Mario teaches students and professionals in Latin, ballroom, rhythm, smooth, and theater art. This Ballroom Dancing class will include basic elements of the most popular social dances, including: swing, salsa, rumba, and merengue.

Cameron Stuart, Adult/Teen Hip Hop, Hip Hop I, and Hip Hop II instructor, is a dancer from Huber Heights, Ohio. His style of teaching allows his students to not only learn routines but also learn how to freestyle and improvise with their technique in various styles of dance. His routines consist mainly of popping, and breakdancing, but also incorporate other styles, such as fishing, tutting, and krumping. His students in the past have been very responsive to his unique teaching style and have become much more confident dancers.

In this Creative Movement class we dance using images, such as a bird stretching her wings in the morning light or jumping puddles. The class begins with a group circle to gather the energy and focus. Children learn social skills, such as taking turns, listening to each other, knowing where each one’s own space is. We use props such as scarves and hula hoops. Sometimes we dance a book. The final class is open to parents to come and see what we have been doing in class.

Club Glee is a singing class. We will work to develop and refine vocal technique through group and individual study and performance of classic and contemporary Broadway songs in a playful, positive and supporting atmosphere. Each session will include vocal and body warm-up exercises with a specific area of focus, solo or group singing with feedback, and time for practice. The final class time will be a performance of some of the pieces we have worked on.

Photo credit to Susan Gartner

In The Fluid Core, we do exercises and movement explorations that work deep, organic connections in the body. The result is greater freedom of movement, an increased sense of groundedness and an overall sense of well being.  

Exercises are drawn from modern dance training and an eclectic mix of alternative approaches to moving well that have been used by dancers, musicians, athletes, and of course, everyday people. We will use music from around the world. Doing this work is akin to being your own body worker. You will learn strategies to use in daily life for greater ease of movement and freedom from pain.

In Modern Dance/Ballet , students learn the fundamentals of ballet technique, such as learning to plié and jump with proper alignment, how to stretch and strengthen the feet and legs, and learning to move with a connected sense of flow. Modern dance technique adds the ability to play with the body’s weight, swinging, falling and rolling. Each class includes creative activities as the dancers learn to use their own ideas in creating dances together. The final class is open to parents to come and see what we have been doing in class.

Kindermusik classes follow a curriculum that is age appropriate and geared toward nurturing the development of the whole child. The work has been shown to provide a strong foundation for brain development, coordination and later musical activities. Classes are also social, and children learn to work in groups while still having the support of parent and teacher, both of whom work to follow and support the child’s ideas as he/she explores instruments, singing and movement. Home materials are part of each curriculum and parents rave about how much their children enjoy the music, even long after the course is finished.

In Reading Shakespeare’s Mind students will utilize Shakespeare’s First Folio Technique, a method by which the actor creates character
and performance through deciphering clues and codes Shakespeare wrote into his plays
for his actors, using the First Folio text. Class format will follow what was taught to me
by the Chicago Shakespeare Company’s founder and Artistic Director, Barbara Gaines.
Students will come away from class with an excellent understanding of Shakespeare’s
text, very easy and handy scanning tools that apply to all translations and two contrasting Shakespearean monologues.

This class is best suited to actors with some performance experience (know how to perform a monologue.) Can be experienced or novice with Shakespeare. Require resume and headshot with class enrollment so I can have appropriate material selected for first class.

General Agenda by Week:
1. Introductions & teach technique. Assign 1st monologues & scan 1 together.
2. Review class monologues together. Assign memorization for following week.
3. Perform & direct monologues. Assign 2nd monologues to scan for following
week.
4. Perform/direct any monologues left-over from week 3. Review new class
monologues together. Assign memorization for following week.
5. Perform & direct monologues. Assign rehearsing both monologues for final
performance last class.
6. Perform & direct both monologues as audition pieces & performance (begin with
students who may have not performed 2nd monologue from week 5.)

More info TBA

More info TBA

In this eight session workshop, students will develop the art of storytelling. Drawing from family lore as well as folklore and fable, each student will develop and rehearse the telling of one story. Students will also learn the collaborative art of group storytelling. This workshop is a precursor to pieces of our summer show that will including group storytelling.