Dance
Students build technique, personal expression and gain choreographic experience while dancing with their peers.
Dance Workshop
Dance Workshop is a production-focused studio course in dance performance. All dancers are welcome to audition, with no prior experience necessary. Auditions allow the director to place students into groups based on approximate levels of technique and artistry. Each group will have one required technique class per week and one rehearsal. Advanced dancers will be invited to join the Performing Ensemble, which will perform at various events, including the Fine Arts Assembly, and represent the SI dance program in the wider Bay Area dance community.
Dance Workshop provides an opportunity for novice dancers to encounter their growing dance practice in an inclusive environment, and for more experienced dancers to develop their ballet, jazz, and contemporary dance technique. Various other dance styles will also be explored through master classes and guest artist visits, and all students will be challenged to hone their skills in creative expression.
In the fall semester, students will rehearse dances choreographed by the dance director and guest artists in a supportive community. In the spring, senior dancers will choreograph and direct pieces in their own styles. The culmination of each semester-long class is either the Fall Dance Concert or the Senior Choreography Showcase.
Watch:
Senior Dance Showcase
Watch:
- coming soon
Additional Information
About Claire Calalo Berry
Claire Calalo Berry is a dancer, teacher, and choreographer who has been working in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 15 years. Drawn to dance by way of her first love, musical theater, she began formal training in the modern dance program at Moreau Catholic High School, under the direction of Angela Demmel. She then majored in Dance and Biology at Santa Clara University, and went on to earn an MFA in Dance from the University of California at Irvine. While there, she studied with dance legend Donald McKayle as well as Loretta Livingston, Jodie Gates, and other esteemed faculty. She was invited to perform and direct in Lisa Naugle’s DTM2 Performance Ensemble at The International Festival for Composers in Spain in 2009, and also presented her research paper One Nation Under Art: Using International Dance Outreach to Establish Foundations for Social Justice, at the 23rd World Congress on Dance. Her MFA thesis work focused on democratizing dance by incorporating collaborative processes and empowering dancers through collective ownership of choreographic materials.
As a professional dancer, Claire has performed works by Tandy Beal, Angela Demmel, Sue Li Jue, Nina Haft, Kristin Damrow, Nhan Ho, Lauren Baines, and many others. In 2010, she founded for change dance collective (www.forchangedance.org), a collaborative dance-making ensemble focused on creating innovative dance theater with social consciousness, with whom she both performs and serves as Artistic Director. Formerly an Adjunct Lecturer at Las Positas College and Santa Clara University, Claire has also taught in local community outreach programs, competitive dance studios, high schools, and international programs in Nicaragua, Belize, and Spain. She serves on the Board of Directors of Choreographers Performance Alliance in Berkeley and Teatro Catalina, an arts education program serving children in rural Nicaragua.
As a dance maker, a teacher, and a dance advocate, Claire’s greatest joy comes from witnessing the small discoveries we make about ourselves when we move. She believes that these expressive moments lead us to finding purpose, joy, identity, and an understanding of our role within our communities.