} Classes
NEW STUDIO RULE: No black soled shoes allowed on dance floor.
PLEASE NOTE: Morning Ballet Classes on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday ONLY until regular daily schedule resumes August 2nd.
ALL CLASSES ARE AT THE NORTHWEST DANCE PROJECT STUDIO
Kids Class Sessions are back starting September 21st!
Info HERE and HERE. Registration form HERE.
Print our Summer Schedule
Portland's most beautiful dance studio
833 N. Shaver Street (at Mississippi Ave.) MAP
The Northwest Dance Project holds dance classes for adults, teens and youth every week. We offer various styles including Ballet, Jazz, Hip Hop, Contemporary, Bollywood, Creative Movement and Core Balance (fitness) as well as class sessions for kids and special dance workshops. For beginners and kids, classes are a fun way to get fit while gaining dance experience. For more experienced dancers, classes are more technical, advanced and challenging.
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Our Open Classes are for dancers 13 years +
No enrollment necessary for Open Classes - you can join a class at any time.
Open Classes are available on a drop-in basis for $15 (Core Balance is just $10).
SAVE 20% by purchasing a Class Card (12 hours of classes for one month - only $100).
Our Youth Classes are specially geared for dancers between 5 to 12 years old.
Youth Classes are only available on multi-week, cost-saving sessions - registration required.
About Our Classes
BHANGRA-BOLLYWOOD
This class offers a blend of Bhangra, a lively traditional celebratory Indian folk dance with athletic yet graceful full-body movements driven by infections beats, and Bollywood, the energetic, fluid and mystical dance style featured in numerous modern Indian films. A fun and casual class for all with a great blend of contemporary Eastern music.
Level: All
Instructor: Prashant Kakad
BALLET
Our ballet classes provide a basic grounding in ballet fundamentals and basic ballet technique. Placement, balance, posture, coordination, musicality and alignment are clearly explained and emphasized. These classes offer a comprehensive barre and continue into a focused and structured center exercises. Participants should have a basic knowledge of ballet, positions, steps and terms.
Levels: Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced
Instructors: Sarah Slipper, Charlene Hannibal, Andrea Parson, guests.
CORE BALANCE
This energizing class combines elements of yoga and pilates with stretch components using the ballet barre. The aim is to develop core strength, ease and openness in the joints and a flexible, well-balanced body.
Suitable for all dancers and fitness enthusiasts. Yoga or fitness mat useful.
Level: All
Instructors: Charlene Hannibal, Andrea Parson
CONTEMPORARY
This class fuses contemporary dance styles with jazz, ballet, and world dance influences. Combines precision leg work with an ease and fluidity in the torso. It emphasizes and develops proper body alignment, strength and flexibility, rhythmic and musical phrasing, and self-expression. A fun, expressive combination of global music and movement.
Level: All
Instructor: Sara Martins
CONTEMPORARY JAZZ
This soulful class develops a strong technical foundation focusing on lowering the dancer's center of gravity and syncopating movement with a blend of Latin, modern, ballet and jazz. This focused and active class helps dancers connect to feeling movement from the inside out.
Level: All
Instructor: Tracey Durbin
CREATIVE MOVEMENT
This class offers young dancers the opportunity to gain an understanding of how their bodies move and how to communicate through dance. Through improvisation and structured choreographic activities, these dancers in the making will create a series of creative movement studies to share.
Level: Youth (5-7 / 8-12 years old).
Instructors: Sara Martins, Andrea Parson
HIP HOP
The class introduces the street dance styles from the Bronx and beyond. Fresh, funky and soulful expression of movement that is constantly evolving. A great and fun work out for all dance enthusiasts.
Level: All
Instructors: Mariecella Devine
LYRICAL JAZZ
This energetic and energizing class focuses on proper alignment and building strength through combining elements of classical ballet, Graham-based technique and an athletic style of jazz. Mary strongly emphasizes the relationship between music and movement and encourages her students to explore more soulful expression while gaining technical mastery.
Level: All
Instructor: Mary Hunt
About Our Instructors
Mariecella Devine One of Portland's most popular Hip Hop dance teachers, Mariecella Devine, teaches an enticing combination of dance moves with her own signature style. She has taught Hip Hop in the Portland Metro area for over twenty years. Mariecella has performed and collaborated with Michael Curry in his production of "Spirits," and with James Canfield, founding Oregon Ballet Theatre Artistic Director, in his world premiere of "CQ (Charmed Quark)" at the American Choreographers Showcase and the Joyce Theater in New York City. Mariecella is also involved in local community outreach programs introducing disadvantaged youth to the benefits of dance. She is truly a wonderful and talented instructor who is committed to bringing Hip Hop dance to the masses.
Tracey Durbin
Tracey started dancing professionally at the age of four. After studying years of piano, theater and ballet at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, Tracey moved to Los Angeles where she studied ballet with Stanley Holden, jazz with Luigi (the innovator of the world's first jazz technique), and assisted Hama, Luigi's protégé. Her choreography has been in the L.A. Jazz Festival, music videos, industrials, and many shows. Tracey has also lived and taught dance in Israel. In Portland, Tracey was an original member of Dancers' Workshop, started Irvington Dance Company, and has taught for many years at Oregon Ballet Theatre, Reed College, and BodyVox. Currently she teaches at DaVinci Arts Middle School and Portland Ballet. Teaching since the age of 15, Tracey's classes blend the philosophy of classical Luigi jazz technique, the lyricism and strength of modern and ballet, and the musical experience ranging from Bach to Aretha Franklin. Her life experiences inspire her true passion - teaching lyrical jazz dance.
Charlene Hannibal
Charlene Hannibal, a native Oregonian, trained at the School of Oregon Ballet Theatre, North Carolina School of the Arts and the San Francisco Dance Center. She's danced professionally with OBT, The Oakland Ballet, Amy Seiwert's im'ij-re, and as a 2005 Northwest Dance Project dancer. A former principal artist with Company C Contemporary Ballet, Charlene has performed the works of Antony Tudor, Twyla Tharp, David Parsons, Paul Taylor, Nikolai Kabaniaev and Patrick Corbin. She has taught ballet and yoga throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and holds a BA in English from UC Berkeley.
Mary Hunt
Prashant Kakad
Sara Martins
Andrea Parson
Sarah Slipper
Mary Hunt received her dance training at the Alvin Ailey Dance Center, Martha Graham School of Dance, California Institute of the Arts and with Maggie Black. Mary has danced professionally for over 30 years, touring with such well-known artists as Donald McKayle, Jaime Rogers and Fred Benjamin. She has danced in feature films, MTV videos and appeared on the television shows
Hailing from Mumbai, India, Prashant graduated from prestigious Cornell University in 2006, quickly landing a job at Intel as a Process Technology Development Engineer. He gave it all up however to pursue his passion of bringing the wonderful world of Indian dance and music to Portland. Fluent in numerous dance styles, he teaches dance for Portland Community College and Portland State University, and DJs at packed Bollywood dance parties in clubs locally, in New York and points between.
Sara Martins, Portland native, began studying dance at the age of three, and performed locally with Elizabeth Abts Contemporary Dance Theatre, The Jefferson Dancers, and numerous productions at Portland Civic Theatre and The Musical Theatre Company. She trained in multiple disciplines with master teachers and legendary choreographers in Portland, New York, and Los Angeles, and earned her degree in Dance from UCLA. Sara has performed on stage and television, and has choreographed numerous dance, theatre, and film projects in Los Angeles and Portland. A seasoned teacher, Sara was the assistant director of dance at The Buckley School in Sherman Oaks, CA for a decade before returning to Portland, and has been teaching dance at Northwest Academy for the past three years.
Andrea Parson began her early training in Hillsboro, Oregon at Northwest Conservatory of dance under the direction of Anita Mitchell. She received her B.A. in dance from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles in 2008. Andrea has participated in workshops with the Joffrey Ballet, San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, the Northwest Dance Project and worked with numerous choreographers such as Chad Hall, Aszure Barton, Sarah Slipper, James Canfield, Luca Veggetti, Alejandro Cerrudo, Cayetano Soto, Edgar Zendejas, Maurice Causey, Wen Wei Wang and many more. Andrea has taught dance throughout Oregon and Washington and is a member of our Project Company.
An award winning independent choreographer and noted dance mentor, Sarah Slipper studied at the Royal Ballet School, was a principal dancer with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and appeared as a guest artist worldwide. She has worked with internationally renowned directors and choreographers such as Arnold Spohr, Rudi van Dantzig, Hans van Manen, Jirí Kylián and Agnes de Mille. Sarah Slipper served as Ballet Mistress of Alberta Ballet and Oregon Ballet Theatre, and teaches master classes throughout North America. She was awarded the Grand Prize for Choreography at the International Choreographic Competition at Saint Sauveur in 2000. Sarah has created over 20 works for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Nashville Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Ballet Jorgen, Louisville Ballet, Alberta Ballet, Ballet New York, Ballet Pacifica and The Jefferson Dancers. "A Fine Balance," her pas de deux created during the inaugural NWPDP, was a finalist for the prestigious Benois de la Danse award in 2006 and was performed at the Bolshoi Theatre as part of the award's gala celebration. Sarah is currently working on several new creations and serves as the Artistic Director of the Northwest Dance Project.
INFO
503.421.7434 / info@nwpdp.com