For our first virtual Special Friday on May 8, 2020, we have the pleasure of sharing three different dance classes with professional, working artists Rashaun Mitchell, Benjamin Freedman, and TaraMarie Perri.
Rashaun Mitchell leading a Cunningham class.
Rashaun Mitchell: Cunningham Technique
Rashaun Mitchell is a choreographer, performer and teacher living and working in NYC. He is a 2014 Guggenheim Fellow and recipient of the 2012 NY Dance and Performance Award (Bessies) for "Outstanding Emerging Choreographer". His work focuses on the creation of new vocabularies for dance performance, with a particular interest in creating polymodal dance in response to complex and active spatial environments. It takes into account its surroundings as a vehicle for communicating particular metaphorical, intertextual, and sense-based aspects of dance and performance. His choreography has been presented by New York Live Arts, Danspace Project, Baryshnikov Arts Center, RECAT, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, La Mama Moves Festival, Mount Tremper Arts, Skirball Center at NYU, the Museum of Arts and Design, and at numerous site- specific venues and universities.
Other awards include a 2007 Princess Grace Award: Dance Fellowship, a 2013 Foundation for Contemporary Art "Grant to Artist", a 2011 "Bessie" Award for "Sustained achievement in the work of Merce Cunningham 2004-2012". He is a Cunningham Fellow and licensed stager of the repertory. Mitchell has been on faculty at Sarah Lawrence College, an artist-in residence at Wellesley College, and has taught master classes throughout the country. With his ongoing collaborator, Silas Riener, he received a 2014 City Center Choreographic Fellowship, was selected for LMCC"s inaugural Extended Life Development Program, and listed in Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch".
Since graduating with a BA from Sarah Lawrence College, Mitchell has done projects with artists Chantal Yzermans, Donna Uchizono, Pam Tanowitz, Risa Jaroslow, Sara Rudner, Jonah Bokaer, Richard Colton, Deborah Hay, Rebecca Lazier, Jodi Melnick, Sara Mearns, Moriah Evans, The Bureau for the Future of Choreography, Anne Carson, Charles Atlas, Xavier Cha, Claudia LaRocco and Silas Riener.
Benjamin Freedman Leading a Pilates/Conditioning class
Benjamin Freedman: Pilates and Conditioning
Benjamin Freedman graudated with a BFA in Dance and Psychology from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and is a Certified Pilates Mat Instructor. He has performed and taught classes in technique and somatics internationally. Freedman has danced as a member of The Mark Morris Dance Group, Keigwin + Company, Sean Curran Company, and Third Rail Projects.
Tara Marie Perri teaching Yoga
TARA MARIE PERRI: YOGA
Tara Marie Perri: Educator/Holistic Health Practitioner; Founder/Director, The Perri Institute for Mind and Body and Mind Body Dancer®. M.F.A. Dance, New York University; B.A., Visual Arts History, College of the Holy Cross, MA. Faculty, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Steps on Broadway, and Namaste New York in New York City. Guest teaching engagements at Harvard University, University of Iowa, DeSales University, Vassar College, College of the Holy Cross, Goldsmiths and Queen Mary Universities in London, among others. Past faculty positions include Joffrey Ballet School, Dance New Amsterdam, and American Dance Festival.
Perri is founder and director of The Perri Institute for Mind and Body, an international community of educators, researchers, and holistic health practitioners based in New York City and Upstate NY. She has implemented and customized Yoga, yoga therapy, and mind/body wellness curriculum/programs in commercial studios, gyms, performing arts schools, and higher education environments. Perri has been consulted for her expertise and her writing has been published in periodicals such as Dance Teacher Magazine, Elle, Women’s Health, Dance Informa, Dance and Pointe Magazines. She writes regularly for MindBodyBrew.
Perri performed professionally with ballet, contemporary, and dance theater companies in NY, PA, and MA. Her choreography and costume designs have been critically acclaimed in The New Yorker and The Village Voice, among other publications. Concurrent with her work in the arts, education, and research, Perri was Senior Account Manager at Siemens Healthcare Services where she developed her passion for healthcare (1998 – 2006).
Perri enjoys the balance of city and country living with homes in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and Callicoon, NY. She maintains private practices in NYC, Brooklyn, and Upstate NY. Perri’s private practice honors the ancient tradition of one-to-one study and integrates Yoga, yoga therapy, movement therapy, meditation, Ayurveda, holistic medicine, Reiki, Alchemy Energetics, and healing arts. Perri continues to deepen two decades of study under the one-to-one tutelage of her own beloved circle of teachers and colleagues in a variety of disciplines thus exploring an ongoing integration of Eastern and Western healing arts and sciences.