The class moves from the ground-up, progressing to standing. Dropping in with somatic awareness exercises and heating up the body with conditioning, locomotive phrases and improvisational scores.  Technical conditioning draws from Modern Release, Cunningham, Limón, Graham and Horton techniques. Repetitive and short center combinations allow the dancers to fully inhabit the movement while increasing stamina and endurance.  The choreography is leggy, gestural and athletic. Prepare to move in and out of the floor, jump, float, experiment and sweat!

Photo Credit: Matt Haber

Liz Duran Boubion, MFA, RSMT is the Artistic Director of the Piñata Dance Collective, a Co-founder of ¡FLACC! Festival of Latin American Contemporary Choreographers and a Registered Somatic Movement Therapist.  She has been a dance-theater artist for over 20 years, and holds a MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), a B.A. in Dance from Cal State University Long Beach and is a certified practitioner of the Tamalpa Life-Art Process®. Liz has performed dances in the U.S. Germany, and Mexico, traversing nature, alternative gallery spaces, and the proscenium stage.  In addition to on-going classes at Shawl Anderson Dance Center in Berkeley and Ah-Lan Dance Academy in El Cerrito, she has taught as a guest artist at CSUEB, SFSU, St. Mary’s College, UCSC, Lines BFA program, Cultural Central Barrio San Diego, Guadalajara, MX, and Mission Cultural Center.  She has held 7 choreographers residencies and has worked with local artists Anne Bluethenthal, Eric Kupers, Nita Little, Megan Nicely, Rowena Ritchie, Yannis Adoniou, Diana Lara, Afia Walking Tree, Amber Fields, Arisa White, T-bird Luv, Laura Inserra, Carter Brooks and many others.