About the Course
Creative, fun-filled, and challenging, Halestone’s unique Open Studio classes help students build a solid technical base in modern dance and improvisation for exploratory staging. The focus on technique is supported by developing proper alignment, strength, flexibility, coordination, and musicality through the combined study of experiential anatomy and applied dance theory. Improvisational skills are nurtured using exercises that explore the inner body awareness connections that are necessary for freedom and ease in outward expression. Dancers also learn about the dynamics and qualities of energy that are the support and motivation for all movement. Creativity is encouraged in dancers on every level.
Open Studio builds on Creative Movement classes. Open Studio I facilitates the foundation and Open Studio II pushes students to learn more complicated patterns, specify their technique, and develop their choreographic skills.
Your Instructor
Kathleen Gale
A student of Halestone for the past 15 years, Gale brings a practiced knowledge of studio approaches in improvisation, modern and contemporary theories of movement, and a deep sense of our movement community. Kathleen danced and honed her movement artistry under past Halestone directors and teaching artists Nancy Saylor, Chanel Smith, Julia Vessey, Bailey Anderson, Mauri Conners, Molly Smith, and Kaitlin Pennington. She’s taught clogging and elementary modern classes since 2022, and directed “Obscure Sorrows”and other pieces for Halestone’s spring recitals. Kathleen has a passion for integrating visual, performing, and written arts as well as instilling anatomical awareness into her students.