Summer Workshops for Adults

This summer we have some exciting workshops for adults: African, Contact Improvisation and Classical Japanese. All our welcome. No dance experience needed. We believe everyone can and should dance. Reach out if you have questions or need a little encouragement. See you in class!

We also offer weekly classes for adults during our five week summer session July 22-August 24th. These classes are open classes, meaning drop-ins are welcome and you can use a class card to attend when you are able. For more information check out our Adult Summer Class Page.

Etienne Cakpo

Etienne Cakpo is director and lead choreographer of Gansango Dance Company. Cakpo is an award-winning professional dancer, choreographer and musician from Benin, West Africa. He teaches and performs traditional African dance from Benin as well as contemporary African dance styles and has been building his dance repertoire for over thirty years. Skilled in both traditional and modern dance styles, Cakpo lives to dance. He teaches African dance classes at Open Flight Studio in Seattle and performs locally, nationally, and internationally.

Yaw Amponsah

Yaw Amponsah is a master percussionist from Ghana. Coming from a musical family from West Africa he is at home in the world of rhythm. A versatile player, Yaw can play many styles of music from Ghana including Highlife, Agbadja, Kpanlogo and more. His specialty is the music of the multi-part percussion ensembles of the Ashanti people. These sets of drums and corresponding rhythms can be made up of eight or more independent percussion parts. He is the leader of Anokye Agofomma and a member of Manghis Khan quartet.

ELISE KNUDSON

Elise Knudson (eliseknudson.org) is a New York City based dance artist. She teaches Contact Improvisation for Movement Research and facilitates CI at festivals and studios such as Touch Festival (China), Leviathan Studio (Canada) WCCI Jam (Berkeley, USA) and Moab Jam (Utah). Elise has taught repertory and CI at Manhattanville College and Theory and Practice of Dance Improvisation at Yale University. She created NEXToNow, modeled after The Impermanent Society of Philadelphia to provide a platform for the practice of performing interdisciplinary free improvisation. Honored by the opportunity to perform improvised dance with Nancy Stark Smith, David Appel, Chris Aiken&Angie Hauser, Alicia Greyson and others, Elise has also enjoyed the opportunity to perform choreography with various Artists, including Christopher Williams, Jenni Hong Dance, Kiori Kawai/Purring Tiger, Risa Jaroslow, Jody Oberfelder and Koosil-ja/DANCE KUMIKO.  Over the years Elise has choreographed aerial dances, experimental installations and concert dances for stages large and small. She is currently interested in developing fluidity between instantaneous and premeditated choreography.

Kaya Yamazaki

Kaya Yamazaki is a Nihon Buyo artist, performer, choreographer, teacher, and anthropologist. Originally from Tokyo, Japan, Kaya began her Nihon Buyo (Classical Japanese Dance) training at age four and received a natori (master's license) at age 18. After coming to the U.S., Kaya studied modern dance techniques and continued performing and teaching Japanese dance while pursuing her graduate degree. As dance critic George Jackson wrote, Kaya is "a versatile and vivid performer." Her repertoire spans from 18th-century Kabuki dances to her creations inspired by classical Japanese style and modern dance. Her distinctions include an Artist Trust Fellowship, a Heritage Arts Apprentice Program Master Artist award, a Rockefeller Humanities Fellowship at the UCLA Asia Pacific Performance Exchange residency, and a Ph.D. in the Anthropology of Dance. Kaya has invented the Yamazaki MethodTM, an innovative Classical Japanese Dance training system, now registered with the U.S. Copyright Office. The Yamazaki MethodTM is the world's first Japanese Dance training system recorded in an audio-visual format and fully narrated in English for global audiences, especially students, teachers, and researchers of Japanese performing arts. www.japanesedance.online