AMPLIFIED
A Summer Workshop BY Alternative Motion Project
sponsored by Zenon Dance School
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JUNE 6th -9th | 10:00am-1:00pm
***LOCATION CHANGE*** Now being held at Zenon Dance School 528 Hennepin Ave - FOURTH FLOOR Minneapolis, MN 55403 Get back into our bodies and the studio with AMPLIFIED: AMP's 4-day Summer Workshop! Let's move, sweat, + explore mobility, length, momentum, 3-D expansion, while amplifying our physical possibilities in a curious, uplifting, + enlivening environment. Led by AMP + Special Guest Artists. Suitable for pre-professional/professional movers. Come as you are! |
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REGISTRATION INFO**
Full Workshop (6/6 - 6/9; all 8 practices, 10:00-11:30am) | $100
First Half Workshop (6/6 - 6/9; 4 practices, 10:00-11:30am) | $50
Second Half Workshop (6/6 - 6/9; 4 practices, 11:30am - 1:00pm) | $50
Drop in (Single Practice) | $15/practice | $28/day
Register by 9:00am June 6th or drop in payments can be made in person at the door (subject to availability).
COVID-19 Protocols - UPDATED 4.25.22
A mask is required for all participants regardless of vaccination status. We appreciate your understanding and compliance. Precautions, practices, and requirements for participation in AMPLIFIED regarding COVID-19 are subject to change at any time and will be communicated via email/website/social media.
Please also keep the following practices:
AMPLIFIED: Online
Want to participate but can't make it in person? Participate in AMPLIFIED via Zoom!
Movement Practices will be offered synchronously through Zoom. If dropping in via Zoom, you must register by 9:00am on the day of the practice you want to take. Zoom links will be sent upon registration and/or no later than 15 minutes prior to the start of the practice time.
You will need to have a Zoom account set up prior to joining the meeting. Please plan to virtually arrive 5 minutes ahead of time to make sure your visual and audio technology are working. You may need to modify some of the movement, depending on your space.
**No one will be turned away due to lack of funds.
Please email [email protected] for low/no cost options that works for your needs.
Full Workshop (6/6 - 6/9; all 8 practices, 10:00-11:30am) | $100
First Half Workshop (6/6 - 6/9; 4 practices, 10:00-11:30am) | $50
Second Half Workshop (6/6 - 6/9; 4 practices, 11:30am - 1:00pm) | $50
Drop in (Single Practice) | $15/practice | $28/day
- Please arrive 10 minutes prior to the practice start time if you are dropping in!
Register by 9:00am June 6th or drop in payments can be made in person at the door (subject to availability).
COVID-19 Protocols - UPDATED 4.25.22
A mask is required for all participants regardless of vaccination status. We appreciate your understanding and compliance. Precautions, practices, and requirements for participation in AMPLIFIED regarding COVID-19 are subject to change at any time and will be communicated via email/website/social media.
Please also keep the following practices:
- Wash your hands thoroughly and regularly.
- Stay 6 feet apart from other people when appropriate.
- If you have cold/flu-like symptoms, stay at home and get tested as soon as possible.
- Follow CDC Guidelines to stay home if you have knowingly come into contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.
AMPLIFIED: Online
Want to participate but can't make it in person? Participate in AMPLIFIED via Zoom!
Movement Practices will be offered synchronously through Zoom. If dropping in via Zoom, you must register by 9:00am on the day of the practice you want to take. Zoom links will be sent upon registration and/or no later than 15 minutes prior to the start of the practice time.
You will need to have a Zoom account set up prior to joining the meeting. Please plan to virtually arrive 5 minutes ahead of time to make sure your visual and audio technology are working. You may need to modify some of the movement, depending on your space.
**No one will be turned away due to lack of funds.
Please email [email protected] for low/no cost options that works for your needs.
MORE about the Practice Offerings COMING SOON...
Contemporary Movement Practice
Led by AMP Co-Director, Joanna Lees
Monday 6/6 - Thursday 6/9, 10:00am-11:30am
Move BIG, sweat and play in an energizing atmosphere supported by pop hits. Participants will build awareness + explore expansive possibilities within their own individuality and identities. Through improvised + structured movement vocabulary, participants will be encouraged to research freedom, 3-D expansion, mobility, rigor, presence, + agency in choice-making + empowerment with each individual's own unique body.
Curiosity // Connection// Community // Choice // Change
Photo Credit: Todd Collins Photography
Led by AMP Co-Director, Joanna Lees
Monday 6/6 - Thursday 6/9, 10:00am-11:30am
Move BIG, sweat and play in an energizing atmosphere supported by pop hits. Participants will build awareness + explore expansive possibilities within their own individuality and identities. Through improvised + structured movement vocabulary, participants will be encouraged to research freedom, 3-D expansion, mobility, rigor, presence, + agency in choice-making + empowerment with each individual's own unique body.
Curiosity // Connection// Community // Choice // Change
Photo Credit: Todd Collins Photography
GAGA/DANCERS
Led by Guest Artist, Berit Ahlgren
Monday 6/6, 11:30am - 1:00pm
Gaga/dancers deepens dancers’ awareness of physical sensations, expands their palette of available movement options, enhances their ability to modulate their energy and engage their explosive power, and enriches their movement quality with a wide range of textures. The classes are built on the same principles as Gaga/people classes but also employ the specific vocabulary and skills that are part and parcel of a dancer’s knowledge. The layering of familiar skills with Gaga tasks presents dancers with fresh challenges, and throughout the class, teachers prompt the dancers to visit more unfamiliar places and ways of moving as well, unlocking the endlessness of possibilities. Dancers are guided to connect their effort to pleasure and to discover the virtue of silliness.
Led by Guest Artist, Berit Ahlgren
Monday 6/6, 11:30am - 1:00pm
Gaga/dancers deepens dancers’ awareness of physical sensations, expands their palette of available movement options, enhances their ability to modulate their energy and engage their explosive power, and enriches their movement quality with a wide range of textures. The classes are built on the same principles as Gaga/people classes but also employ the specific vocabulary and skills that are part and parcel of a dancer’s knowledge. The layering of familiar skills with Gaga tasks presents dancers with fresh challenges, and throughout the class, teachers prompt the dancers to visit more unfamiliar places and ways of moving as well, unlocking the endlessness of possibilities. Dancers are guided to connect their effort to pleasure and to discover the virtue of silliness.
Modern - Jazz
Led by Guest Artist, Javan Mngrezzo
Tuesday 6/7, 11:30am - 1:00pm
Students can expect to begin with a brief warm-up that will awaken polyrhythm, activate grounding, and find groove. From here a majority of the focus will be held in across-the-floor phrases and a sweeping final combo that will find travel through the space and welcome characterization and artistic choice-making.
The only 'must' is a joy for movement and a commitment to ‘play!’
Led by Guest Artist, Javan Mngrezzo
Tuesday 6/7, 11:30am - 1:00pm
Students can expect to begin with a brief warm-up that will awaken polyrhythm, activate grounding, and find groove. From here a majority of the focus will be held in across-the-floor phrases and a sweeping final combo that will find travel through the space and welcome characterization and artistic choice-making.
The only 'must' is a joy for movement and a commitment to ‘play!’
Somatic Intelligence as a Portal for Connection with Natural Elements
Led by Guest Artist, Taja Will
Wednesday 6/8, 11:30am - 1:00pm
Part of my research as a long time urbanite has been to find pathways into deep connection with the elements, invoking land sovereignty and indigenous solidarity. Our elemental kin are
great teachers and at this critical moment of climate change it feels important to be in relationship with Earth, Air, Fire and Water. I find somatic modalities helpful as portals to deeper
bonding with the elements.
This workshop invites a world kin to eco somatics, bonding with nature, we'll do this from the internal landscape. We will bring the elements into the room, both through imagination and in physical form, if we can! Grounded in experiential anatomy and Body-Mind Centering we will explore through imagery inspired improvisations, and potentially duet and touch-based improvisational structures, for those who are interested.
*** Remote class taking possible
Photo Credit: Nanne Sorvold
Led by Guest Artist, Taja Will
Wednesday 6/8, 11:30am - 1:00pm
Part of my research as a long time urbanite has been to find pathways into deep connection with the elements, invoking land sovereignty and indigenous solidarity. Our elemental kin are
great teachers and at this critical moment of climate change it feels important to be in relationship with Earth, Air, Fire and Water. I find somatic modalities helpful as portals to deeper
bonding with the elements.
This workshop invites a world kin to eco somatics, bonding with nature, we'll do this from the internal landscape. We will bring the elements into the room, both through imagination and in physical form, if we can! Grounded in experiential anatomy and Body-Mind Centering we will explore through imagery inspired improvisations, and potentially duet and touch-based improvisational structures, for those who are interested.
*** Remote class taking possible
Photo Credit: Nanne Sorvold
Bioenergetics + Divergence + Mutations + Care Work in Contact Improvisation
Led by Guest Artist, Taja Will
Thursday 6/9, 11:30am - 1:00pm
This workshop is multi-threaded: practice, pedagogy analysis and futurist methodology. A shared space where each participant will be tasked with tracking their personal and our collective nervous systems in radical ways. 2022 and the 50th birthday of CI lead to reflections of generations past and insist the present moment will inform the foundation for the future of this form. We will prioritize ritual over research, and embodied resonance over theoretical articulation.
This workshop will not focus on teaching the tools, patterns, choreographies or mindset for a beginning CI practice. However, this workshop does invite the most devout practitioners and ones who’ve forever or recently rejected this form.
This workshop is a 1 day preview of an intensive 4 day workshop being offered this summer at the Seattle Festival of Dance & Improvisation in August.
*** Remote class taking, hard. A large degree of imagination and openness is required to participate remotely.
Photo Credit: Nanne Sorvold
Led by Guest Artist, Taja Will
Thursday 6/9, 11:30am - 1:00pm
This workshop is multi-threaded: practice, pedagogy analysis and futurist methodology. A shared space where each participant will be tasked with tracking their personal and our collective nervous systems in radical ways. 2022 and the 50th birthday of CI lead to reflections of generations past and insist the present moment will inform the foundation for the future of this form. We will prioritize ritual over research, and embodied resonance over theoretical articulation.
This workshop will not focus on teaching the tools, patterns, choreographies or mindset for a beginning CI practice. However, this workshop does invite the most devout practitioners and ones who’ve forever or recently rejected this form.
This workshop is a 1 day preview of an intensive 4 day workshop being offered this summer at the Seattle Festival of Dance & Improvisation in August.
*** Remote class taking, hard. A large degree of imagination and openness is required to participate remotely.
Photo Credit: Nanne Sorvold
Meet the Instructors
Berit Ahlgren (she/her)
Native to St. Paul, Minnesota, Berit Ahlgren gained her foundational dance training from Minnesota Dance Theater and received a BFA in Dance from St. Olaf College, where she also studied biomedical studies. Ahlgren was a founding member of TU Dance under the artistic directorship of Toni Pierce-Sands and Uri Sands, and performed with the company between 2006—2016. Having received Metropolitan Regional Arts Council’s highly competitive Next Step Grant in 2011, Ahlgren had the opportunity to study the Gaga Movement Language in Tel Aviv, and moved to Israel to pursue teacher certification between 2011— 2012. Ahlgren earned her MFA in Dance from NYU/Tisch School of the Arts in 2016, and has since been on faculty at the University of Minnesota and Winona State University, performing with independent choreographers between Minneapolis and New York, and choreographing her own body of work for both stage and camera under her fledgling dance organization, HoneyWorks (2019). Ahlgren has had the great pleasure to work with Crystal Pite, Ohad Naharin, Netta Yerushalmy, Dimitri Chamblas, Gregory Dolbashian, Dwight Rhodan, Ashwini Ramaswamy, and Helen Hatch, among others. In addition to her work as dancer-choreographer, Berit teaches weekly Gaga/people classes throughout the Twin Cities.
Native to St. Paul, Minnesota, Berit Ahlgren gained her foundational dance training from Minnesota Dance Theater and received a BFA in Dance from St. Olaf College, where she also studied biomedical studies. Ahlgren was a founding member of TU Dance under the artistic directorship of Toni Pierce-Sands and Uri Sands, and performed with the company between 2006—2016. Having received Metropolitan Regional Arts Council’s highly competitive Next Step Grant in 2011, Ahlgren had the opportunity to study the Gaga Movement Language in Tel Aviv, and moved to Israel to pursue teacher certification between 2011— 2012. Ahlgren earned her MFA in Dance from NYU/Tisch School of the Arts in 2016, and has since been on faculty at the University of Minnesota and Winona State University, performing with independent choreographers between Minneapolis and New York, and choreographing her own body of work for both stage and camera under her fledgling dance organization, HoneyWorks (2019). Ahlgren has had the great pleasure to work with Crystal Pite, Ohad Naharin, Netta Yerushalmy, Dimitri Chamblas, Gregory Dolbashian, Dwight Rhodan, Ashwini Ramaswamy, and Helen Hatch, among others. In addition to her work as dancer-choreographer, Berit teaches weekly Gaga/people classes throughout the Twin Cities.
Javan Mngrezzo (he/him)
Javan Mngrezzo relocated to Minnesota in 2021 by way of Portland, OR. He graduated from Western Oregon University in three years, magna cum laude, with a Bachelor of Science in Dance and Sociology. At present, he dances with Black Label Movement, Collide Theatrical, ARENA Dances, and Analog Dance Works; previous companies include being a company dancer with Threads Dance Project and BodyVox. He has also had the privilege of performing as a guest artist for numerous companies such as Ballet Co.Laboratory, NIJAD Dance Collective, Jim Lieberthal, Heidi Duckler Dance, Cynthia Gutierrez’s Company Movimiento, and Dar Vejon Jones Dance Ensemble [DJDE]. Javan is a certified instructor of The Ellové Technique®, has taught at dozens of studios, including at Zenon, Hothouse MN, Arena Dances, Headline Dance Center, The Dance Factory, Victoria Dance Productions, Bodyvox, Northwest Dance Project, and Shaun Keylock Studios.
Javan Mngrezzo relocated to Minnesota in 2021 by way of Portland, OR. He graduated from Western Oregon University in three years, magna cum laude, with a Bachelor of Science in Dance and Sociology. At present, he dances with Black Label Movement, Collide Theatrical, ARENA Dances, and Analog Dance Works; previous companies include being a company dancer with Threads Dance Project and BodyVox. He has also had the privilege of performing as a guest artist for numerous companies such as Ballet Co.Laboratory, NIJAD Dance Collective, Jim Lieberthal, Heidi Duckler Dance, Cynthia Gutierrez’s Company Movimiento, and Dar Vejon Jones Dance Ensemble [DJDE]. Javan is a certified instructor of The Ellové Technique®, has taught at dozens of studios, including at Zenon, Hothouse MN, Arena Dances, Headline Dance Center, The Dance Factory, Victoria Dance Productions, Bodyvox, Northwest Dance Project, and Shaun Keylock Studios.
Taja Will (pronouns Taja/they)
Taja Will is a queer, Latinx (Chilean) adoptee, performer, choreographer, somatic therapist and Healing Justice practitioner based in Mni Sota Makoce, on the ancestral lands of the Dakota and Anishinaabe. Taja’s approach integrates improvisation, somatic modalities, text and vocals in contemporary performance. Their aesthetic is one of spontaneity, bold choice making, sonic and kinetic partnership and the ability to move in relationship to risk and intimacy. Will’s work explores visceral connections to current socio-cultural realities through ritual, archetypes and everyday magic.
Taja is a recent recipient of the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, in the dance field, awarded in 2021. Will’s work has been presented throughout the Twin Cities and across the United States. Including local performances at the Walker Art Center Choreographer’s Evening, the Red Eye Theater’s New Works 4 Weeks, the Radical Recess series, Right Here Showcase and the Candy Box Dance Festival. Will is the recipient of a 2018 McKnight Choreography Fellowship, administered by the Cowles Center and funded by The McKnight Foundation. Will has recently received support from the National Association of Latinx Arts & Culture, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and Metropolitan Regional Arts Council.
Taja maintains a dynamic Healing Justice practice that includes consulting with individuals, organizations, and communities in the context of workshops, conflict mediation, one-on-one somatic healing sessions, nervous system triage, board development and organizational cultural competency, and individual coaching on unwinding from white body supremacy culture. They ground their work in indigenous solidarity and decolonization as a means to undo white body supremacy and its pervasive relationship to capitalism, Taja is committed to working for healing and liberation of Black, Indigenous and people of color.
More about Taja on their website.
Photo Credit: Nanne Sorvold
Taja Will is a queer, Latinx (Chilean) adoptee, performer, choreographer, somatic therapist and Healing Justice practitioner based in Mni Sota Makoce, on the ancestral lands of the Dakota and Anishinaabe. Taja’s approach integrates improvisation, somatic modalities, text and vocals in contemporary performance. Their aesthetic is one of spontaneity, bold choice making, sonic and kinetic partnership and the ability to move in relationship to risk and intimacy. Will’s work explores visceral connections to current socio-cultural realities through ritual, archetypes and everyday magic.
Taja is a recent recipient of the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, in the dance field, awarded in 2021. Will’s work has been presented throughout the Twin Cities and across the United States. Including local performances at the Walker Art Center Choreographer’s Evening, the Red Eye Theater’s New Works 4 Weeks, the Radical Recess series, Right Here Showcase and the Candy Box Dance Festival. Will is the recipient of a 2018 McKnight Choreography Fellowship, administered by the Cowles Center and funded by The McKnight Foundation. Will has recently received support from the National Association of Latinx Arts & Culture, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and Metropolitan Regional Arts Council.
Taja maintains a dynamic Healing Justice practice that includes consulting with individuals, organizations, and communities in the context of workshops, conflict mediation, one-on-one somatic healing sessions, nervous system triage, board development and organizational cultural competency, and individual coaching on unwinding from white body supremacy culture. They ground their work in indigenous solidarity and decolonization as a means to undo white body supremacy and its pervasive relationship to capitalism, Taja is committed to working for healing and liberation of Black, Indigenous and people of color.
More about Taja on their website.
Photo Credit: Nanne Sorvold
Joanna Lees (she/her)
Joanna Lees is a choreographer, performer, filmmaker, instructor + administrator based in Minneapolis, MN. Originally from the Washington, D.C. area, Joanna graduated cum laude with distinction in 2007 with a BFA in Dance and a minor in Business from The Ohio State University (Columbus, OH). At OSU, she was an Arts Scholar and the recipient of the Denman Undergraduate Research Forum Scholarship. Joanna studied with various artists including Bebe Miller, Susan Hadley, Karen Eliot Abigail Yager and Ming-Lung Yang. She performed Doug Varone’s Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) in collaboration with BalletMet Columbus.
Since moving to the Twin Cities in 2008, Joanna has performed in works with and by several local dance artists including Penelope Freeh, Blake Nellis, Taja Will, Darrius Strong, Heather Klopchin, Jennifer Glaws, Erin Drummond, + Erinn Liebhard. Joanna also showcased her own choreography independently before co-founding the Minneapolis dance company, Alternative Motion Project alongside Kristin Howe in 2011. She has served as Co-Artistic Director and Executive Director since AMP’s inception, creating performing opportunities for Minneapolis artists, educational outreach programs for public school students and audience engagement initiatives.
Joanna’s work has been presented by the College of DuPage (Glen Ellyn, IL), The Moving Collective (Louisville, KY) and at the Midwest Regional Alternative Dance Festival (Kalamazoo, MI). Joanna enjoys the collaborative process including with COD professor/composer Lee Kesselman and Chicago visual artist René Romero Schuler. She also premiered her first multi-media dance work entitled #binge (2016) in Minneapolis.
In 2020, Joanna earned her Masters of Fine Arts degree in Dance at The University of Utah (Salt Lake City). Whilst there, she served as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the School of Dance and received the L. Scott Marsh Mentorship Award & a University Teaching Assistantship. She performed works by Charles O. Anderson, Stephen Koester, Sara Pickett, Christine McMillan. She performed in work by Doug Varone in collaboration with Doug Varone and Dancers and was selected as a choreographer for Varone’s DEVICES mentorship program, showcasing her work, Spiral Into Control, in New York City in 2018. An excerpt of her MFA thesis, B E C O M I N G, was selected to represent University of Utah in performance for the American College Dance Association Northwest Regional Conference at Gonzaga University.
Joanna currently teaches weekly classes for AMP and Zenon Dance School. Joanna will be joining Winona State University in Fall 2022 as an Adjunct Faculty Member. Joanna will be transitioning into the role of sole Artistic + Executive Director of Alternative Motion Project in September 2022.
More about Joanna on her website.
Photo Credit: Bill Cameron
Joanna Lees is a choreographer, performer, filmmaker, instructor + administrator based in Minneapolis, MN. Originally from the Washington, D.C. area, Joanna graduated cum laude with distinction in 2007 with a BFA in Dance and a minor in Business from The Ohio State University (Columbus, OH). At OSU, she was an Arts Scholar and the recipient of the Denman Undergraduate Research Forum Scholarship. Joanna studied with various artists including Bebe Miller, Susan Hadley, Karen Eliot Abigail Yager and Ming-Lung Yang. She performed Doug Varone’s Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) in collaboration with BalletMet Columbus.
Since moving to the Twin Cities in 2008, Joanna has performed in works with and by several local dance artists including Penelope Freeh, Blake Nellis, Taja Will, Darrius Strong, Heather Klopchin, Jennifer Glaws, Erin Drummond, + Erinn Liebhard. Joanna also showcased her own choreography independently before co-founding the Minneapolis dance company, Alternative Motion Project alongside Kristin Howe in 2011. She has served as Co-Artistic Director and Executive Director since AMP’s inception, creating performing opportunities for Minneapolis artists, educational outreach programs for public school students and audience engagement initiatives.
Joanna’s work has been presented by the College of DuPage (Glen Ellyn, IL), The Moving Collective (Louisville, KY) and at the Midwest Regional Alternative Dance Festival (Kalamazoo, MI). Joanna enjoys the collaborative process including with COD professor/composer Lee Kesselman and Chicago visual artist René Romero Schuler. She also premiered her first multi-media dance work entitled #binge (2016) in Minneapolis.
In 2020, Joanna earned her Masters of Fine Arts degree in Dance at The University of Utah (Salt Lake City). Whilst there, she served as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the School of Dance and received the L. Scott Marsh Mentorship Award & a University Teaching Assistantship. She performed works by Charles O. Anderson, Stephen Koester, Sara Pickett, Christine McMillan. She performed in work by Doug Varone in collaboration with Doug Varone and Dancers and was selected as a choreographer for Varone’s DEVICES mentorship program, showcasing her work, Spiral Into Control, in New York City in 2018. An excerpt of her MFA thesis, B E C O M I N G, was selected to represent University of Utah in performance for the American College Dance Association Northwest Regional Conference at Gonzaga University.
Joanna currently teaches weekly classes for AMP and Zenon Dance School. Joanna will be joining Winona State University in Fall 2022 as an Adjunct Faculty Member. Joanna will be transitioning into the role of sole Artistic + Executive Director of Alternative Motion Project in September 2022.
More about Joanna on her website.
Photo Credit: Bill Cameron