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2024 – 2025 SCD Class Schedules
**Please note! Sept. 2023 we switched from using Fitli to Dance Studio Pro as our class management program, so you will need to make a new account with the link above. If you had a previous class card that should be added to your new account, or if you have any other questions, you can call (941) 260-8485 or email classes@sarasotacontemporarydance.org.
SCD KIDS CLASSES!
SCD’s Kids Classes explore a variety of dance styles including creative movement, contemporary, jazz, afro-fusion, acro, and hip-hop. These fun and exciting classes, taught by SCD’s dynamic teaching artists, help kids to channel their creativity and discover the limitless joy of dance!
Two Classes:
Kids Combo Class (ages 5-10)
Mondays 4:30 – 5:25
Homeschool Kids Sampler (ages 5-10)
Thursday’s Morning 11:00-12:00
Prices:
$30 Registration Fee
$70/month per class
SCD is excited to announce that it will host its first Winter Intensive. This exciting intensive is catered toward intermediate/advanced dancers. If you’re home from college, waiting for your studio to open again, or looking for some classes to get movin’, this series is for you! SCD company members and teaching artists are excited to dance and share the space during these authentic and engaging classes.
Intermediate/Advanced Ages 14+
January 2-4, 2025
Tuition:
$175 Early Bird Special (before December 15th)
$250 After December 15th
$125 One day
$50 Class
Prices
Class descriptions
Classes
Adult classes (14+)
Absolute Beginner salsa
Jahrel & Natasha: Mondays 7:30 – 8:30 pm
Salsa is one of the most popular Latin social dances around the world. With its vibrant music and fun patterns, people fall in love with salsa every day. We are excited to have Bachata Fuego come together to bring their style of Salsa to Sarasota.
For new dancers we recommend beginning with the Absolute Beginner Salsa class. Here you will learn the salsa foundations of timing, and the basic vocabulary you will need to begin your salsa journey. This class will consist of solo movement as well as partner work. You will develop an understanding of this dance and the confidence to get on the floor at the dance socials!
Jahrel & Natasha: Mondays 7:30 – 8:30 pm
Afro-Fusion dance is a contemporary class where students explore full body expressions rooted in West African, Caribbean, and American dance traditions. This class/movement is designed to enhance rhythm, coordination, balance, weight shift, and increase stamina. The overall desire is for participants to feel comfortable in their moving bodies, groove together as a community, and have fun!
Monessa Salley: Mondays 5:30 – 6:30 pm
Tap is a form of dance where rhythmic sounds are created by the feet, typically performed in tap shoes, with or without, musical accompaniment. In this class, we will work on mastering a vocabulary of basic tap steps; everything will be broken down. As the classes progress, we will start to combine the basic tap steps into short combinations, eventually increasing the speed in which skills are performed. This class is built on progressions; each class will review learned skills and also continuously build new tap skills. This class is open to any level tapper, although, regular attendance is suggested for beginner tappers. (Although, it is ideal to have a pair of tap shoes for this class, you can still learn this style while dancing with bare feet, or, in socks, sneakers, or jazz shoes.)
Elisha Byerly: Thursdays 12 – 1 pm
The class introduces the basic fundamentals of contemporary dance technique including floor work, inversions, improvisation, and phrase work. Each class begins with a full body warm-up and then transitions into spacious, athletic, and sometimes inverted phrases, encouraging awareness to sensation, movement efficiency, and individual performance. A rich sense of community and support is fostered as dancers are guided to fall, roll, and fly across the floor together.
Juliana Cristina: Wednesdays 6:30 – 7:30 pm
Continuously and sequentially directing and counter directing parts of the body in space. Includes classical approaches to enhance traditional training methods. Heighten your senses and indulge in your inner artistry.
MaKayla Lane: Wednesdays 5:30 – 6:30 pm
Jazz dance is a fun, expressive dance style that encourages personal style and body awareness and incorporates a variety of techniques such as modern, ballet, African, Latin, and Caribbean dance styles. An emphasis is placed on strength, flexibility, and balance, as well as increasing memory and stamina. Jazz class will include a warm-up, stretches, progressions across the floor, and choreography.
Tap class will focus on developing student coordination, balance and weight shift, and sense of time and rhythm, simultaneously introducing basic tap dance vocabulary. Classes are taught to a wide rage of musical selections including Jazz, Broadway Jazz, Pop, R&B, Soul, Funk, Worldwide Grooves, etc.
Natalie Aceves: Fridays 5:30 – 6:30 pm
House Fusion Movement is an innovative dance style generated by Natalie’s exploratory movement path, influenced by urban, social, and world dance. This unique style highlights elements of house, Afro-Latin rhythms, hip hop, and contemporary, resulting in a dynamic and expressive movement vocabulary. House Fusion Movement is rooted in three primary elements that shape the philosophy of its style: GROOVE (an inner feeling of movement that one internalizes within the physicalized mechanics. It emphasizes connecting with the rhythm and finding a personal interpretation of it), METHOD (assimilating vocabulary, technique, personal swag, and creating it into material. Class will learn phrases of movement that serve as a framework for both choreography + freestyle), and FREEDOM (movement rooted in personal freedom). Students will experience a balanced approach that combines technique and self-expression through structured exercises, choreo, improvisation, and guided exploration. Through techniques such as torso articulation, spinal undulation, percussive footwork, and body waves, students will cultivate their unique sense of flow and deepen their connection to the music. These classes aim to develop physicality, musicality, spatial awareness, and LIBERATION.
Marsi Burns: Tuesdays 10 – 11 am, starting October 24
Wednesdays 7:30 – 8:45 pm, starting November 1
This engaging and fun class helps adults express their joy of movement through the art of improvisational dance. There are no steps to learn, just a desire to move free, and thoughtful. This class encourages one to find expressive ways to respond to the music, poetry and visual stimuli which surround you. All in a totally joyous and supportive group setting that is great for mind, body and spirit.
Jahrel & Natasha: Mondays 8:30 – 9:30 pm
For dancers that have a foundation of salsa, we invite you to take the Jammin’ Salsa class. This is an open level class and is designed for dancers that have a clear understanding of timing, basic salsa vocabulary and lead/follow technique. In this class, we will build upon the foundations with footwork, body movement, and clean technique. The partner work section will expand your use of basic vocabulary to create patterns that flow and are ready to add to your repertoire. In this level we emphasize styling and the overall aesthetic of the dance.
Tania Vergara Perez: Tuesdays 11:15 am – 12:30 pm & Saturdays 12:30 – 1:45 pm
This exhilarating multicultural contemporary dance experience is taught in Tania’s signature style developed in her country of origin – Cuba! Take your personal journey with this Master Teacher who teaches by example and leads with her big heart.
Xuan Dancigers: 1st & 3rd Fridays 2:30 – 3:30 pm
This class invites women from all walks of life, with or without dance experience, to join and celebrate the feminine spirit through dance. The class cultivates a safe place to share the joy of dance while moving and creating together. No technique or dance experience needed.
Beginner/Older Adult Friendly Classes
Various Company Members
Take class with SCD’s Professional Company Members as they get warm and ready for rehearsal. The class style rotates depending on the need of the Company, but you can come expecting an inviting atmosphere to have fun and be challenged!
Xiao-Xuan Dancigers: Thursdays 5:30 – 6:30 pm
SCD offers a wide range of contemporary dance classes from beginner (no experience) to advanced. This class introduces the basic fundamentals of contemporary dance technique including floor work, inversions, improvisation, and phrase work. Each class begins with a full body warm-up and then transitions into spacious, athletic, and sometimes inverted phrases. This class encourages awareness to sensation, movement efficiency, and individual performance. A rich sense of community and support is fostered as dancers are guided to fall, roll, and fly across the floor together.
Melissa Rummel: Tuesdays 5:30 – 6:30 pm
This contemporary jazz class contains a fusion of modern, jazz, and ballet. This unique style explores a wide range of organic, angular movements and syncopated rhythms with a base in classical technique. This type of dancing is fun and energetic and includes leaps, turns, and floor work. This class is a fun way to move and express oneself!
history
Leymis Bolaños Wilmott and Rachael Inman began working together in Florida State University’s graduate program in 2000. Not only did the two share an Arabic heritage, most importantly, they shared a vision to collaborate, create, and celebrate life through movement expression. They both spent time developing programming for the FSUdanceSARASOTA initiative, and in 2002 Bolaños Wilmott and Inman founded Fuzión Dance, the first professional contemporary dance company in Sarasota. In 2006, they formed Fuzión Dance Artists as a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation. After a decade of establishing its presence under the continued Artistic Direction of Leymis Bolaños Wilmott, Fuzión Dance Artists became Sarasota Contemporary Dance. The organization felt it was time for a change, and under this new name have become a mainstay arts organization in the region.
Sarasota Contemporary Dance (SCD) is recognized for its extraordinary level of high-energy, contemporary dance and collaborative performances. In addition to a variety of community collaborations and performances at local venues, SCD has also been presented at the Alabama Ballet Center for Dance, John F. Kennedy Center, Dennis C. Moss Theater, Merce Cunningham Studio Theatre, and the Ailey City Group Theatre. The company presents a combination of works by the Artistic Director and Guest Choreographers such as Adele Myers, Lisa del Rosario, Ana Maria Alvarez, Melissa Cobblah Gutierrez, Micheal Foley, Bliss Kohlmyer, Tania Vergara Pérez, and Alyson Dolan. Recent collaborations include “SCD+EnSRQ,” the expansion of “Jehanne” with composer Mark Dancigers, and a regional tour of “The Cuban Project”.
2024-2025 marks the company’s 19th season. Additionally, the company offers a variety of movement modalities and inclusive dance classes, including an established ongoing Dance for Joy class at Aviva Senior Living and most recently at the Historic Leonard Reid House in Newtown in partnership with the Sarasota African American Cultural Coalition.
The company is celebrating seven years in its state of the art, dance studio and performance venue – located in the Rosemary District of Downtown Sarasota. It is also home to Sarasota Contemporary Dance Ensemble (SCDE), a training company for aspiring dancers led by company members Xiao-Xuan Yang Dancinger and Melissa Rummel.
history
Leymis Bolaños Wilmott and Rachael Inman began working together in Florida State University’s graduate program in 2000. Not only did the two share an Arabic heritage, most importantly, they shared a vision to collaborate, create, and celebrate life through movement expression. They both spent time developing programming for the FSUdanceSARASOTA initiative, and in 2002 Bolaños Wilmott and Inman founded Fuzión Dance, the first professional contemporary dance company in Sarasota. In 2006, they formed Fuzión Dance Artists as a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation. After a decade of establishing its presence under the continued Artistic Direction of Leymis Bolaños Wilmott, Fuzión Dance Artists became Sarasota Contemporary Dance. The organization felt it was time for a change, and under this new name have become a mainstay arts organization in the region.
Sarasota Contemporary Dance (SCD) is recognized for its extraordinary level of high-energy, contemporary dance and collaborative performances. In addition to a variety of community collaborations and performances at local venues, SCD has also been presented at the Alabama Ballet Center for Dance, John F. Kennedy Center, Dennis C. Moss Theater, Merce Cunningham Studio Theatre, and the Ailey City Group Theatre. The company presents a combination of works by the Artistic Director and Guest Choreographers such as Adele Myers, Lisa del Rosario, Ana Maria Alvarez, Melissa Cobblah Gutierrez, Micheal Foley, Bliss Kohlmyer, Tania Vergara Pérez, and Alyson Dolan. Recent collaborations include “SCD+EnSRQ,” the expansion of “Jehanne” with composer Mark Dancigers, and a regional tour of “The Cuban Project”.
2024-2025 marks the company’s 19th season. Additionally, the company offers a variety of movement modalities and inclusive dance classes, including an established ongoing Dance for Joy class at Aviva Senior Living and most recently at the Historic Leonard Reid House in Newtown in partnership with the Sarasota African American Cultural Coalition.
The company is celebrating seven years in its state of the art, dance studio and performance venue – located in the Rosemary District of Downtown Sarasota. It is also home to Sarasota Contemporary Dance Ensemble (SCDE), a training company for aspiring dancers led by company members Xiao-Xuan Yang Dancinger and Melissa Rummel.