fee - Access to All 4 Intensives

All available pre-conference intensives are included with your pre-conference day registration. When registering, please select which intensives you plan to attend to reserve your spot. When an intensive is at capacity, you may join the waitlist, and we will notify you if a spot opens.

9:00am-11:30am

#1: Ways of Walking: Igniting Creativity Through Functional Awareness®

Nancy Romita and Allegra Romita
This session celebrates the experience of walking in community. It is a creative approach to understanding how our walking informs dancing, a cross disciplinary approach integrating anatomy and artistry. The participants will deepen their personal understanding of movement function in gait using the Functional Awareness® approach to embodied anatomy through reflective practice. Participants also investigate how this information about movement function through embodied anatomy can spark the creative inspiration for improvisation and dance making that celebrates moving in community. The session provides resources for teaching compositional concepts using anatomical concepts as inspiration for exploring improvisational walking and traveling patterns. Nancy Romita and Allegra Romita’s research, keynote addresses, and presentations internationally advocate for the importance of developing body understanding in dance training while fostering student agency, honoring individual difference and celebrating the process of collective sharing to uplift community wisdom.

12:30pm-1:30pm

#2: Exploring K-12 School Dance Programs in Georgia

Molly Howel
Come take a virtual look at different K-12 School dance facilities and programs! The presentation will look at several different schools in the state of Georgia, with a focus on those based in Metro-Atlanta. This session will showcase the different types of programs available in Georgia and will provide an opportunity to talk with the dance educators about their curricula and facilities. Come prepared with questions for Georgia K-12 dance educators.

2:00pm-3:30pm

#3: Get Ready to Dance: Movement Techniques to Return to Dance Safely

Courtney Johnson
During this session, dancers will learn how to safely return to dance post pandemic with active flexibility and soft tissue mobilization techniques, strengthening exercises, and aerobic conditioning. Dr. Courtney Johnson is a Physical Therapist from Atlanta, Ga. Courtney was a competitive gymnast growing up and is now a USA Gymnastics Level 10 judge. While she enjoys working with all athletes, she has a special passion for gymnasts, circus artists, dancers, and cheerleaders. Courtney specializes in orthopedics/sports medicine and believes in correcting athletic movement to optimize performance and reduce injury risk. Courtney is the Director of Sports Medicine for the Brown Girls Do Gymnastics Organization where she leads injury prevention clinics, teaches, and helps host annual events. She also speaks at professional conferences for USA Gymnastics nationally. Courtney is a flexibility and performance coach for MyFLEX, an international platform for circus artists and dancers.

4:00pm-5:30pm

#4: HBCU Danceline Foundational Movement

Rae Ransom Coleman
What is Bucking? J-Setting? What is that "Bring It" show all about?? Well, its been over 50 years in the making!! From the The Dancing Dolls & J-Settes to the Black Foxes & Mahogany-N-Motion--popularized as "Majorette" style, the HBCU Danceline (Historically Black Colleges & Universities) style has a rich legacy born from traditional Show-style marching band and baton twirling, African call & response, extreme athleticism and showmanship. This workshop is the movement companion to the lecture workshop of the same name. In this session, attendees will participation & practice the style basics, including a traditional warm up, Stand Routines (aka Catch-ons/ 8 counts), & feature field routine (differentiated for level), and parade line basics. Wear comfortable clothing with sneakers or jazz shoes. Be sure to attend the lecture portion where attendees will learn how HBCU Dance began, how it has evolved over the past 50+ years, and how social media has impacted the style.