Courses
Instructor(s)
- (-) Alia Swersky
- (-) Renee Plevy
- Geof Alm
- Meg McLynn
- Tory Franklin
- Winnie Westergard
- Beverly Poole
- Brad Taylor
- Daniel Goody
- Emilia Kister
- Nikki Rice
- Sarah Lavin
- Soo Hong
- Dan Shafer
- Ellen Forney
- J. Gordon
- Leanna Keith
- Maja Sereda
- Majinn
- BC Campbell
- Charles Sheaffer
- Ian Bond
- Jessica Jobaris
- Kate Falconer
- Kevin Drake
- Kyungjin Kim (KJ)
- Lex Ramierez
- Paul Lebel
- Robynne Raye
- Ruthie Dornfeld
- Silas Berlin
- Zorn Taylor
- Andrew Joslyn
- Barry Sebastian
- Brian Miller
- Brynne McGregor
- Carolyn Hall
- Casey Curran
- Chelsea Cook
- David Taylor Gomes
- Fumi Amano
- Jeff Brice
- Jimmy Shields
- Kate Jaeger
- Kelly Ash
- Kiné Camara
- Larry Calkins
- Lauren Boilini
- Lily Hotchkiss
- Lucie Baker
- Nicole Beerman
- Samar Abulhassan
- Sarah Bixler
- Zoe Crago
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.
Contact Improvisation
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.
Creative Process
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.
Portrait Demonstration
Renee Plevy
Award-winning Palm Beach/New York portrait artist, Renée Plevy, has captured the attention of art lovers, students and aficionados for more than 40 years. Renée’s paintings have been featured in more than 65 shows and galleries, including a one-woman museum show at the Paterson Museum. She has received national attention and garnered numerous awards including “Artist of the Year” from The Bloomfield Art League and First Prize from the Boca Raton Museum Artist’s Guild.
Starting in 2011, she has founded “Portrait of a Woman”, which annually raises monies for Quantum House by honoring prominent Palm Beach Woman at a special luncheon. Six oil portraits are unveiled at the luncheon, all of which become part of a legacy portrait series for Palm Beach County.
Renee now does extensive teaching of her craft at the Boca Raton Museum Art School, and special workshops at the Mandel Public Library in West Palm Beach, and The School of Visual Arts in Jupiter.
Frequently called upon for special projects, Renee has found herself painting a portrait of Vanilla Ice for his Vanilla Ice Project television show, as well as being a part of it. Doing television and radio are always a fun part of being a bit of a celebrity in the Palm Beach community.
When a member of the art community in New York City, her art studio in 41 Union Square was always jumping with activity, between teaching portraiture at the School of Visual Arts, and being a part of the Artist Equity Committee to find a visual arts center for the tri-state area for the 16 national art organizations based in NYC.
Having studied under internationally renowned portrait artists, John Howard Sanden, David Leffel, Robert Beverly Hale, and Clyde Smith, she has developed her own style using classical museum quality techniques.
As a colorist, interpreting personalities through upbeat colors, Renee has incorporated magnificent South Florida tropical colors into her portraits, resulting in joyous life like paintings.
Beginning Painting
Renee Plevy
Award-winning Palm Beach/New York portrait artist, Renée Plevy, has captured the attention of art lovers, students and aficionados for more than 40 years. Renée’s paintings have been featured in more than 65 shows and galleries, including a one-woman museum show at the Paterson Museum. She has received national attention and garnered numerous awards including “Artist of the Year” from The Bloomfield Art League and First Prize from the Boca Raton Museum Artist’s Guild.
Starting in 2011, she has founded “Portrait of a Woman”, which annually raises monies for Quantum House by honoring prominent Palm Beach Woman at a special luncheon. Six oil portraits are unveiled at the luncheon, all of which become part of a legacy portrait series for Palm Beach County.
Renee now does extensive teaching of her craft at the Boca Raton Museum Art School, and special workshops at the Mandel Public Library in West Palm Beach, and The School of Visual Arts in Jupiter.
Frequently called upon for special projects, Renee has found herself painting a portrait of Vanilla Ice for his Vanilla Ice Project television show, as well as being a part of it. Doing television and radio are always a fun part of being a bit of a celebrity in the Palm Beach community.
When a member of the art community in New York City, her art studio in 41 Union Square was always jumping with activity, between teaching portraiture at the School of Visual Arts, and being a part of the Artist Equity Committee to find a visual arts center for the tri-state area for the 16 national art organizations based in NYC.
Having studied under internationally renowned portrait artists, John Howard Sanden, David Leffel, Robert Beverly Hale, and Clyde Smith, she has developed her own style using classical museum quality techniques.
As a colorist, interpreting personalities through upbeat colors, Renee has incorporated magnificent South Florida tropical colors into her portraits, resulting in joyous life like paintings.