CHI Artists Summer Workshops - Ellie Goudie-Averill

Eleanor Goudie-Averill, a 2007 MFA Dance Performance graduate of the University of Iowa, currently co-directs the Stone Depot Dance Lab (www.stonedepotdancelab.wordpress.com) and dances for MacArthur Dance Project, Group Motion Dance Company, Movement Brigade and SCRAP Performance Group in Philadelphia.  Her choreography has been shown NYC, Philly and throughout the Midwest, and she was recently a selected artist for Dance New Amsterdam's RAW Material.  Ellie teaches Modern technique and repertory at Temple University and has served as Visiting Assistant Professor of dance at Bucknell University and Artistic Director of the University of Iowa Youth Ballet.  In the past, Ellie performed with Daara Dance, Kayle+Co, Cohan/Suzeau, Prairie Wind Dancers, and was a founding member of the Bowery Dancers.  She began her training at Ballet Midwest in Topeka, Kansas and holds a BFA in dance from the University of Kansas.  Along with performing, choreographing, and improvising she loves teaching dance to people of all ages and jumping for joy!

Class Description

In my largely Limón-based technique class, I use an exponential set of spinal exercises that breathe out of initial somatic floor work to help the student to fully arrive to class and give complete attention to our practice.  I progress to thorough foot articulation exercises that begin to integrate the upper and lower body halves into simultaneity.  Our warming from the inside out is followed by more complex and physically demanding movement phrases.  Knowing the demands of today's dance world, I work for a balance of strength and flexibility in my dancers and stress correct alignment to encourage injury prevention. I believe that active dance practice infuses our receptive bodies with needed reminders and further understanding of muscle patterning, rhythm, relationships to space, and anatomical structure.  Ultimately, I want students to feel integrated in their bodies and aware enough to be fully thinking and feeling organisms able to learn and remember a variety of phrase material and analyze movement in depth, even while in motion.