Month: April 2020

One on One

One on One Biomechanics – Axis Syllabus Studies

Short Sell: In addition to teaching group classes, I work one on one with any movers wishing to focus more deeply into fundamental biomechanics that aid healthy movement. After ten years of studying the Axis Syllabus, I am a certified teacher. This is a space for both trained and non-trained movers.

What Class Might Include: Studies favor stress mitigation through the understanding of body masses and joint ranges, the guiding of kinetic energy, and postural solutions for stationary/non-stationary movement.

What Class ACTUALLY looks like: Class lasts between 30 minutes and 2 hours. We’ll begin discussing your movement curiosities. This can include concepts found in the Axis Syllabus, stresses in your own body, movement you need council on and overall approaches to building a personal movement practice. We’ll warm up together tuning into the proprioceptive body, and start exploring the concept closely and in small ranges. Slowly we’ll build towards larger movements and consider the impact of adding space and time. Often we’ll discuss how to relate these concepts to your everyday tasks.

If you want to geek out, and further your knowledge of safe parameters for movement, please contact:

samstonedance@gmail.com

Sam Teaches

Child Classes

I have been teaching Creative Dance in the Bay Area for the last ten years. I have completed all three of Luna Dance Institute’s Foundation courses in standards-based dance education and its function across age levels. I was then hired as a contract worker in their studio and school program. I also work through SFArtsEducation and Nancy Karp Dance in teaching at dozens of schools throughout the Bay Area.

Creative Dance is a beneficial creative outlet for all children, offering opportunities for expression, choice-making, play, problem-solving, physical exercise and community building. Interested in Creative Dance at your center or school? Contact:

samstonedance@gmail.com

Sam Teaches

Adult Classes

Adult Movement Classes with Sam Stone

Short Sell: My class is a kinesthetic rollercoaster. A space for choice-making and for adaptability. A lab for students to turn to one another for answers and for asking further questions. An opportunity to express and be seen. A music-filled, beast-unleashing, get down, good time, delight!

What Class Might Include: This is a ‘modern dance’ class, which can mean many things. My class tends to take joy in off-kiltered, level-changing, momentum-driven, anatomy-focused, rhythm-playing movement.

My favorite movement words are fall & recover, sweep, swing, twist, devour, wait, weight, toss, scoop, reach, gather, twizzle. Yes, twizzle.

What Class ACTUALLY looks like: Class begins with a warmup that awakens our proprioceptive systems, whether through work with the floor, partner, or space. I then carry a movement concept through improvisational research, we often then come into discussion or writing. From here, I offer short-set movement phrases that guide us in and out of the floor, wake up our attention to the self and others, and play with timing and/or music. Class might end with a sharing of set choreography (as built by smaller learned parts) or some other kind of focus towards fellow dancers’ discoveries. If we are smiling and sweating I have done my job.

Sam Teaches

Teaching Philosophy

Teaching Philosophy

My name is Sam Stone, or as I’m sometimes known in ‘Kid World’, Ms. Sam. I am an Oakland, California based dance performance artist, creator, community organizer and teacher – I find that all my roles inform and seep into one another.

As a teacher, I value play, choice-making, and expression. A dance class ought to wake parts of you up. Body awareness is a skill and must be practiced through improvisation, pattern recognition, and extension of self onto others. My teaching style is absolutely student-based. I make sure to create space in my lessons for observing my class and noting which concepts didn’t catch so I may respond. I practice critical pedagogy which means that I encourage students to question and to challenge both myself and the content I teach them. The biggest steps I’ve taken in dance have been learned through this lens and I think it’s important to share the benefit of autonomy with my students.

I think a dance class should be accessible to everyone. I think it should generate momentum and offer a physical experience. I think dancers benefit from tuning both into silence and into music! I think there should be multiple opportunities to exchange with your peers. I think the movement taught should be safe and prolong our dance lives, not stunt them! I think we should all be taking risks. I think a dance class should leave space for students to say yes or no. I think I want to go to dance class right now….

Inspiration and Past Training

The experiences that have most developed my teaching style include release technique, improvisation, ten years studying the Axis Syllabus, classes with Kathlene Hermesdorf and Sara Shelton Mann, and child dance education training with The Luna Dance Institute. In addition, I often find my rehearsal processes are quite similar to my dance classes, informed and guided by who is in the room.

Teaching Experience

As a visiting Artist-in-Residence, I have taught thousands of children in the Bay Area Public schools for the last ten years. In addition, I have directed several Summer Dance programs and produced dozens of children dance shows. I am a certified Axis Syllabus Teacher – teaching both in the US and internationally.

CURRICULUAM-VITAE-PERFORMANCE-March-2024

About

Post author By samstone1616
Post date April 12, 2020

Sam Stone is a dance performance artist, teacher, community organizer, and creator. She has studied a range of focuses in the dance field, coming away with a BFA in Modern Dance from the University of Michigan, then spending her career soaking up studies in release technique, improvisation (solo and contact), anatomy and biomechanics research through the Axis Syllabus, and a many wanders through travel and nature, before arriving at the University of Utah for an MFA in Modern Dance. Sam has presented work in theaters in and outside of the US but prefers enchanting the homes and found spaces that she passes with art and design. Sam is responsible for directing and conceiving seven evening-length productions, dozens of shorter pieces, and more than 50 children’s dance works. She is also a creator of music, clothing, found object formations and discreetly performs in plays.

‘Ms. Sam’ teaches creative dance to children with the San Francisco Arts Education Project, while ‘Sam’ teaches adult and professional dancers as a certified Axis Syllabus teacher. As a dance advocate, Sam participates in the collective vîv, who offers space (“Free Up the Space”), class (“Peer Practices”), and opportunities to underserved local choreographers, disrupting the status quo of what it means to be a dancer in the US and challenging certain static tendencies of the scene. Sam also is responsible for organizing Salt Lake City’s twice-a-week, rotating Contemporary dance series, “Dance Class for Humans,” in conjunction with her research about social skills as subscores within the dance classroom. As a performer, Sam has worked with Joanna Kotze, Kathleen Hermesdorf, Bianca Cabrera, Rosemary Hannon, Ashley Trottier, Aura Fischbeck and Leyya Tawil. Sam loves to dance in the studio, on the stage, in the club, and in her kitchen…. She values the expression, freedom and play that dance offers and always pushes for arts awareness and opportunity for all.