Donation – $3-25 (Free for Elders)

Come explore the ways dances of the divine spirits of the African Diaspora of the Caribbean can inform the essence and personality of creative movement. This slow paced fusion class will use traditional folklore movements that represent varying themes such as play, passageways, flow, beauty and strength as a foundation to color and inform a modern dance combination. The class will begin with a gentle warm up that includes body articulations, isolations and flow to prepare the body to move. Next, students will learn traditional folkloric movement taught at a pace dictated by students with a number of variations offered to accommodate varying mobility levels. The folkloric movements will be the base for the combination that is co-created by the teacher and students. The class will finish with light stretching to allow all the work to settle in. All ages and mobility levels welcome.

Kendra J. Ross is a Pilates instructor, dancer, choreographer, teaching artist and community organizer from Detroit, MI. A graduate of the BFA program from Ailey/Fordham University in Dance, Kendra has worked with Urban Bush Women, Andrea E. Woods/ Souloworks, Ase Dance Theater Collective, Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, Monstah Black, MBDance, Oyu Oro, Ase Dance Theater Collective and Movement of the People Dance Company. Kendra is a certified instructor in the Silvestre Technique created by Roseangela Silvestre of Salvador, Bahia, Brasil. She is also a Power Pilates Certified Mat instructor who has taught  Pilates, fitness and dance fitness classes at Power Pilates, Crunch, And Yoga Studios and various NYC public schools. Kendra has taught as an artist in residence at Detroit School of Performing Arts, Brooklyn School of the Arts, Brooklyn Studios for Dance and Bates College. She has been a guest teacher at Florida A&M University and Florida State University. An avid student of many different movement modalities, Kendra’s classes focus on understanding the history, cultural contexts and idiosyncrasies of the various styles she employs while recognizing the connections and applications in each body, mind and spirit. Kendra specializes in teaching Pilates, Hip-Hop, Afro-Cuban, and Contemporary dance. She challenges students to train their minds and bodies to understand the focus and initiation points of the various forms of dance and how to seamlessly move between each modality.