Join teaching artists Thern Anderson & Mary Moore Easter in an 8-week dance and writing workshop with curriculum designed for adults ages 55+ at Rondo Community Library. Participants will explore creative exercises in which the two art forms are inextricably linked and expand their range of physical expression through improvisational activities and choreography. Movement will be used as a prompt for writing a variety of texts. Classes are accompanied by live music. There will be a culminating event on the last day of the workshop.

Participants of all levels and abilities are welcome. No previous experience is necessary. Limited spaces available. This workshop is free.

September 9-November 4 | Mondays, 2:30-4:00pm (No class on October 14-library closed.)
Rondo Community Library, 461 Dale St N, St Paul, MN 55103 (Multipurpose Room)

Sample class: Monday, August 19, 4:00-5:30pm at Kings Crossing, 500 Dale St N, St Paul, MN 55103

Please contact Kaitin Kelly Benedict at TU Dance at kaitin.kbenedict@tudance.org or (651) 505-3264 with questions and to register.

Teaching artist bios:

Thern Anderson is a dance educator with a wealth of experience teaching children, adults, professional dancers and community groups. Thern brings somatic movement principles and improvisational skills to her teaching of modern dance techniques. In teaching dance to beginning adults, her philosophy is that anyone can dance and find pleasure in movement. Classes include the study of body and spatial awareness, rhythm and phrasing, ensemble dancing, and injury prevention. Students learn through modern dance phrases as well as improvisational structures.

Mary Moore Easter’s first poetry collection, The Body of the World, was published by MadHat Press in 2018. The manuscript was a finalist for the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in 2017.  A Pushcart Prize-nominated poet and Cave Canem Fellow, Easter is published in POETRY, The New York Times, Seattle Review, Water Stone, Calyx, Pluck!, Persimmon Tree, Fjord’s Review, The Little Patuxent Review and the 2015 anthology Blues Vision: African American Writing from Minnesota. She holds a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence and an M.A. from Goddard. Born in Petersburg, Virginia to parents on the faculty of then-segregated Virginia State College, she was as immersed in their artistic and intellectual interests as she was in limitations segregation imposed on her black world. She re-rooted as faculty at Minnesota’s Carleton College where she was founder and director of the Dance Program.

This activity is supported by a Seeding Vitality Arts MN grant from Aroha Philanthropies.