Dancer, choreographer, and teacher Carla Mann creates performances for stage, alternative sites, installation, and film. Her work has been presented across the U.S., in China, Israel, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic, and is profiled in Wiederholt and Bartning’s book, Beauty is Experience: Dancing 50 and Beyond and on their website, Stance on Dance.   Carla serves as Professor and Chair of Dance at Reed College, where she teaches courses in contemporary dance technique, choreography, improvisation, and performance. She is always thrilled to teach dance improvisation, a practice that opens profound possibilities for movement and for ways of moving through the world.  

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Dance Improvisation: The Practice of Play

--Come as you are; no prior dance experience necessary!--

Both joyful play and practice for navigating the unknown, improvisational dance invites us to attend to our individually diverse bodies, movement histories, ideas, and aspirations within a community of supportive peers. In these classes, we'll draw on a variety of dance practices that incorporate drawing, story-telling, and games to explore the possibilities for movement that each of us possess. Wild, shy, gorgeous, awkward, silly, serene—improvisational dance welcomes all kinds of movement, including yours. Throughout class, you are always free to join in, adapt, boogie down, tag out, rest—whatever is right for you. Let's have some fun!