Modern V

no photo credit

This class provides professional dancers with the physical, technical and kinesthetic tools to further enhance their ability to stay focused and healthy in the dance world. A combination of core-strengthening exercises along with complex physical phrase work augments the training of the advanced dancer. Through the use of release-based techniques and more traditional concepts of breath and movement, students develop a clearer understanding of how working with the body on a skeletal and muscular level facilitates locomotor movement while enhancing individual creative expression. Dancers are challenged to discover new possibilities in their dancing through the use of inversions, floor work, center adagio and Foley’s eclectic repertory.

Michael Foley has been involved in the professional dance world for over 20 years. He started dancing at Bates College under Marcy Plavin where he earned a BA in English and Spanish. Michael has performed, internationally, in the companies of over two-dozen choreographers, including Doug Elkins, Kevin Wynn, Seán Curran, Donna Uchizono, Ruby Shang and Eun Me Ahn. He has taught workshops and master classes throughout the US, Europe, Central America, the Caribbean and Mexico, and has taught on the faculties of New World School of the Arts, Bates College, la Escuela Profesional de la Danza de Mazatlan, and Dance Space Center in NYC. He also teaches technique and has set choreography for the Cirque du Soleil organization. Michael has maintained choreographic residencies at over 30 colleges and universities in the U.S. and abroad. His choreography can be found in the touring repertories of dance companies throughout the US, as well as in Cuba, Mexico, Panama, Ireland and Italy. He formed his own company, “Michael Foley Dance”, in 1994 touring the US and Europe. Michael has a 26-year affiliation with the Bates Dance Festival where he has been a student, emerging choreographer, faculty, and co-director of the Young Dancers Workshop from 1996 - 2007. He holds an MFA in Dance from the University of Washington and is an Associate Professor of Dance at the University of South Florida. He also directs a yearly study abroad program in Paris. In 2009 Michael was a Fulbright Scholar in Mexico working with Delfos Danza.