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 1 - Jul 31 (T/TH 1 - 4PM) | Course Cost: $657.00

About the Course

Sessions

Location

Kerry Hall

Modality

In Person

Age Requirement

14 -18

Level

All Levels

Class Capacity

Materials Required

Students are given supplies for this elective.

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 4-week program. Please see that description here or email plus@cornish.edu if you have any questions.

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Musical Theater students dancing with a black background

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Jimmy Shields

I was born into a military family in Honolulu, HI and moved to the Pacific Northwest as a toddler. Already singing and dancing by the age of two, I began my formal dance training at the age of 8 while attending Elk Plain School of Choice, an arts elementary school that allowed me to study all disciplines of dance.

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.

If you are local to the Seattle area, you may have seen me acting on stage at Village Theatre, Tacoma Musical Playhouse, or ACT Theatre. I’ve also directed and choreographed for Showtunes Theatre Company, Seattle Repertory Theatre, The 5th Avenue Theatre, Village Theatre, Theatre Puget Sound and Tacoma Arts Live.

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

single dancer in black with head down leg extended arm curved up

Jul 7 - Aug 1 (MON - FRI 9AM -12PM) | Dance | $2,844.00

Dance Intensive

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

student dancing in all black in classroom

Jul 7 - Jul 30 (MON, WED 1PM - 4PM) | Dance | $657.00

Street Dance Forms

Street dance is an umbrella term for many forms of movement that root from hip hop culture. Hip Hop culture includes forms such as Graffiti Art, DJ-ing, MC-ing and Breaking.  In this course, students will learn about how these mediums emerged and in what ways they relate to one another, while focusing on hip-hop, house, breaking and other

Jul 7 - Jul 30 (MON, WED 1PM - 4PM) | Dance | $657.00

Social Dance Forms

With Lucie Baker

Lucie Baker

Lucie Baker is a dance artist, educator, and expressive arts facilitator based in Seattle, Washington. Her parents met in a community folk dance group so social dancing is in her bones. She loves social dance for its joy, community, and expansive self-expression. As a teacher, she strives to create a supportive environment where students can connect and explore. Her classes integrate her background in western concert dance and social dance with her love of somatics and anatomy. From a young age she was surrounded by a diversity of dance styles including swing, ballet, modern, balkan folk dance, and more. Her curiosity for movement led her to pursue a career as a professional performer and choreographer in New York City and abroad working with many notable artists including Jane Comfort, Tamar Rogoff, Erica Essner, Phantom Limb and Seattle Opera. In her training, she earned a BFA from the Juilliard School and an MFA from the University of Washington. After many years of performing, creating, and teaching, she became interested in the intersection of dance and mental health and received her expressive arts therapy training at the Tamalpa Institute, founded by Anna and Daria Halprin. She continues to develop her artistic practice alongside while also serving as a faculty member at Cornish College of the Arts, University of Washington and Century Ballroom.

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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Screendance

Discover the fusion of dance and cinematic storytelling in this Screendance intensive. This 4-week intensive will investigate Screendance from a creative and theoretical perspective. To explore and discover the future of dance films, students will examine the shape-shifting genre of Screendance that emphasizes the choreographic shaping and framing

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Improvisational Practices

Improvisational Practices

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