Studio Spotlight: Lyrical Hip-Hop Dance Class Series with Liz West

Elizabeth “Liz” West has been choreographing and teaching dance classes for 15 years. Her latest dance projects have been Wedding First Dances and Quiñceanera’s. She currently teaches a Lyrical Hip-Hop Dance Class Series at Core on Mondays at 8:30pm.

 

What is Lyrical Hip-Hop Dance? It’s where you dance to the lyrics of R&B, Neo-Soul, Hip-Hop and/or Pop songs. If you are familiar with the hit show “So You Think You Can Dance” or the choreographer’s Tabitha and Napoleon, then you have an idea of this style of dance! This class is great for any level student - from beginners to those with experience to those just looking for a great workout!

At the end of the class series, the class will have learned a full dance routine, and there is an opportunity for a performance showcase!

 

For more information about Liz at her website www.customchoreography.com.  

 

And be sure to join her at CORE Studios Monday nights for Lyrical Hip-Hop Dance!

 

Working Hard and Sore Muscles

We've been kickin' it hard these last two weeks, and it's been feeling great to work and play hard in the studio. I'm super excited about what we'll be showing inside the Mi Casa Your Casa exhibit at the High Museum of Art next week Friday. It's been feeling so satisfying to do this work that now I'm feeling it, and by "it" I mean sore!

I was trying to figure out what I'd blog about and decided to share some of my favorite ways to help these sore muscles be ready to rock the next day. So here we go...

1. I like to have fish or eggs in my dinner to help with damaged muscle fibers.

2. I go for a nice easy walk/jog for 10-15 minutes to get fresh blood pumping. I believe it helps decrease lactic acid and increase fresh nutrients to sore muscles.

3. I stretch and roll on a foam roller... Or get a massage, but a foam roller is the cheaper massage therapist, haha.

4. Epsome salts bath!!! 

4. I add some Ionic-Fizz Magnesium Plus to my water to help muscle cramps and encourage a nice restful sleep.

5. Tai chi - I've been telling myself I'd do more tai chi prior to and after long rehearsal days because it truly has helped me reduce sore fatigued muscles. I haven't been doing it as of late, but now that it's in the blog... I better do it! =) 

I learned a tai chi practice that was always done for an hour after kung fu and it helped me feel so much less sore after intense practices. There is some interesting thought on this practice, and in case anyone is curious, an intro article from a place where I have trained can be found here http://www.shaolin-world.net/classes/taichi.

So that's some of the things I like to do when I have overworked muscles.

Peace,

Rose

P.S. - I Captured a few pictures of Anna showing some of her traveling phrase we'll be doing while weaving in and out of the geometric sculpture.

And we're back

It feels as if we have started the new season in a place of solid understanding and communication. We are hard at work on the first of two pieces that we will perform in the piazza of the High Museum of Art, a piece centered around the phrase (and the title of the work) "A home is a home is a home". The piece will take place in the new public installation by Hector Esrawe and Ignacio Cadena here in Atlanta and then again in Arkansas in an installation by artist Peter Daugherty.

We began our process with a stream of consciousness writing on the prompt "A home is a home is a home", picking words that stuck out to us and then developing movement phrases from one of these words. From the start I have been intrigued by the repeated movement ideas that have shown themselves through all of our individual work, revealing commonalities in our understandings of what home is. We rest our heads, we emerge from a small shape to a larger one, we feel chaotic, we put things in order. We have used similar processes in the past to devise work but while the process is the same it seems we have changed. We know each other more intimately than we did this time last year and it shows in the work. We can push ourselves in new directions, helping each other grow as artists. We can communicate in a free and easy way. We can help fulfill one another's ideas. 

I am beginning to see our processes as a series of riddles All of us trying to figure them out. All of us striving to reveal something beautiful. I am so lucky to get to work in this supportive group of artists and I am excited to see where this season takes us.