Andrea Ward is a contemporary choreographer based in New York City, originally from Sarasota, Florida. Her movement lives within a mergence of fluid and sharp dynamic, conceptually driven by nature and the deep subconscious. Recently she led a choreographic lab in Madrid, Spain for DANZA180 Studio. She’s also led classes in Paris and London, and has performed in Amsterdam and Italy. Andrea has studied with Enzo Celli, Jeff Docimo, Bryan Arias, Sidra Bell, Medhi Walerski, LaMichael Leonard of Bill T. Jones, Jiri Pokorny of Kidd Pivot, and Jos Baker of Peeping Tom, to name a few. She is also a musician and filmmaker, currently releasing an album and series of underwater movement concept films.

Class Description: Andrea's Contemporary Workshop is facilitated toward creating balance in our relationship to creativity in a dynamic world. Through guided visualization, improvisation, and contemporary choreography, dancers are invited to explore depths of internal sensation and sensitivity to space.

Xiao-Xuan Yang Dancigers (Founding Company Member/Associate Director of SCDE), nominated for Best Female Dancer in Australia in 2009, has performed throughout Asia, Europe, Australia, and the United States with Australian Dance Theater and Cloudgate 2. Previously Assistant Professor at the Taipei National University of Arts, she has danced with and choreographed for Sarasota Contemporary Dance since 2012. In 2013, Xiao-Xuan co-choreographed Dreamfall featuring music by NOW Ensemble with Leymis Bolaños Wilmott. She has also danced as a soloist in Leymis’ Summer Days, of which the Sarasota Herald-Tribune wrote, “With…Dancigers’ total ownership of the characterization, it was stunning.” She was also a soloist in Gerri Houlihan’s Every Little Movement, of which the Bradenton Herald wrote, “A highlight on opening night was the long and unspeakably gorgeous solo by Xiao-Xuan Yang Dancigers. If you appreciate dance at all, you find yourself wishing the solo would never end.” In 2017, she choreographed and performed the solo Signal for New Music New College to music by Luciano Berio, with the Herald-Tribune calling the performance “stunning...precise". Xuan is also the dance instructor at Parkinson’s Place in Sarasota, and Associate Director of Sarasota Contemporary Dance Ensemble.

Class Description: This class works through the basic fundamentals of contemporary dance technique including floor work, inversions, improvisation, and phrase work.

Each class begins with a full body warm-up and then transitions into spacious, athletic, and sometimes inverted phrases, encouraging awareness to sensation, movement efficiency, and individual performance. A rich sense of community and support is fostered as dancers are guided to fall, roll, and fly across the floor together.

PC: Sorcha Augustine

Named one of Dance Magazine’s 25 to Watch in 2012, Courtney D. Jones is a professional dancer, actress and full-time teaching artist at the Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. She is a Presidential Scholar in the Arts for Choreography. Professional credits include Broadway’s 1st National Tour of WICKED! Hope Stone Dance, Jennifer Muller/The Works, the Kevins Wynn Collection and the Freddick Bratcher and Company Contemporary Dance Theatre. Jones is a graduate of SUNY Purchase with a BFA in Modern Dance Performance and a minor in Psychology. She has performed the works of Jose Limón, Mark Morris, Doug Varone, Jacqulyn Buglisis, Roger C. Jeffrey, Michael Foley, Heather Maloney and Kevin Wynn. In 2004 Jones performed with the Kevin Wynn Collection and joined Jennifer Muller/The Works where she taught and toured internationally for four seasons.
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Now based in Houston, Courtney is heavily involved in the theatre community as a performer and choreographer. Jones has served as an Adjunct Faculty Member at the University of Houston, is a national guest and master class teacher at numerous and notable universities and dance festivals and is a freelance choreographer under her own CDJ Project. Her work has been commissioned by METdance Company, Urban Souls Dance Company, the Counter Current Festival, the YES! Dance Invitational, the DanceNOW Festival, Barnstorm Dance Fest, The Regional High School Dance Festival, Colorado Mesa University, Rice Dance Theatre, Arlington Heights High School and the Dance Gallery Festival.

Alyson Dolan has been recognized by The Austin Chronicle as a “key modern mover” for the “stamina, concentration, and big jar of real that she brings to the potluck.” Her approach to making dances is motivated by a desire for deep listening in the choreographic process, with an interest in performance as a shared meditative or reflective experience. Dolan is on faculty at Cafe Dance, St Edward’s University and regularly works with McCallum Fine Arts Academy. She is in her 11th season with Kathy Dunn Hamrick Dance Company, is an original member of the Austin Soundpainting Collective directed by Andrea Ariel, and consistently presents her own work. Her most recent piece MAKING PURPLE was described as “choreography and performance for the twenty-first century” after a rich eight month process with six Austin dancers and composer Drew Silverman. Alyson was Sarasota Contemporary Dance’s inaugural Choreographer in Residence from 2012-2014, as well as a dancer with the company back in the Fuzión Dance Artists era. She is thrilled to return to Sarasota this summer for a month-long residency with SCD thanks to Leymis Bolaños Wilmott’s generous invitation.
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Class Description: Alyson's "Tuning-in via Contemporary-Modern Techniques" classes begin on the floor and continue with a constant reminder of deeply rooted contact. Spacious, athletic, and often inverted phrases are explored and have been described as lush and clear with a horizontal, painterly sweep. Dancers are encouraged to bring awareness to sensation, movement efficiency, musicality and personal expression throughout class, promoting introspection, ownership, and acknowledgement of our unique bodies and movement histories. A rich sense of community and support is fostered as dancers deepen their experience both as a solo artist and an integral part of the ensemble. As generously described by a former student, “Only go to this class if you want to feel inspired, challenged, and tuned-in to this amazing instrument we call our body! Alyson's class is for-real."
 

South Carolina native, Monessa Salley, is currently in her fourth season dancing and teaching professionally with the Sarasota Contemporary Dance Company. She is also a teaching artist for the Sarasota Ballet and Wholehearted Education. She holds a B.A. in Dance Performance from Winthrop University and an M.Ed. from Columbia College. After performing and serving as a certified dance educator for 12 years, she went on to pursue her MFA in Dance Performance and New Media at New York University’s Tisch School of Arts. She has previously toured and performed professionally with Sapphire Moon Dance Company, Vibrations Dance Company, T.O. Dance Inc., The Power Company Collaborative, and NYU’s Second Avenue Dance Company. Salley enjoys choreographing and presenting new works. She has a mind, body, spirit approach to dance and relishes in practicing and refining her craft, generating healing through dance, and enhancing community relations.

Class Description:
Based on rhythms from Africa and the diaspora, Afro- Modern  is a contemporary class where students explore full body expression rooted in West African, Caribbean, and American dance traditions.The movement is designed to enhance rhythm, coordination, balance, weight shift, and increase stamina. 

The overall desire is for each dancer to be comfortable in their moving body and to find their own unique groove and mature playfulness within the moves.The class will be constructed as follows: warm-up, improvisation, stretching, and movement/skill practice, culminating with a combination of the movement techniques learned throughout class.  The class is suitable for varying levels in dance ability and the music selection is fun, energetic, upbeat, and rhythmically driven.

PC: Sorcha Augustine

Melissa Rummel was raised in Dryden, Michigan where she started dancing at the age of seven. She graduated from Belhaven University with a BFA in dance, emphasis on modern dance and choreography. She has trained with companies such as Eisenhower Dance Ensemble, RiverNorth Chicago, Ad Deum Dance Company, and Sarasota Contemporary Dance. This is Melissa’s Seventh season with Sarasota Contemporary Dance and third as Studio Coordinator. Melissa is the Associate Director for SCD Ensemble(Student Training program) and the SCD Summer Intensive Director. She is passionate about teaching and currently teaches with SCD and Woodland Fine Arts Academy. She also enjoys fitness and the positive effect it can bring to others, and she strives to find new ways to combine her love of dance and fitness. She strives to never stop stretching herself as a performer, choreographer, and teacher.

Class Description: Participants will have the opportunity to learn repertoire from Sarasota Contemporary Dance during the SCD Summer Intensive. Works originally choreographed by Artistic Director Leymis Bolanos Wilmott, restaged this summer by Company member Melissa Rummel. 

PC: Sorcha Augustine