WORKSHOPS & EVENTS

Much of our educational programming is delivered in the form of workshops and events as we develop ideas, and as opportunities and needs arise. Want to share in jazz with your friends/ co-workers/ students? Connect with us: we have many years of experience creating tailored workshops and events!

PAST WORKSHOPS & EVENTS

| Marcy Arts Partnership Residency |

In January 2021, we were fortunate to get to work with the first graders or Marcy Open School in Minneapolis! We had a blast sharing our groove, interaction and improvisation-driven approach to jazz dance, highlighting moving to jazz music and how jazz celebrates being an individual in a community.

| Jazz: Roots & Branches Workshops |

Jazz Branches: House Dance with Ozzy Dris

Saturday, 7/25 from 11:15am-12:45pm

$15 suggested via Venmo (@Erinn-Liebhard)

Zoom ID: 6121082032

In partnership with ALL DAY Studio and raising funds for Campaign Zero

Our Jazz: Roots & Branches series of virtual workshops, titled and modeled after a 2014 anthology of writings on jazz of the same name, focuses on reconnecting people’s consciousness of jazz dance to it’s vibrant Afro-Latin diasporic roots and related branch forms.

This ‘branches’ session with Ozzy Dris of Soul Steppers and Circle Theory, one of the foremost house dancers in the Midwest, situates and moves students through the shared histories and movements of Jazz and House dance. These workshops amplify the voices of BIPOC guest teachers and partner with local intersectional justice organizations to raise funds for their work. This workshop will compensate the involved artists while raising funds for Campaign Zero.

We look forward to seeing how this workshop series re/connects folks to themselves, one another, great local teachers and dance spaces, intersectional justice organizations and the roots and branches of jazz. Join us!

| Rhythmically Speaking Jazz Class |

Rhythmically Speaking has partnered with Ballet Co. Laboratory to offer open teen/ adult drop-in classes! Details:

Our drop-in class is inspired by three ideas Rhythmically Speaking Artistic Director Erinn Liebhard feels are at the heart of jazz and other American social dance-inspired forms: groove, interaction and improvisation. Groove leads the way into exploring the embodiment of jazz and jazz-related musics, from digging a good downbeat to syncopation to complex polyrhythms. With that sense of groove as a base, dancers can open up to deeper interaction with themselves, others and the music. With a solid understanding and appreciation of groove and interaction, dancers can slide into the playful joy of improvisation, creating musically and socially-responsive movement in the moment.

Rhythmically Speaking values and situates jazz dance as an amalgam of Africanist and Europeanist ideas with contributions from many other parts of the world, and gives particular focus to Africanist base elements including groundedness and high-affect juxtaposition of dynamics while putting jazz and jazz-related musics at the center of class. RS AD Erinn’s classes always include a thorough warm-up, innovative across-the-floor sequences and groovy combinations that inspire dancers to connect with themselves, one another, the music and the moment.

| The Cohort Workshops and Showings (August 2019)

For our inaugural The Cohort show (2019), we offered previews of each piece and a master classes with each choreographer at partnering org Zenon Dance School!:

Erinn Liebhard’s Showing: Wednesday, March 13 from 5-5:30pm
Erinn Liebhard’s Class: Friday, March 15 from 9:30-11am
Julie Warder’s Class: Friday, April 26 from 9:30-11am
Julie Warder’s Showing: Friday, April 26 from 5-5:30pm
Rohan Bhargava’s Class: Friday, June 7 from 9:30-11am
Rohan Bhargava’s Showing: Friday, June 7 from 5-5:30pm
Pat Taylor’s Class: Friday, July 12 from 9:30-11am
Pat Taylor’s Showing: Friday, July 12 from 5-5:30pm

| Rhythmically Speaking + Dance BARN (June 2019) |

Rhythmically Speaking headed up to Battle Lake, MN June 27-28, 2019 to teach classes at Dance BARN‘s Youth Camp and to perform shows for campers and the public. Included events:

Show with Confusion (rock band):
When: Thursday, June 27th @ 7:30pm
Where: Lakes Area Community Center