contemporary jazz
Elyse is a contemporary dancer who specializes in teaching contemporary jazz. She believes in the power and versatility that jazz can bring to contemporary dance training, and feels strongly that learning the principles of jazz can improve capability in any other dance form. Elyse is passionate about educating aspiring and professional dancers who wish to increase their precision, dynamism, fluidity, and capacity for joy in their dancing. Her contemporary jazz class focuses heavily on musicality, footwork, traveling, stamina-building, and performance quality.
Elyse was mentored in jazz by master teacher Loren Fletcher Nickerson for 20 years, and is strongly influenced by his methodology and approach to jazz technique. Her style is also influenced by extensive study in West African dance, Afro Cuban dance, and Brazilian Samba. She guest teaches classes and workshops for intermediate-advanced to advanced level students, and for professional dancers. Elyse loves sharing her contemporary jazz class with other dance artists.
ballet•esque
Influenced by her therapeutic movement background, Elyse’s “Ballet•esque” classes explore balletic concepts through a feel-good lens. While prioritizing safe alignment and sound mechanics, these classes luxuriate in the grace and beauty of classical ballet sequences, following an extensive warm up focused on pain-free mobilizations.
Elyse has studied ballet with Patricia Dickenson, Dara Westbrook, Jolie Sutton Simbala, Suzanne Johnston, Alex Ossadnik, and Celia Dale. She enjoys blending the rigor and intensity of her years of ballet training with a lighthearted approach to ballet as a tool for technical proficiency and maintenance.
qp
QP, short for ‘Quadrupedagogy’, is a floorwork conditioning method Elyse began developing in 2019. QP classes are designed to safely build full body strength, improve coordination and agility, and increase access to movement diversity and versatility. QP aims to boost dancers’ confidence in ranges of motion that might be considered extreme, and encourages courageous exploration of floorwork possibilities.
Elyse’s functional movement background influences this method as a way to sustainably push physical limits, while respecting anatomical truths, preventing injury, and prioritizing longevity for today’s contemporary dancers.
