“We will warm-up through physical actions that cause us to sweat, think, see, hear, and feel more rigorously as we simultaneously tune our attention into our surroundings. We will utilize the energy generated to find unusual, yet natural portals into an infinite range of possibilities within our imagination to concoct worlds, scenarios, and physical scores that illuminate the seemingly unseen. We will learn how to physically enter and exit these worlds to generate architectures of the imagination.” The culmination of the class will have dancers embody a segment of movement from Graczyk’s solo Beast, which she premiered this past April in New York.

Each Modern Lab session features a different guest artist teaching a master class and sections from their repertory. This panorama of the contemporary dance field is presented to broaden the students’ awareness of potential career possibilities. Each guest artist conducts a 30-minute technique class/warm-up and then teaches repertory that is performed by the class.

In the final 15 minutes, faculty coordinator Bill De Young conducts a Q & A with each artist, discussing their career; their recommendations for transitioning from student to professional, and what they look for when they audition dancers for their projects.