Archive: Workshops, Intensives, Master Classes, and Open Houses

Improve your technique and advance your artistry in a positive and welcoming environment with one of the top dance companies in the Twin Cities! Classes in our Summer Dance Intensive include Musical Theatre Jazz, Classic Jazz Technique, Ballet, Leaps and Turns, Hip-Hop, Contemporary, and more. Students may register for one or both weeks.

The Intensive culminates with our Collide Showcase. Video will be taken so dancers have professional-grade copy to use for future auditions and submissions. Local students are also invited to perform excerpts from the Intensive at the Minnesota State Fair in August!

Level placement requires a referral from a teacher or Collide company member, or a two minute video submission. Please send video (one minute Ballet Adagio with pirouettes and one minute Jazz) or referral name and contact information to Regina@collidetheatrical.org.

The TU Dance Children and Teen Program introduces the joy of creative movement and beginning dance technique. Classes, divided by age, provide a comprehensive base on which to expand by developing body awareness, coordination, balance, flexibility, strength and musicality. Click here to download the 2025 Creative Movement Daily Schedule and the 2025 Beginning Program Daily Schedule.

For questions and level placement, please contact us at education@tudance.org or 651-724-9708.

To register, please complete the four-step registration process:

• Please find the online pre-registration below under the specific level you are interested in and select a payment option.
• Make a tuition payment in full or by selecting a payment plan. If requesting a payment plan please submit the Summer 2025 Payment Plan Form, and submit a 2025 Creative Movement and Beginning Level Summer Program online registration form.

Registration deadlines:
Creative Movement: July 22
Beginning Youth and Teen: June 11

Full or partial scholarships are available. Contact us at education@tudance.org or (651) 724-9708 for more information.

You are invited to a short series of practice sessions as part of a multifaceted, ongoing choreographic research project led by Emily Gastineau. 0, 1, group, ∞ is a collective research on collective research. Sessions are pay-as-you-wish, with $10-35 suggested.

Key areas of investigation include: epistemology and relationality, methods for collective study, the erotics of knowledge, boundaries, and edges, dances as effects rather than objects, reading and misreading, and the unspoken and the unknown.

These sessions are for: dance artists who like to analyze, writers who are into embodiment, improvisers of any form, theory nerds, group facilitators, students of collective organization, scholars who want to open up method, artists of any discipline who are into research, and the committed and the curious.

Practice Session: Focus on Writing
Saturday, February 22, 2:00-4:30pm

Practice Sharing with Discussion
Saturday, March 15, 2:00-4:30pm

What is Tapestries 9.0? Threads Dance Project commissions 3 emerging choreographers selected by an expert panel of dance/community leaders to create new works for the company under the guidance of Artistic/Executive Director Karen L. Charles. Tapestries provides a much-needed avenue for underrepresented women and artists of color to take center stage in the world of professional choreography.

What are the Tapestries 9.0 Master Classes? The Tapestries 9.0 Master Classes are intimate and engaging opportunities for you to learn from the masters themselves. Each of our choreographers will guide you through learning the fundamentals and will hone your skills from their wealth of knowledge. They will show you why they were chosen to be a part of Tapestries!

Contemporary with Rachel Lieberman: February 24-25, and March 3, 4, 10, and 11 from 9:00-10:30am
This contemporary-based class begins with a structured, improvisatory warm-up and offers exercises and phrase work focused on directing energy and focus, controlled gesture and big release, and functional weight share and soft partnering. In her facilitation, Rachel aims to always center not just the “what” but the experience, the joy, and the “why” of dance.

Price: $12. Pay as you come. No prior registration needed.

Explore movement with award-winning creator Shamel Pitts, artistic director of Shamel Pitts TRIBE. This workshop will focus on developing physical efficiency, proficiency, expressive range, and clarity based on creative prompts. Participants will physically examine concepts such as embodied movement sources, aliveness within stillness, dynamics, speed, rhythm, and groove while incorporating visualization to discover their unique individual expression through dancing in a communal space. This workshop is open to all levels of dancers and available to participants thanks to a partnership between Northrop and TU Dance.

Monday, March 3, 9:30-10:45am
60 minutes long, with a 15-minute conversation about what was experienced. Registration is required; $20 per participant.
Free for University of Minnesota students, faculty, and staff; please email education@tudance.org to reserve your place.
This class has a limited capacity of 35 students and is not open to observers.

Shamel Pitts (Brooklyn, NY), a 2024 MacArthur Fellow and 2024 Doris Duke Artist Award recipient, is a performance artist, choreographer, conceptual artist, dancer, spoken word artist, director, and teacher. Born in Brooklyn, NY, Pitts began his dance training at LaGuardia High School and The Ailey School. He is a first-place winner in the National Arts Competition from YoungArts. Pitts received his BFA in dance from The Juilliard School and was awarded the Martha Hill Award for excellence in dance. He began his dance career in Mikhail Baryshnikov’s Hell’s Kitchen Dance and BJM Danse Montreal. Pitts danced with Batsheva Dance Company for seven years under the artistic direction of Ohad Naharin and is a certified teacher of Gaga movement language. Pitts has created a triptych of award-winning multidisciplinary performances with his arts collective TRIBE, known as his “BLACK series,” which has toured extensively since 2016. He is an adjunct professor at The Juilliard School, a guest faculty member at Princeton University, New York University, Wesleyan University and has been an artist in residence at Harvard University. He has received a Princess Grace Award in Choreography, a NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow, a Jacob’s Pillow artist-in-residence, and a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow.

Co-presented by Northrop and TU Dance. Contact TU Dance at education@tudance.org or Northrop at northrop@umn.edu.

Balanced Body® Reformer 3 Instructor Training is the pinnacle of the Reformer work and includes advanced and super-advanced exercises. Challenge clients to achieve their best with progressive sequences designed to teach students advanced movement skills. In addition, our principle-based programming will guide you in the creation of safe and successful multi-level classes.

Friday, March 7, 4:00-8:00pm
Saturday, March 8, 11:30am-6:00pm
Sunday, March 9, 9:30am-4:30pm

Fee: $549 + $60 materials
Prerequisite: Movement Principles, Reformer 1 and 2
Instructor: Matthew Hodge-Rice

This 7-week class series introduces the foundational principles of modern dance in a welcoming, inclusive, and supportive environment. Students will explore fundamental techniques including floor work, center exercises, and basic movement phrases while developing strength, coordination, and creative expression. Perfect for beginners and those looking to build confidence in their movement journey!

Adult Beginning Modern Workshop:
March 10-April 21
Mondays, 5:30-7:00pm
Instructor: Lily Conforti
Cost: $155

Balanced Body® Introduction to the Chair for Allied Health (Rehab Professionals)

In the clinical setting, the Pilates Chair provides sitting and standing movement work, both bilaterally and unilaterally. This course is an introduction to Chair exercises and includes regressions for the client in active rehabilitation and progressions for post-rehabilitation and advanced wellness. Pilates chairs featured: the Wunda Chair, Combo Chair and Exo Chair. Includes equipment set up, clinical applications and safety.

March 14 and 21, 12:00-4:00pm
Fee: $275 ($325 after February 22)
Instructor: Ann-Marie Chesterfield, DPT