Contact: Susanne Voeltz for Kanopy Dance  

[email protected]  608.284.0848

Register Now for Kanopy Dance Academy’s Third Quarter, February 2-March 28, 2021.

New Class Selections. More Performance Opportunities! Please visit https://kanopydance.org/school-year/

2020 has been a challenging year for all of us. Last February, little did we know that Kanopy’s hit show, “Love is Love”, fittingly appraised by dance critic Katie Reiser as an “exuberant celebration” and “a look at love and loss and all the heartbreak, hilarity and messiness of the human condition”– would be the last time we would gather with our Kanopy “family” at Overture for an entire season to come.

Fast forward, an intermission with a new “normal” for Kanopy, our arts colleagues, and communities throughout the world. We are all choreographing our life as a dance in time and space – a counter-intuitive six feet+ away from neighbors and friends.

Thanks to your help, Kanopy has been able to creatively and resourcefully reset. We have pivoted our highly regarded Kanopy Dance Academy to a virtual platform offering over 25 classes led by exceptional talents in modern and contemporary dance who are teaching from studios in New York, Chicago and Madison.

Our advanced students, company and alum have had singular opportunities to collaborate with collegiate dancers from Ailey/Fordham, CSU-Fullerton, Loyola University-Chicago and Williams College studying modern dance pioneer Anna Sokolow’s signature work, “Rooms”, in a program created by the Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble that will culminate in a series of virtual performances and a film production. Here is a link to “A Virtual Symposium – Celebrating 65 years of Sokolow’s Rooms“ held on 12/5/20 in which our students participated with their colleagues throughout the country: https://vimeo.com/489640311.

Moderated by Dance Enthusiast founder and Editor-in-Chief, Christine Jowers, featured speakers included Neil Baldwin, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Dance & Theatre, Montclair State University; Library of Congress dance curator Libby Smigel, MFA, PhD; and Library of Congress senior musicologist Loras John Schissel. Dr. Baldwin commented that Kanopy students were “utterly amazing – forthright – brave revelatory  – during our all too brief danceaturgy conversation.”

And, on December 19, 2020, over 50 families and households gathered virtually to see Kanopy students enrolled in the Charles Weidman Repertory taught by Chicagoan Anne Marie Loesch, perform selections from Weidman’s joyful masterwork “Christmas Oratorio” .

While our stage at the Overture Center will likely remain dark until next fall, we are carefully planning for our return to the stage– developing exciting, thought provoking and uplifting dance in partnership with local, regional and nationally recognized choreographers and dancers. Expect several performances this summer at outdoor venues for a sneak peak of the dance treats that lie ahead when we all gather at the Overture Center once again.

Kanopy Dance Academy Third Quarter
Dancing with Kanopy at Home Starts LIVE via ZOOM February 2-March 28, 2021
Special Performance Opportunities for Kanopy Academy Students
Register Now https://kanopydance.org/school-year/

Kanopy Dance Academy continues online LIVE via ZOOM for the Winter Quarter 3, starting February 2-March 28,2021. (Decisions about resuming in-studio or a hybrid of virtual and in studio classes for the Spring Quarter will be subject to strict guidelines recommended by public health officials).

As Kanopy Dance Company’s official dance school, Kanopy Dance Academy provides rare opportunities for students to learn a repertoire of master works by iconic shapers of dance from nationally acclaimed guest artists, choreographers and an exceptional faculty team. Kanopy Academy’s third quarter offers over 25 weekly classes including creative modern dance, ballet, repertory, choreography & improvisation and dance history, as well as “intensives” in principal modern dance techniques including those of Lester Horton, Anna Sokolow, Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman, Erick Hawkins and Martha Graham. The curriculum will also be enriched with written creative projects, to be completed independently.

New Classes and Performance Opportunities

New Times! Creative Modern/Ballet (Level 1) — Joy of Dance for the young dancer beginning dance skills, dance games, exploration, costume fun, and creation of students very own dances. Activities continue “away from the screen “with projects for the family. Dream. Imagine. Learn.

New Class Time! Ballet (Level 4) Created during the Italian Renaissance, focus is on the Russian and Cecchetti school of training.

Added Class Times! Martha Graham Modern Dance Technique (Levels 4,5/6 and Kanopy2, adults) Movement stemming from the breath including contraction, release, spiral, shift of weight. A vocabulary of movement that will “increase the emotional activity of the dancer’s body” and create foundation for the highest technical and expressive artistry.

Stay Tuned for Upcoming Academy Performances
Georgia Corner’s Erick Hawkins Repertory class will usher in spring with an online performance of selections from Hawkins’ “Classic Kite Tails”, a delightful and challenging masterwork that plays on the floating, darting qualities of flying kites. on Saturday, March 20, from 1-1:45 PM CST.

And don’t miss From Kanopy with Love: Dance Choreography Projects from Summer Intensive 2020 on Valentine’s Day, Sunday, Feb 14 at 4pm CST. Last summer, sixteen students from levels 3,4, 5/6 and Kanopy2 created videos of their dances as part of an optional assignment during Kanopy’s 2020 Summer Intensives .The compilation of video shorts and online presentation is being produced by videographer Mats Rudels with artistic direction from Kanopy’s Robert E. Cleary and Lisa Thurrell.

Thank you for your support! Please Take Care and Stay Well.

Sokolow “Rooms” Symposium 12/5/20

“Christmas Oratorio” informal showing 12/19/20