DECEMBER 27 – JANUARY 14
Open to dancers 18 years or older, our Winter Intensive provides dancers with a rigorous program in Graham Technique, Ballet, Contemporary, Graham Repertory, and Composition with a special Graham Technique for Teachers class!
Classes are taught by experienced dance professionals, including former and current Martha Graham Dance Company members. Students have the option to attend In-Person or Online.
Click here to see our In-Person schedule
Click here to see our Virtual schedule
Classes are held at Martha Graham Studios and the Creative Cultural Center at St. Veronica’s in Greenwich Village. Click here for location information and directions.
NOW OFFERING IN-PERSON OR VIRTUAL CLASSES!
Click here to see our COVID-19 Vaccination Policy
REGISTER NOW
Our classes fill up quickly with limited in-person space available! Sign-up Today!
Choose an Intensive:
IN-PERSON Winter Intensive
- Complete Registration Form
- Pay $35 Registration Fee
- Pay $50 Tuition Deposit
VIRTUAL Winter Intensive
- Complete Registration Form
- Pay $35 Registration Fee
- Pay $50 Tuition Deposit
All classes held on NYC/EST time
Questions? Please contact Tami Alesson at talesson@marthagraham.org
OUR CLASSES
Graham Technique
Levels I, II, III, + IV
The Martha Graham Technique is based on the core power of Graham’s signature contraction and release. The Technique promotes strength, stamina, and self-expression and serves as a foundation for excellence in many styles of dance. Each level is specifically designed for students to progress rapidly.
Ballet
Advanced Beginner/Intermediate and Advanced
Martha Graham School ballet training is adapted for individual student abilities at the beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels. Classes are structured to enhance and support the study of Martha Graham Technique.
Contemporary
Advanced Beginner/Intermediate and Advanced
Contemporary classes build upon Graham Technique and encourage dancers to explore the connections between this classic approach and post-modern styles. In-Person only.
Graham Repertory
Intermediate and Advanced
Repertory introduces students to Graham’s classic choreography to gain a deeper understanding of her expressive style as well as practice in valuable performance techniques. Dancers must register for Graham Technique for the duration of the Repertory class, which is offered at an intermediate or advanced pace.
Composition
Beginner/Intermediate and Advanced
This exploration of dance-making guides students in creating movement phrases, discovering their own artistic voice, and development a personal toolbox of choreographic techniques. In-Person only.
MODERN CLASSICS SERIES
Open to All Levels In-Person and Online
New to this year’s Winter Intensive, the Modern Classics Series is a sequence of weekly master classes celebrating early class modern dance form creators, including José Limón, Lester Horton, and Merce Cunningham, in addition to Martha Graham. Each left a legacy that continues to inspire artists and audiences around the world. Many of their students, including Paul Taylor and Alvin Ailey, carried the classics forward and left formidable impacts on the art form themselves.
All master classes are 90 minutes followed by a 30 minute Q&A with the instructor.
CLASS SCHEDULE
Risa Steinberg is an active member of the dance community as a performer, teacher, reconstructor of the works of José Limón, and mentor to young, emerging, and established choreographers. A native New Yorker, she studied and graduated from the High School of Performing Arts and The Juilliard School, where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts. A former principal dancer with the José Limón Dance Company, Bill Cratty Dance Theater, Annabelle Gamson, Anna Sokolow’s Player’s Project, Colin Connor, and American Repertory Dance Company of Los Angeles, Ms. Steinberg has also been a guest artist with choreographers including Wally Cardona, Sean Curran, and DanzaHoy of Caracas, Venezuela. Her solo concert, A Celebration of Dance, featured a repertory from Isadora Duncan to contemporary choreographers. As a re-constructor of the works of Mr. Limón, Ms. Steinberg has worked with companies and dancers, including Nureyev and Friends, Frank Augustyn, and Karen Kain. She has been full-time faculty at the Juilliard School since 2004 and held the position of Associate Director of Juilliard Dance from 2008-2016. She was a dance panelist for the New York State Council on the Arts and The Bessies. As a choreographic advisor, she is presently working with Brian Brooks and Kyle Abraham and has the honor of mentoring remarkable creators, including Kate Weare, Michelle Dorrance, and Brian Arias. Steinberg is the co-director of the Ann and Weston Hicks Choreography Project at Jacob’s Pillow. She was a cast member of the Punchdrunk production, Sleep No More from 2015 – March, 2020
Andrea Weber was a dancer with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company from 2004 – 2011. Andrea is on faculty of the Merce Cunningham Trust, teaching Cunningham Technique® at New York City Center and The Hartt School. She has also taught at Barnard College, SUNY Purchase, UNCSA, Brown University, Skidmore College, the American Dance Festival, ArcDanz Festival, NYU Tisch, ABT Studio Company, Salem State College and Dance New Amsterdam. Andrea has staged Exchange and Scenario f
Maxwell Louis Waterman is a New York City-based educator, administrator, and performing artist. He is the Director of the Dance Department at Science Skills Center High School for Science, Technology and the Creative Arts. He is also an Adjunct Professor (of the Lester Horton Technique) at the Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College, SUNY Purchase. Waterman’s introduction to the Martha Graham Center of Contemporary Dance began in 2014 when he enrolled in the Martha Graham School’s Summer Intensive. A champion for social-emotional learning in dance education, Waterman authored The Elevated Conscious Curriculum (For Dancers)© in 2020, and teaches the culturally responsive pedagogy within the Young Artists Program of the Martha Graham School. His course, “Zone of Consciousness” affords students the opportunity to grant themselves the permission to develop and use their artistic voices to become critical, conscious thought leaders within dance education. A native of Brooklyn, NY, Waterman trained at the Ailey School and the Joffrey Ballet School. He earned a B.S. in Dance from Long Island University-Brooklyn Campus and an M.A. in Dance Education from the Arnhold Graduate Dance Education Program at CUNY-Hunter College.
CLASS RECORDINGS
Can’t make it to our live Zoom classes? Not to worry!
For an affordable fee, dancers can access recordings of all Virtual Winter Intensive Ballet and/or Graham Technique Zoom classes to watch and follow along at a time that is convenient. Take class from the comfort of your home at a time that fits your schedule best! You can cancel at any time.
MEET THE FACULTY
Click on a name to read their bio…
| In-Person Intensive | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | |
| Graham I | Sierra Sanders | Jeffrey Shirbroun | Christopher Dolder |
| Graham II | Elizabeth Auclair | PeiJu Chien-Pott | Anne Westwick |
| Graham III | Tadej Brdnik | Peggy Lyman Hayes | Yung Yung Tsuai Lerner |
| Graham IV | Miki Orihara | Steve Rooks | Jacqulyn Buglisi |
| Beg/Int Repertory | Elizabeth Auclair | ||
| Adv Repertory | Miki Orihara | ||
| Beg/Int Composition | Yung Yung Tsuai Lerner | ||
| Adv Beg/Int Ballet | Cara McManus | Marzia Memoli | Tami Alesson |
| Adv Ballet | Cara McManus | Marzia Memoli | TBD |
| Adv Beg/Int Contemporary | Shawn Rawls | ||
| Adv Contemporary | |||
| Virtual Intensive | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | |
| Open Ballet | Elizabeth Troxler | Elizabeth Troxler | Bianca Delli Priscoli |
| Beg Graham | Blakeley White-McGuire | Jennifer Conley | Miriam Barbosa |
| Int Graham | Miriam Barbosa | Blakeley White-McGuire | Jennifer Conley |
| Repertory | Blakeley White-McGuire | ||
Sierra Christine Sanders, from Montclair, NJ, is a passionate artist continuing the legacy of American Modern dance through Performance & Education. With training in West African Dance & Tap from a very young age, she continued her studies with the New Jersey Performing Arts Center’s Youth Artist Institute in Modern Dance. Upon graduating Montclair State University with a BFA in Dance, Ms. Sanders went on to dance for Philadanco‘s 2nd company, Danco 2! in Philadelphia, PA. Later she joined Graham 2 where she received full scholarship as a Choreography major and later received her Teacher’s Certification in the Graham Technique from the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance. Sierra continues to dance professionally for Dzul Dance Theatre, Buglisi Dance Theatre, and RudduR Dance while teaching Graham at the Martha Graham School and Ballet Tech in Manhattan, NY.
Peggy Lyman Hayes has been affiliated with the Martha Graham Center as a Principal Dancer, Company Rehearsal Director, Director of Graham II, School Senior Faculty and Regisseur for the Martha Graham Resources since 1973. Additional directing posts include Artistic Director of Peggy Lyman Dances, The Hartford Ballet and Dance CT. She was a founder in 1994, and Director until 2005, of the University of Hartford’s Hartt School Dance Division for which she developed dance curriculum, mentored faculty and students, directed the performance ensemble Hartt Dances, taught the Martha Graham Technique, staged Graham repertory and choreographed her own work. While at Hartt she collaborated with Dr. John Feierabend on “MoveIt” and “MoveIt 2″, cd’s designed to assist elementary music educators, and parents, to help children experience classical music through movement expression. Ms. Lyman Hayes was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Hartford in 2016, inducted as an honoree into the CT Women’s Hall of Fame in 2018 and into the Hartt School Hall of Fame in 2021.
Cara McManus trained in her hometown of Falmouth, MA before earning a BFA in Dance and a BA in Comparative Literature from Fordham University and the Ailey School. Post-graduation, she danced with Graham 2 for two years and performed in NYC Seasons and on tours with the Martha Graham Dance Company for four years. She has also danced with the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company and with Joshua Beamish’s MOVE/THECOMPANY, as well as being featured in the film The White Wolf by director Sue de Beer. She has taught at Peridance and New Jersey City University, and currently dances with the Caterina Rago Dance Company and teaches at the Graham School and the New Jersey Dance Theatre Ensemble.
Marzia Memoli, from Palermo, Italy, joined the Martha Graham Dance Company in 2016 and performs lead roles in Graham’s El Penitente, Steps in the Street and works by Pontus Lidberg, Bobbi Jean Smith, Maxine Doyle and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. In 2018 Dance Spirit said she “may be the… Company’s newest dancer, but her classical lines and easy grace are already turning heads.” She graduated from the Academy of Teatro Carcano in Milan and the Bejart’s school, where she performed with the Bejart Ballet Lausanne.
Tami Alesson received a BFA from the University of Cincinnati’s Conservatory of Music. She was a professional ballet dancer with the Cincinnati Ballet for nearly 20 years, where she also served as the Director of Education Outreach. She was also the Companies Union Representative where she negotiated many contracts for the American Guild of Musical Artists. During her time in Cincinnati she was one of the founding members of the Cincinnati Ballet School as well as a student rehearsal coach for all Company production. From 2000-2007, Ms. Alesson headed the Outreach Department at the Rock School for Dance Education in Philadelphia. Many of Ms. Alesson’s former students now work in major companies throughout the world including: New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theater, and English National Ballet in London. In 2007, Ms. Alesson was appointed Director of Education at the Martha Graham School where she provided instruction to teens and oversaw all aspects of the educational outreach programs, serving as the primary contact for teens, families, and New York public school staff.
Shawn Rawls grew up in Cleveland, Ohio studying martial arts and street dance from a young age. At sixteen he attended Cleveland School of the Arts and began dancing with the Y.A.R.D (Youth At Risk Dancing) an award winning program helping youths develop an artistic voice and U.D.C (Urban Dance Collective). These youth company experiences provided training with Paul Taylor, Pilobolus, and Dayton Contemporary Dance Company. In 2003, Shawn graduated as a double major in Visual Arts and Dance. Shawn is now a professional dancer, teacher and choreographer in New York City. He trained at Broadway Dance Center, Steps, Peridance, and with artists like Mia Michaels from So You Think You Can Dance, Ravenna Tucker from the Royal Ballet, David Keary of the New York City Ballet, Steve Rooks of the Martha Graham Company, Bill Wade artistic director of Inlet Dance Theatre, and Hope Boykins from Alvin Ailey. He received a full scholarship in dance to pursue a B. F. A. in performance and choreography from Belhaven University. Shawn has performed with over a dozen shows and dance companies throughout the United States and abroad including Pilobolus, the Aluminum Show, Abarukas, Ad Deum, Monster Energy Drink and the Roots, Culture Shock, the Roxey Ballet, Chicago Dance Crash, Tygo Ballets, K-Theory, Son Kiss’d Hip Hop Contemporary and the Chicago Lyric Opera. He served as dance captain and as a dancer on tour with Catapult. As a freelance choreographer for more than ten years, he won the first round of NYC XYZ choreography competition and placed runner up in the final round and placed third in VKIBC. He has been commissioned to create work on Dancing Wheels and the Roxey Ballet along with numerous choreography commissions for colleges and student training programs. Shawn is the founder and artistic director of Emotions Physical Theatre, a dance company that performs in New York and around the United States. His work has been seen in NYC 10 festival, the Houston Fringe Festival, and the Moving Beauty Series. He has curated and produced the Evening of Contemporary Dance and Thought Provoked where he presented his own choreography and invited other artists to present work. Through his company, Shawn works with the DEA to create shows and teach residencies that combine high quality dance presentations with and anti-drug message for at-risk kids. Shawn has also been teaching dance for over thirteen years at numerous dance schools, training programs, summer intensives, conventions, and in the Newark Public School system.
Elizabeth Troxler is a NYC based director & choreographer with a passion to create stories full of emotion and heart. She has performed principal roles in ballets such as Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, Les Sylphide & Don Quioxte with the Nacional Ballet de Panama and other classical companies. Elizabeth has performed in national tours and regional theater productions of Brigadoon, Sweet Charity, Beauty & the Beast, Mame and many more. Elizabeth has directed and choreographed new works (Daughter of Society, The Emily Dickinson Project – On This Wondrous Sea), many musicals (Cabaret, Bright Star, Matilda), various ballets (The Snow Queen, The Nutcracker, The Goose That Laid The Golden Egg), and a recent (COVID safely filmed) dance production entitled (Dancing Through…) in conjunction with The Tank & many NYC, regional & Broadway choreographers & performers. She is a certified teacher with the Royal Academy of Dance and guest teaches and coaches students around the world. As a master teacher, she seeks to empower dancers of all levels to create a multifaceted versatility and strength of character that spans not only various dance styles, but also seeps into life.
Jennifer Conley, Ph.D., MFA, is an artist-scholar with a twenty-year career embodying iconic solo works of early-mid 20th century modern dance lineage. The New York Times describes her as “bringing to life the artistic foundation upon which generations of choreographers have built.” She danced for years with the Martha Graham Dance Company, Pearl Lang Dance Theatre, and as a founding member of Deborah Zall’s Company of Women. As a freelance artist Jennifer was a featured soloist at the 92nd St Y (2009-2019), Lincoln Center, Library of Congress, and also as a guest with Modern Rebels and Sokolow Theatre Dance Ensemble. Jennifer extends her expertise beyond the stage to direct the next generation of performers through her work as a regisseur with the Martha Graham Center and the estates of Pearl Lang and Ethel Winter. Her research on the reconstruction process, Martha Graham, and Earth-based imagery in dance is published nationally and internationally. Jennifer currently serves as an Associate Professor of Dance at Franklin and Marshall College and as guest faculty at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance. She earned her doctorate in dance from Temple University, a masters of fine arts in dance from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, and a bachelor of arts in integrative arts from Pennsylvania State University.IN-PERSON INTENSIVE PRICING
Graham Technique
1 Week: $125
2 Weeks: $235
3 Weeks: $350
Ballet
1 Week: $40
2 Weeks: $75
3 Weeks: $110
Contemporary
1 Week: $40
2 Weeks: $75
3 Weeks: $110
Repertory**
3 Weeks: $360
Composition
3 Weeks: $360
**Repertory students must enroll in all three weeks of Graham Technique
VIRTUAL INTENSIVE PRICING
Package A:
Graham Technique ONLY
1 Week: $100
2 Weeks: $185
3 Weeks: $275
Package B:
Graham + Ballet
1 Week: $185
2 Weeks: $355
3 Weeks: $530
Package C:
Graham + Repertory
3 Weeks: $595
Package D:
Graham + Ballet + Repertory
3 Weeks: $875
MODERN CLASSICS SERIES
Modern Classics Series / In-Person
1 Class: $30
2 Classes: $60
3 Classes: $90
Modern Classics Series / Virtual
1 Class: $20
2 Classes: $40
3 Classes: $60
FOR MORE INFORMATION
For more information on the Winter Intensive, contact Tami Alesson at talesson@marthagraham.org.
PHOTOS: Devin Loh by Yejin Lee; Martha Graham School dancers by Melissa Sherwood.