The Movement Project’s

cleveland dance fest 2024

november 22nd, 23rd & 24th

Master classes

Location: All classes will be held on the stage at the Ariel LaSalle Theater, 823 E. 185th Street, Cleveland, Ohio 44119

Class descriptions

Professional Master Classes

Contemporary releasing Techniques

Elliot Reza Emadian

11/23 (9:00 - 10:15 am)

Participants will explore repertory from Emadian's work for CDF 2024 as a vehicle for accessing sensations of falling, exploding, and harnessing momentum.

About the Artist: Elliot Reza Emadian (they/them) is an interdisciplinary artist and educator. Their work occurs in the intersection of dance and choreography, video art and editing, sound and music, light and photography, and popular culture. Through a lifetime of dancing, they have accrued influences from tap and jazz styles, contemporary releasing forms, modern dance, ballet, popular music video dance, and experimental performance art. Elliot has performed and toured with Sara Hook Dances and David Parker, and presented solo choreography across the US. Most recently, Jack and Diane was presented at In the heartland (Links Hall, Chicago, IL). Choreography functions as a framework for re-chronicling the story of American culture through written, artistic, and educational interventions. Elliot interrogates systems of ableism in dance classrooms and presented “Accessibility in College Dance: a collaborative approach” at the 2024 Illinois DEO conference and National Dance Educators Organization Dance and Disability Summit. Elliot holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from W&L University and a Master of Fine Arts in Dance from the University of Illinois. Elliot is an Assistant Professor of Dance at Rochester Institute of Technology and serves as Director of Video Promotions for Bates Dance Festival.

https://www.elliotreza.com/

Bridging stories and cultures: Indian classical Dance & Hip Hop

Chitra Subramanian

11/23 (10:30 - 11:35 am)

Indian Classical dance (Bharatanatyam) and Hip Hop culture are the foundation of Chitra's technique and movement languages, through which she offers a unique, non-mainstream style of movement not often seen in our dance spaces. Open to all levels and experiences, Chitra's classes are dynamic, relational, and high energy - offering footwork rhythms, bounces & grooves, and fully-body movements that encourage release and an organic connection to the music.

About the Artist: Chitra Subramanian (she/her) is an Indian American dancer, choreographer, and educator residing in Washington, DC. A Pittsburgh native and originally from South India, Chitra currently teaches, choreographs, and performs with a collective of artists called chitra.MOVES. Her aesthetic draws from Hip Hop and Indian Classical foundations to tell stories, elevate artists, and meaningfully engage unseen and new audiences. Anchored by her years of education work with young people and their families in DC, Chitra explores themes centered on relationships, community, and institution to expose untapped potential and talents. Her work shares rich, cultural movement traditions that come together in unique and raw ways. Heavily influenced by her immigrant roots and her love for Hip Hop, Chitra has cultivated over 20 years of experience in youth work, teaching, choreography, performance, and learning. Chitra created an evening-length work, “TEMPLE,” presented by Dance Place, which sold-out three shows, including a special matinee performance for DC Public School students. Chitra currently curates and teaches for the Rooting the Dance Hip Hop Dance Series. It spotlights the diverse stories and talents of women and femmes in the DC street dance scene and offers a consistent, high-quality training ground for the community. Chitra’s dance work has also been presented at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Ladies of Hip-Hop Festival, Joe’s Movement Emporium, Dance Place, PearlPRESENTS at The Kelly Strayhorn Theater, and Three Rivers Arts Festival. Chitra is the recipient of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Fellowship, and is currently a 2024 Atlas Arts Lab Fellow.

https://www.chitramoves.com/

Youth Master Classes

Cunningham technique

Paige Cunningham Caldarella

11/24 (9:00 - 9:55 am)

The Merce Cunningham technique will challenge your ability to move rhythmically at varying tempi, directionally through the body and in space, and with clarity (specific to Cunningham technique) of the spine and limbs. The standing warm-up will begin with multi-planal exercises for the spine, moving into fast footwork and longer sequences in the center and across the floor.

About the Artist: Paige Cunningham Caldarella (she/her) is a dance educator, choreographer, performer, and mother whose research interests include contemporary ballet and codified modern dance techniques. Caldarella joined the dance faculty at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2022, after fifteen years on faculty at the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago where she also served as the Associate Chair. During her time in Chicago, she received a Chicago Dancemakers Forum grant, DCASE Individual Artist grants, and a Teaching Excellence Award from Columbia College. In 2019, she was profiled in a cover story in the September edition of DanceTeacher magazine, an issue focused on dance in higher education. She is a 2023 Merce Trust fellow and a recent recipient of a fully sponsored artist retreat from Bearnstow in Mt. Vernon, Maine in collaboration with dance artist Mandy Salva. Caldarella performed with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, touring nationally and internationally, and worked with The Seldoms, 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.

Contemporary Flow & Improvisation

Morgan Walker

11/24 (10:00 - 10:55 am)

A derivative of several disciplines of modern release techniques and contemporary movement vocabulary; this contemporary class challenges and enhances your fluid use of the torso and pelvis through core-distal movement directives, grounded movement, floor work, and improvisation.

About the Artist: Morgan Walker is a Movement Artist, Choreographer, Teacher, and Director. She is currently completing her fifth season as a company dancer with the Dancing Wheels Company as well as their Rehearsal Director and Wardrobe Manager. Morgan holds a B.F.A. in Dance Performance and Choreography from Kent State University. Post-graduation she continued her training on scholarship at The Ailey School in New York, NY while concurrently performing on tour nationally and internationally with Cardell Dance Theater. She later joined the Dancing Wheels Company in July of 2019. In 2020, Morgan launched her choreographic project— MWalker Choreography and has since performed and been commissioned by establishments such as Kent State University, Bellingham Repertory Dance, GroundWorks DanceTheater, Dancing Wheels Company, Detroit Dance City Festival, Mark DeGarmo International Dance Festival, Contemporary Dance Choreography Festival, Trifecta Dance Collective Choreographer Showcase, Cleveland Dance Project, and regional and national American College Dance Association Conferences. In 2023, Morgan was awarded the Michigan Residency Award by Detroit Dance City Festival and was also recognized as one of GroundWorks DanceTheater’s Discovery Residency Artists. She is currently in process creating a new commissioned work to present at the Detroit Dance City Festival in September 2024 and continues to create new works and create space for aspiring and professional dance artists throughout northeast Ohio.

Bhangra: a Folk Dance from punjab in North India

Sujatha Srinivasan

11/24 (11:00 - 12:00 pm)

'Bhangra'- a Folk dance from Punjab in North India, is a highly energetic dance with vigorous kicks, jumps, up-raised hands, and shoulder movements. This is a seasonal dance welcoming spring, and is performed to celebrate the Harvest. Participants will be dancing barefoot.

About the Artist:

NATYA NIRVANA is a professional Indian Dance company who’s mission is to enrich the Central Ohio community through arts education and promote India's dance and music, encouraging multicultural awareness and cultivating local talent. Founded in 2009, Natya Nirvana has conducted workshops at universities, schools, and community centers, and presented numerous concerts and events.

SUKANYA CHAND (she/her) is a dance practitioner who specializes in Bharatanatyam and Odissi- two of the eight Indian Classical Dance forms. Bharatanatyam originated from Southern India that embodies strong linearity and power while Odissi is from Eastern India that showcases circularity and isolations. Sukanya received her dance foundation in India and she explored the basics of Ballet, Jazz, Tap, Flamenco, Theater, and Modern dance when she moved to US. She enjoys choreographing solo and collaborative pieces that highlight the elements of Indian Classical, folk dances, creating traditional and contemporary pieces. She has produced a variety of performing arts events, creating cultural awareness, integration, enriching, and entertaining the Central Ohio community. She gives workshops and master classes through her dance company Natya Nirvana and is an instructor at MUCAI Academy in Worthington, Ohio.

This engagement is supported by the Arts Midwest GIG Fund, a program of Arts Midwest that is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional contributions from Ohio Arts Council.