Cunningham Technique

In this Modern class, we will explore the technique of Merce Cunningham. The standing warm-up begins with multi-planal exercises for the spine, moving into fast footwork and longer sequences in the center. Mistakes are highly encouraged and the exercises can be adapted to accommodate remote learning in any space.

Artist BIo

Paige Cunningham-Caldarella is a dance educator, choreographer, performer, and was an Associate Professor of Dance at Columbia College Chicago where she taught modern and contemporary dance techniques, ballet, dance pedagogy, and performance based classes. Cunningham-Caldarella has been awarded a Chicago Dancemakers Forum grant, DCASE Individual Artist grants, and a Teaching Excellence Award from Columbia College. As a performer with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, she toured both nationally and internationally, and has worked with The Seldoms, Colleen Halloran Performance Group, Darrell Jones, Timothy Buckley, and Onye Ozuzu among others. She holds a B.F.A. from the Juilliard School and an M.F.A. from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Dunham Technique | Vershawn Sanders-Ward

Dunham Technique is a vibrant African American dance form that engages the body, mind and spirit! Created by dance pioneer Katherine Dunham, the technique is informed by the traditional dances of the African Diaspora, as well as by modern and ballet. Dunham Technique creates strong, dynamic dancers who embody rhythm and grace. Classes will offer a variety of experiences, including breathing, isolations, floor work, barre work and progressions. In this beginner class, dancers will learn the foundational movement of the Dunham Technique.

Artist BIo

Vershawn Sanders-Ward holds an MFA in Dance from New York University and is the first recipient of BFA in Dance from Columbia College Chicago (Gates Millennium Scholar.) She is the Founding Artistic Director and CEO of Red Clay Dance Company and is currently a candidate for Dunham Technique Certification. Sanders-Ward is a 2022 Dance/USA Artist Fellow, 2019 Chicago Dancemakers Forum Awardee, a 2019 Harvard Business School Club of Chicago Scholar, a 2017 Dance/USA Leadership Fellow, a 2013 3Arts awardee, and a 2009 Choreography Award from Harlem Stage NYC. In 2015, 2018 and 2020, NewCity Magazine selected Ward as one of the “Players 50, People Who Really Perform for Chicago”.

Her choreography has been presented in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, The Yard at Martha’s Vineyard, and internationally in Toronto, Dakar and Kampala. Vershawn is currently on faculty at Loyola University Chicago in the Fine and Performing Arts Department and has received choreographic commissions from Columbia College Chicago, Northwestern University, Knox College, AS220, and the National Theatre in Uganda. Her upcoming site-inspired choreographic project, Rest.Rise.Move.Nourish.Heal which is set to premiere June 2023 was selected for a 2021 National Dance Project Award from NEFA with additional support from the NEA.

As an arts advocate, she serves on the Board of Trustees for Dance/USA as well as the Board of Directors for the African American Arts Alliance of Chicago. Vershawn was selected to attend the inaugural Obama Foundation Summit for Emerging Global Leaders and has had the pleasure of gracing the cover of the Chicago Reader and  DEMO, Columbia College Chicago’s Alumni Magazine.

Graham Technique

Contraction and Release, two principal actions of Martha Graham technique will be explored throughout the whole class. The class will begin with a series of the floor exercises to practice the control of your core muscles, pelvis and back to prepare for more complex movements later. Next, we will move on to the standing work: focusing on using the gravity to sustain balance while strengthening the use of the torso, the extremities, and challenging weight changes that define the Graham vocabulary.

Artist BIo

Described as “one of the greatest living modern dancers” . Ms Chien-Pott has been honored with the POSITANO PREMIA LA DANZA “LEONIDE MASSINE” 2014 for “Most Outstanding Female Dancer on the Contemporary Scene” and named one of the”Best Performers of the Year” by Wendy Perron of the Dance Magazine in 2014 and 2017. Ms. Chien- Pott was one of the honorees of the “Women‘s History Month” 2015 in Hudson County. In 2017, She received a prestigious Bessie Award for “Outstanding Performer” in Dance and Outstanding Alumni Award from Taipei National University of the Arts. In addition, Ms. Chien- Pott is honored with “People of the Year” in 2017 by PAR Performing Arts Forum of Taiwan and “Outstanding Dance Artist Award” from the government in Taiwan. In 2018, Ms. Chien-Pott received Capri International Award in Dance, and she is selected as a “Outstanding Elite” in Performing Arts by The Generation T List of Asia Tatler in both 2018 and 2019. In 2019, Ms Chien-Pott is selected as Ten Outstanding Young Persons of Taiwan by Junior Chamber International. On April 16, 2019, Ms Chien-Pott was one of the 25 artists invited to perform at the Merce Cunningham’s centennial celebration at the BAM in New York City. Ms. Chien-Pott has taught for major institutions including Duke University, Martha Graham Dance School, School of Nimbus, Taipei National University of the Arts, Ballet Forte, Rutgers, Zhengzhou Institute of Technology & more.