CLASS OUTLINE

1. (10 minutes) Warm up to switch and tune into body/mind centering, igniting neural pathways and firing up your engine!!!

Class begins with chair exercises for strength, dexterity and control of the core body with foot and arm isolations.

Rhythmic perception, careful weight placement and alignment of the hips, knees and feet to prepare for complex phrases of movement to music.

Movement memory retention and repetition of musical phrases.

2. (10 minutes) Mindful walking and movement at the Ballet Barre for core body control, balance, weight transference, gestural contact and connection within spatial awarenesss.

3. (30 minutes) Rhythmic perception and musicality of the cultural dance style. Movement practice with a partner or the group in circles, lines or squares.

4. (10 minutes) The Body of Sound and warm down - Gentle stretching, breathwork and vocal toning that follows the chakras of light and energy in the body, finishing in song.

 

TERM 1

Rock n Roll and Jive music

TERM 2

Country dances - Quadrilles, Square, Circle and Line dances: Celtic, Garba, Klezmer and Appalachian Bluegrass music

TERM 3

Baroque dance - Minuet, Volta, Waltzes.

TERM 4

Afro Latin dance - Cha Cha Cha, Mambo, Salsa, Kizomba, Bachada, Lambada and more...!

 

Jacqui Dreessens

jacqui.dreessens@gmail.com

Mobile: 0488 527 656

 

M.Arts (Ethnochoreology and Embodied methodologies) Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick, Ireland, 2017.

Lecturer in Dance Education, Deakin University, 1989 - 2016.

B.Ed (Dance, Drama, Psychology) Rusden, Deakin University, Australia, 1985

 

Jacqui is an ethnochoreologist and community arts practitioner in choreography and percussion. Born and raised on the Surf Coast and Geelong, Jacqui brings over 40 years of professional teaching and performance experience in schools, Early Learning centres, universities, festivals, Health & Wellbeing, corporate and community celebrations. Her research interest is in Performance Ritual and how people express their identity and connection to their sense of place through music, dance and across the Arts. Her inspiration draws from nature and the environment, researching the Ecology of Place and Embodied Experience. 

She has extensively studied dance styles and drumming techniques of the African Diaspora which has led to many exciting artist in residency programs in schools, festivals and communities across Australia, Brazil, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Nepal, Netherlands and Senegal, including, 'Where journeys Meet' Gasworks Community Arts Park, to celebrate Australian Federation 2001; the Opening Ceremony for the Deaf Olympic Games at Olympic Park, Naarm/Melbourne 2005; 'The Mountain to Mouth Extreme Arts Walk' Wadawarrung Country, You Yangs, Geelong city, Barwon Heads, 2016, 2018; Blink Dance Theatre for Geelong After Dark; 'Hildegard von Bigin' with Wendy Grose (Soprano) for Windfire Festival at St Marys Basilica and many new works for the Torquay High Tide Festival like 'SwellBeing'; 'Natural Balance'; 'Moonahs: Sentinels of the Surf Coast'; 'Circles on Waves'; 'Hidden Depths'; 'Hoofprints in the Sand'.

In 2007, 'Children of the Blue Light' was her first major ethnographic film documentary in performance ritual at the Cape Coast Slave Dungeons of Ghana, West Africa with Asanti Dance Theatre and Wild Moves International. Her latest ecochoreological dance film in the mangroves at Lake Connewarre, Barwon Heads, is also available, 'Dancing in the Échelons' for Mangroves from the Water exhibition  at the Gordon Gallery , Jilang.

On the Australian festival circuit, over the past 30 years, Jacqui has performed with many African dance bands notably, Warako Musica (Congo), Thula Sana (Sth Africa) and Adzohu (Ghana).

Since 2001, Jacqui runs cultural dance, drumming and singing tours and personal empowerment programs to Ethiopia, Ghana, Greece, Portugal, Senegal, South Africa, Sri Lanka.

Jacqui is also the bodhran player for TradJam of the Ironbark playing the music of her Celtic and Americana roots.

 

As director of Wild Moves International (1991) she also facilitates other community groups

Please see Wild Moves International

 

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