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Winter Kids Dance Session starts Jan 10!Info HERE Registration Form HERE
WINTER BEGINNERS WORKSHOPS STARTING IN JANUARY:
- Absolute Beginners Ballet / Info HERE / Registration Form HERE
- Rock Your Body / Info HERE / Registration Form HERE
Our unique Core Balance class now held Sat+Tues AM & Thurs PM. Info HERE
Print our Class Schedule HERE
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OUR NEW HARLEQUIN SPRUNG FLOOR IS THE BEST DANCE SURFACE IN THE CITY!
No black soled shoes allowed on dance floor
ALL CLASSES ARE AT THE NORTHWEST DANCE PROJECT STUDIO
Portland's most beautiful and best equipped dance studio (identical floor as American Ballet Theatre)
833 N. Shaver Street (at Mississippi Ave.) MAP
The Northwest Dance Project holds dance classes for adults, teens and youth every week. We offer various styles including Ballet, Jazz, Hip Hop, Contemporary and Core Balance (fitness) as well as class sessions for kids and special dance workshops. For beginners and kids, classes are a fun way to get fit while gaining dance experience. For more experienced dancers, classes are more technical, advanced and challenging.
Our Open Classes are for dancers 13 years +
No enrollment necessary for Open Classes - you can join a class at any time.
ALL Open Classes are available on a drop-in basis for $15 (cash or check).
SAVE 20% by purchasing a Class Card (8 classes in one month's time - only $100 - credit cards accepted).
Our Kids Classes are specially geared for dancers between 5 to 13 years old and are only available on multi-week, cost-saving sessions - registration required.
About Our Classes
BALLET
Our ballet classes provide a basic grounding in ballet fundamentals and basic ballet technique. Placement, balance, posture, coordination, musicality and alignment are clearly explained and emphasized. These classes offer a comprehensive barre and continue into a focused and structured center exercises. Participants should have a basic knowledge of ballet, positions, steps and terms.
Levels: Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced
Instructors: Sarah Slipper, John Gardner, Jason Davis, Michelle Davis, Andrea Parson, Samantha Campbell, Patrick Kilbane, guests.
CORE BALANCE
This energizing class combines elements of yoga and pilates with stretch components using the ballet barre. The aim is to develop core strength, ease and openness in the joints and a flexible, well-balanced body.
Suitable for all dancers and fitness enthusiasts. Yoga or fitness mat useful.
Level: All
Instructors: Andrea Parson, Kara Girod
CONTEMPORARY FUSION
This class fuses contemporary dance styles with jazz, ballet, and world dance influences. Combines precision leg work with an ease and fluidity in the torso. It emphasizes and develops proper body alignment, strength and flexibility, rhythmic and musical phrasing, and self-expression. A fun, expressive combination of global music and movement.
Level: All
Instructor: Mary Hunt
JAZZ
This soulful class develops a strong technical foundation focusing on lowering the dancer's center of gravity and syncopating movement with a blend of Latin, modern, ballet and jazz. This focused and active class helps dancers connect to feeling movement from the inside out.
Level: All
Instructor: Tracey Durbin
CREATIVE MOVEMENT / BALLET
This class offers young dancers the opportunity to gain an understanding of how their bodies move and how to communicate through dance. Through improvisation and structured choreographic activities, these dancers in the making will create a series of creative movement studies to share.
Level: Youth (5-8 years old).
Instructors: Ching Ching Wong
HIP HOP
The class introduces the street dance styles from the Bronx and beyond. Fresh, funky and soulful expression of movement that is constantly evolving. A great and fun work out for all dance enthusiasts.
Level: All
Instructors: Mariecella Devine, Ching Ching Wong
LYRICAL JAZZ
This energetic and energizing class focuses on proper alignment and building strength through combining elements of classical ballet, Graham-based technique and an athletic style of jazz. Mary strongly emphasizes the relationship between music and movement and encourages her students to explore more soulful expression while gaining technical mastery.
Level: All
Instructor: Mary Hunt
ROCK YOUR BODY (Special Workshops)
Do you want to have fun and get fit? Join us for this lively dance class with upbeat grooves from the past to present. This energetic and energizing class will take you on a journey through stylized jazz, contemporary, hip-hop, salsa, afro-funk and body sculpting. Exhilarate your mind, body and spirit and ROCK YOUR BODY.
Level: All
Instructor: Franco Nieto, Kemba Shannon
About Our Instructors
Samantha Campbell
Samantha Campbell is from Salt Lake City, Utah. She attended the University of Utah as a Ballet major and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in May 2007. She was a member of Utah Ballet for three years while at the University, danced with Alabama Ballet and danced on scholarship at the Lou Conte Dance Studio (Hubbard Street Dance Chicago). In her first year with the Northwest Dance Project, Samantha was featured in Donald McKayle's jazzy "Syncopated Gambol," and has danced numerous additional original roles in Northwest Dance Project works as a company member.
Jason Davis
A native of Tucson, Arizona Jason began his dance training with Mary-Beth Cabana at Ballet Arts in Tucson. At fifteen, he joined the Universal Ballet Academy (Kirov Academy) under the direction of Oleg Vinogradov. In 1992, Jason joined the San Francisco Ballet School and after one year, joined the company, dancing for eleven seasons in many classic ballets as well as original choreography by Mark Morris, Stanton Welch, Yuri Possokov, James Kudelka, William Forsythe, and Helgi Tomasson among others. Jason has been teaching ballet for 15 years and is a licensed teacher by the state of Oregon. Currently Jason is the principal of The Portland Ballet Academy and Ballet Master for TPB's youth company. He is also the ballet teacher at Arts and Communication Magnet Academy in Beaverton, Oregon and is the Ballet Master for Dance West, ACMA's pre-professional youth company.
Michelle Davis
A native of Dallas, Texas, Michelle trained and performed with the Dallas Ballet from 1983 to 1989. She joined the San Francisco Ballet School in 1989 and the San Francisco Ballet in 1991. She danced with the San Francisco Ballet for nine years with one year abroad dancing in Copenhagen with the Royal Danish Ballet. She has guest taught at several schools in the Portland/Vancouver area. Currently, Michelle is on the faculty and serves as the registrar and assistant to the artistic director, Nancy Davis, at The Portland Ballet. She, her husband Jason, and their three children have enjoyed living in Portland for the last seven years.
Mariecella Devine One of Portland's most popular Hip Hop dance teachers, Mariecella Devine, teaches an enticing combination of dance moves with her own signature style. She has taught Hip Hop in the Portland Metro area for over twenty years. Mariecella has performed and collaborated with Michael Curry in his production of "Spirits," and with James Canfield, founding Oregon Ballet Theatre Artistic Director, in his world premiere of "CQ (Charmed Quark)" at the American Choreographers Showcase and the Joyce Theater in New York City. Mariecella is also involved in local community outreach programs introducing disadvantaged youth to the benefits of dance. She is truly a wonderful and talented instructor who is committed to bringing Hip Hop dance to the masses.
Tracey Durbin
Tracey started dancing professionally at the age of four. After studying years of piano, theater and ballet at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, Tracey moved to Los Angeles where she studied ballet with Stanley Holden, jazz with Luigi (the innovator of the world's first jazz technique), and assisted Hama, Luigi's protégé. Her choreography has been in the L.A. Jazz Festival, music videos, industrials, and many shows. Tracey has also lived and taught dance in Israel. In Portland, Tracey was an original member of Dancers' Workshop, started Irvington Dance Company, and has taught for many years at Oregon Ballet Theatre, Reed College, and BodyVox. Currently she teaches at DaVinci Arts Middle School and Portland Ballet. Teaching since the age of 15, Tracey's classes blend the philosophy of classical Luigi jazz technique, the lyricism and strength of modern and ballet, and the musical experience ranging from Bach to Aretha Franklin. Her life experiences inspire her true passion - teaching lyrical jazz dance.
John Gardner
John Gardner, an Oregon native, was trained by Jacqueline Schumacher and Nicholas Vasiliev, and was a charter member of the Portland Ballet Co. In New York, his training continued with Bill Griffith, Igor Youskevitch, Richard Thomas, and Mia Slavenska. John danced professionally with San Francisco Ballet, American Ballet Theater, Pennsylvania Ballet, and was a soloist with Hamburg Ballet in Germany. Upon returning to the U.S., he taught at the University of Texas and was appointed Ballet Master of Ballet El Paso. In 1982, John returned to Oregon, dancing with The Portland Ballet, served as Dance Director for Theater Workshop, founded the Oregon Festival Ballet and produced "Coppelia", the first full-length ballet performed in Oregon in forty years. John has taught workshops and master classes at the University of Oregon, University of Illinois, and University of Colorado. His students are currently dancing with American Ballet Theater, San Francisco Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, and Stuttgart Ballet. John's teaching style is positive and personal with a Russian-American curriculum leading to exact technique and performance quality.
Kara Girod
Kara Girod is from Hillsboro, Oregon, and received her B.A. in Dance from Loyola Marymount University in 2008. For the past three years, Kara has danced professionally with BodyVox Dance Company while taking workshops from Ben Levy, San Francisco Conservatory, Oberlin Dance Collective, Les Ballet Jazz de Montreal, and NWDP, among others. Kara loves exploring all different movement mediums and has her Mat Pilates certification through AFAA as well as her Vinyasa Yoga Certification through Yoga Union.
Mary Hunt
Patrick KIlbane
Andrea Parson
Kemba Shannon
Sarah Slipper
Ching Ching Wong
Mary Hunt received her dance training at the Alvin Ailey Dance Center, Martha Graham School of Dance, California Institute of the Arts and with Maggie Black. Mary has danced professionally for over 30 years, touring with such well-known artists as Donald McKayle, Jaime Rogers and Fred Benjamin. She has danced in feature films, MTV videos and appeared on the television shows
Patrick Kilbane is from Bainbridge Island, Washington. He began his dance training with Vera Bullen at the age of 14 and studied at Pacific Northwest Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, School of American Ballet, Alonzo King LINES Ballet and with Suzanne Farrell at The Kennedy Center. Patrick also served as an apprentice with Oregon Ballet Theatre for two seasons where he performed works by George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. Patrick has danced in new works by Maurya Kerr, Gregory Dawson, Yannis Adoniou and Josie Moseley. Patrick participated in the Northwest Dance Project's first and second LAUNCH Projects worked with numerous choreographers such as Cayetano Soto, André Mesquita, Andrea Miller, Benoit-Swan Pouffer, Sarah Slipper, Patrick Delcroix, Ihsan Rustem, Edgar Zendejas, James Canfield, Maurice Causey, Wen Wei Wang, Donald McKayle, Olivier Wevers, Lucas Crandall.
Andrea Parson began her early training in Hillsboro, Oregon at Northwest Conservatory of dance under the direction of Anita Mitchell. She received her B.A. in dance from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles in 2008. Andrea has participated in workshops with the Joffrey Ballet, San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, the Northwest Dance Project and worked with numerous choreographers such as Chad Hall, Aszure Barton, Sarah Slipper, James Canfield, Luca Veggetti, Alejandro Cerrudo, Cayetano Soto, Edgar Zendejas, Maurice Causey, Wen Wei Wang and many more. Andrea has taught dance throughout Oregon and Washington and is a NWDP company member.
A native of Baltimore, MD, Kemba Shannon received her BFA from Towson State University and has trained at the Alvin Ailey American Theater, Martha Graham School, Broadway Dance Center, The Edge, Lula Washington, Peridance and Morgan State University, to name a few. Kemba's technical background includes ballet, modern, jazz, African, hip hop, salsa, tap and tango. Kemba's stage credits include The Lion King (L.A. Cast), The Color Purple (Broadway cast), Cirque du Soleil (Zumanity), Aida, and Fame. Kemba's ambition and drive have won her world recognition with icons such as Madonna (Drowned World Tour), Pink (Try This World Tour), Celine Dion, Kanye West, R. Kelly, Fantasia, and Rihanna. Her television credits include "American Dreams" (NBC), Oscars (Chicago performance), MTV Music Awards (Pink), the Emmys (Kristin Bell), World Music Awards, NAACP Awards and the Grammys. She has taught dance both nationally and internationally, and she now resides in Portland where she teaches, conducts master workshops and choreographs.
An award winning independent choreographer and noted dance mentor, Sarah Slipper studied at the Royal Ballet School, was a principal dancer with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and appeared as a guest artist worldwide. She has worked with internationally renowned directors and choreographers such as Arnold Spohr, Rudi van Dantzig, Hans van Manen, Jirí Kylián and Agnes de Mille. Sarah Slipper served as Ballet Mistress of Alberta Ballet and Oregon Ballet Theatre, and teaches master classes throughout North America. She was awarded the Grand Prize for Choreography at the International Choreographic Competition at Saint Sauveur in 2000. Sarah has created over 20 works for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Nashville Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Ballet Jorgen, Louisville Ballet, Alberta Ballet, Ballet New York, Ballet Pacifica and The Jefferson Dancers. "A Fine Balance," her pas de deux created during the inaugural NWDP, was a finalist for the prestigious Benois de la Danse award in 2006 and was performed at the Bolshoi Theatre as part of the award's gala celebration. Sarah is currently working on several new creations and serves as the Artistic Director of the Northwest Dance Project.
Ching Ching Wong was born in Manila, Philippines, but calls southern California her home where she began her dance training at the age of three at Allegria Dance Theatre under the artistic direction of Alia Harlan. She received her B.F.A in Dance Performance and minor in Education and Psychology & Social Behavior from the University of California, Irvine. During her UCI days, she was a member of Donald McKayle's Etude Ensemble and also performed works by Jodie Gates, Molly Lynch, Lisa Naugle, Rennie Harris and William Forsythe's "Artifact Suite". Ching Ching is a new member of our company.
INFO
503.421.7434 / info@nwdanceproject.org