Improvisational Practices

Alia Swersky

Alia Swersky is a movement artist, performer and educator deeply engaged in dance improvisation, durational time-based art, film, site-specific work, and environmental installation. She is an artist and an educator with degrees from Cornish College of the Arts and an MFA in dance from the University of Washington.

Her artistic path over the last two decades has been shaped by this yearning for deep and meaningful connections with people and places. As a co-creator, ritual maker, and a “horizontal” director, Alia seeks to touch others through dance, somatic presence, vulnerability, and fierceness. Her work ranges from full audience participation to intimate acts of One-to-One performances, site-specific dances for film and live performance, as well as durational time-based art that includes physical acts of endurance, repetition, stillness, subtlety, singing, soft energetic grace, abstraction, caricature, and a deconstruction of clichés such as extreme high femme expressions. Her teaching and art-making seek to create practices that embrace endurance on stage and in life as acts of resistance, resilience, release, and beauty.

As a performer, Alia has also toured nationally and internationally as a member of the LeGendre Performance Group and has performed in the works with many Seattle artists, some of which include The Maureen Whiting Company, Khambatta Dance Company, Jurg Koch, KT Niehoff, and Salt Horse.

As an educator, she has taught at Cornish College of the Arts for sixteen years and in the Seattle community at Velocity’s Strictly Seattle Festival, and the Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation (SFDI). She was a long time Co-artistic director of Dance Art Group (DAG), a non-profit organization that promotes the practice and appreciation of dance and somatic education in the Seattle area, including the Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation.

Jul 2 - Aug 1 (T/TH 1 - 4PM) | Course Cost: $730.00

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About the Course

Sessions

Location

Kerry Hall

Age Requirement

14 -18

Class Capacity

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Dancers will immerse themselves in solo, duet, and ensemble dance improvisation practices drawing from American post-modern and contemporary dance traditions. This improvisational dance intensive will be a deep inquiry into the body as a means to play and explore a multifaceted range of movement possibilities and expressions. Dancers will learn to develop connections to their unique ways of moving as a means to understanding their artistic voice. Dancers will be in collaboration with one another in exploring improvisational movement structures and scores for ensemble work, as well as exploring solo dancing, and duet forms, such as Contact Improvisation.

While this intensive may be taken independently, it is an elective that is designed to work in conjunction with our Dance Intensive program. Please see that description or email plus@cornish.edu if you have any questions.

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Dance education at Cornish has been the root of the college since its inception. Designed by current Cornish College Dance Faculty Alia Swersky, the summer dance program is a reflection of the college’s commitment to rigorous and cutting edge dance practices. Over the course of 4-weeks, students will have a chance to explore a range of  dance

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From the basics of Swing to Latin Hustle, this intensive is designed for dancers who wish to explore the vibrant world of social dances. Students will immerse themselves in the rhythms, cultures, and social dynamics that make social dancing a joyful and dynamic art form. Students will practice the basics of partner connection - leading, following,

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Jimmy Shields

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Over the years, my strong passion for music & the arts has given me the opportunity to sing and share the stage with the likes of Sugar Ray, Keith Sweat, (the REAL) Lady-A, Kim Archer and Tiffany Wilson. Singing has also allowed me to perform for the Seattle Seahawks Season Opener and the Make a Wish Foundation.

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On this site you will get to see all sides of me. Be it through my words, my music, or my movement, I hope I make you feel something.

In the last 10 years dance and how it relates to the world has evolved so much. Whether it be the prevalent use of hip hop and street dance in contemporary Musical Theater or the infectious fun moves of Tik Tok. In this elective, students will learn about the shift in culture with movement and understanding the styles that got us here!&nbsp

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Improvisational Practices

Improvisational Practices

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