About the Class

Free to Attend!

In this class we will dive into contemporary dance and explore movement from a variety of styles. 

In the beginning of the class with a first gentle warm up exercise we will tune in both to our body and mind, awakening our attention, awareness of the space and relationship to other bodies. We will start to dance on the low level, establishing connection with the floor, engaging our core muscles, working our articulation of the spine, becoming more aware of body connections. Class will slowly progress to work with the body on a higher level. We will move through exercises and improvisational tasks where gravity, momentum, musicality, movement articulation play an important role. With each exercise we will focus on different body parts, but at the same time forming an understanding of how to dance with the whole balanced body. Class will culminate in a variety of traveling dance phrases and a center combination, where we will apply the ideas which were introduced early in the class.

Each participant will explore their personal ownership of the phrases, and hopefully have fun in the process.

About Natalia!

Natalia Lisina was born in Kazan, Russia. She received her BFA in dance at Kazan State University of Culture and the Arts and MFA at SUNY Brockport. Lisina continued her dance education at North Karelia College, Finland and at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, Canada. In addition to the American Dance Festival, with a subsequent performance at the Joyce SoHo in New York, Lisina has participated in training workshops and festivals internationally (Paris, Moscow, Vilnius).

She completed her Pilates training at Evolution Pilates with Michelle Pritchard. She is teaching Pilates at Nazareth College, University of Rochester and at Evolution Pilates. She danced as a member of the chamber ballet Panther, in Kazan, Russia, under artistic director Nail Ibragimov and BIODANCE company in Rochester, NY under artistic director Missy Pfohl Smith (2015 - present). She choreographs her own works, involving artists from the local community. Building on her recent research “From Dead Spaces to Live Places: The Transforming Power of Dialogue in Site-Specific Dance”, she continues to explore new possibilities in the field of site-specific dance. In the Fall 2022 she choreographed the full length, site-specific multidisciplinary work "If These Walls Could Speak..." in the ruins of St. Joseph Church, now converted to a park under the care of the Landmark Society of Western NY.