Summer Dance Intensive 2023
A Pre-Professional, 2 Week Dance Intensive for Ages 11-18
Summer Dance Intensive 2023
AYDT will be offering a two week pre-professional summer intensive from July 17-28 for dancers ages 11-18 . Days will be spent perfecting skills in the familiar dance forms of Ballet, Contemporary, Jazz and Hip Hop, as well as expanding horizons with Martha Graham Technique, Choreography, Dance History, Anatomy & Injury Prevention, Pilates, Yoga and a super fun Bollywood Fusion dance class.
Summer Intensive Faculty
Jen Aks
Aks grew up attending the Montclair, NJ performing arts schools where I studied various movement styles. I went on to receive my Associates Degree from Dean Jr. College in 1991 and my BFA degree in 1993 from The Music and Performing Arts Professions at New York University with a dance major and education minor. Performing & Educating continue to be an active part of my life. For the past 16 years, I have taught Arts Education to NYC public school children with National Dance Institute. From Harlem, to Chelsea, to the West Village, Tribeca, Chinatown, Brooklyn & Queens, I have taught the breadth of race, religion, age, and gender. Engaging with these children to motivate them toward excellence has been a profound inspiration in my life.
J. Bouey
Rio Tasia Guillaume
Rio Tasia Guillaume grew up in Chicago, receiving her early dance training on scholarship from Larry Long and faculty at the Ruth Page Foundation before receiving her secondary education from Point Park University in Pittsburgh, PA. In New York City, Ms. Guillaume performed in venues such as the New York City Center and Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater. She also held Soloist and Company Manager positions for Kazuko Hirabayashi Dance Theatre and choreographed for Christian Cultural Center Dance Ministry, premiering work on ABC Television Network.
Ms. Rio spent a decade teaching at the American Youth Dance Theater. She coached students into earning acceptance from the School of American Ballet and LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts, among others. At AYDT, Rio also achieved ABT® Certified, Affiliate, and Fellow Teacher Statuses having successfully presented her classes for annual ABT® Affiliate Examinations. Since then, Ms. Guillaume has returned to Chicago to direct her own local training program, Ballet with Ms. Rio. “My greatest joy in the dance world is to discover valuable lessons gained through dance training, connecting them to normal everyday life, and impart that wisdom to the next generation of dancers. I am thrilled to return to my NYC home at AYDT this summer!”
Jennifer Mayers Kreichman
Jennifer Mayers Kreichman is a New York City based certified Classical Pilates Instructor with over 20 years experience training professional and pre-professional dancers on all apparatus. Skilled at working with hyper-mobility, scoliosis and common injuries of the ankle, knee, hip and back, Ms. Kreichman works closely with physical therapists, dance instructors and orthopedists to create a program of strength training, alignment, recovery and injury prevention. She has worked with dancers from JKO, School of American Ballet, Eglevsky Ballet, Met Opera Ballet, and the Pennsylvania Ballet and has created a comprehensive program for the Adelphi University Department of Dance. Ms Kreichman creates a program for each individual to attain and maintain maximum functionality, enhanced strength, posture, alignment and mobility.
Andrea Peterson
I grew up playing every sport from Basketball to Softball, even dance, and then ended up playing and coaching Lacrosse in College. I never really thought of making a career out of fitness but began pursuing my yoga certification to find something that was a middle ground between dance and beating up my body in sports and fell in love with the mental and physical benefits of yoga. My yoga practice stems from Sthira Sukam; the balance of effort and ease. From yoga, my skill set transitioned into other areas of group fitness such as Cardio HIIT, Strength, Boxing, and all types of yoga. Throughout my yoga career, I have had the wonderful opportunity to work with athletes to performers, kids, seniors, and everyone in between. When I’m not teaching, I love hiking (so far, I’ve hiked in 9 different countries including a volcano in Guatemala), my happy place is skiing (zigzagging through the trees is like real-life Mario Kart for me), and you can often find me on a run with my adorable Aussie Doodle Millie (she sets quite the quick running pace).
Muriel "Murri-Lynette" Peterson
Muriel “Murri-Lynette” Peterson began performing at age 4 with the Paul Robeson Performing Arts Company in Syracuse, New York. In 2010, she performed with Dancing in The Streets: Hip-Hop Generation Next ’10 at Lincoln Center. She has also had the honor to perform with tap legends Marshall Davis Jr. and Ted Louis Levy. Most recently, Ms. Peterson was casted in Bill T. Jones’, Deep Blue Sea. Currently, she is a member of the Ladies of Hip-Hop Dance Collective training company. Muriel has a BA in Dance & Urban Studies, with a minor in Spanish language from Queens College—City University of New York, as well as an MFA in dance from Temple University.
Shreya Rawat
Shreya Rawat was born and raised in New Delhi, India where she began her training at the Danceworx Performing Arts Academy and later joined the repertoire company. She trained in a variety of styles including ballet, jazz, modern, and hip hop under the guidance of various national and international faculty. She decided to pursue her passion and moved to the United States where she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts with a concentration in modern dance and a minor in Psychology from Point Park University in Pittsburgh, under the guidance of Garfield Lemonius. While at Point Park, Shreya had the opportunity to perform works by acclaimed choreographers such as Camile A. Brown, Keisha Lalama, and Crystal Fraizier. Currently based in New York City, Shreya is a dancer with the Gotham Dance Theatre based in Queens, NY performing in their Summer Suit. She is also a performer and a teaching artist with Ajna Dance Company- a South Asian dance company based in New York. When not performing, Shreya teaches Jazz, Hip Hop, Indo-Contemporary, and Creative Movement to beginner, intermediate, and advanced level students. Shreya values discipline, diversity, authenticity, and empathy and aims to challenge the conventional standards in the dance community by embracing these values through her work.
Eriko Sugimura
Eriko Sugimura was born in Japan and moved to Hong Kong at the age of 4. She began her dance training at a local studio under the direction of Akiko Takahashi (RCBA) and learned Contemporary/Modern styles by Tomoko Imanaka. She trained in Japan, Hong Kong, and Russia (Vaganova Ballet Academy), and officially entered the State Ballet School of Berlin in Germany at the age of 15. At the age of 19, she moved to New York City with a full scholarship to train at the Peridance Capezio Center. Eriko joined Peridance Contemporary Dance Company in 2016 under the direction of Igal Perry. She has worked and performed works by Igal Perry, Jae Man Joo, Vivake Khamsingsavath, Jana Hicks, Marijke Eliasberg, and Ballet Inc; she also appeared in a music video for Grammy Award Winner, Nile Rodgers. In 2017, Eriko joined Complexions Contemporary Ballet under the direction of Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson. As a lead dancer of Complexions Contemporary Ballet from 2017-2022, Eriko performed on some of the world’s most famous stages. Eriko has been performing all over the world (Germany, New Zealand, Italy, Ukraine, Jamaica, and more) as a soloist and was covered by Harvard Business Review in May-June 2020 and featured in Dance Magazine.
Kristin Lodoen
Kristin Lodoen holds a BFA in Modern Dance, Dance Teachers Department, from Oslo National Academy of the Arts. She was awarded a Fellowship Award from The American Scandinavian Foundation to study at The Martha Graham School in 1991 and 1992, and scholarship from The Martha Graham School from 1990 though 1995. She continued to develop as a dancer as a scholarship student at the Merce Cunningham Studio and as a DanceWeb Scholarship recipient in Vienna as the first recipient from Norway. She was a student of Kazuko Hirabyashi in composition at SUNY Purchase in 1991 and 1992. Kristin participated as a dancer in the reconstruction of Martha Graham’s Panorama in 1992 and subsequently danced with Martha Graham Ensemble, Pearl Lang Dance Theater and eventually as a dancer in The Martha Graham Dance Company. She has performed her own work at St. Marks Church and other venues in NYC, in a visual art-movie in collaboration with the Norwegian artist Rolf Aamot, and most recently in at Dronninglund Art Center in Denmark in a collaborative Viewpoints based work in 2019. Kristin is a certified ballet teacher in ABT® National Training Curriculum in Primary though Level 3 and has been teaching ballet for many years in various dance studios, including at AYDT. She has for the past 9 years gained knowledge and extensive experience in the Suzuki Method and in Viewpoints though SITI Company, and Viewpoints and Composition though Masterclasses with Anne Bogart. She has also been teaching Graham technique in Norway and recently in the Martha Graham School’s summer and winter intensives. While working in Norway she developed a Viewpoints program for Elementary school students and was also teaching Viewpoints and Suzuki at Christiania University College in the BFA Acting Program. Kristin is interested in the connection between voice and body and the past 9 years studied Voice and Scene work with Ellen Lauren (NYC), Public Speaking with Mary Workman at NYU, Voice and Shakespeare with Nadine George (London) and Artaud /Grotowski with Lars Øyno and Theophile Choquet (Norway). Kristin is also a photographer with many years’ experiences in photographing dance, headshots and portraits in NYC.
Austin Marquez
Austin Marquez is a performer, choreographer, and teaching artist based in New York City. Growing up between Wyoming and Colorado, Austin has spent his recent years in the city performing in several productions such as the immersive theatrical experience Zerospace at the Hotel Pennsylvania, the Off-Broadway premieres of GEEKS! The Musical and The Turkeys Go on Strike, the equity showcase of MANIFESTO: The Diaghilev Project and the Merkin Concert Hall performance, When Broadway Went to Hollywood. Austin has also danced all around the city in productions at venues such as Steps on Broadway, Helen Mills Theater, and Manhattan Movement and Arts Center. He has been seen dancing on screen in some music videos and the feature film Bad Education.
Austin’s choreography has been selected to perform in dance festivals like the Jazz Choreography Enterprise Dance Project, and awarded at dance competitions all around the country. He has choreographed several productions in NYC including The Drowsy Chaperone, The Addams Family, and A Chorus Line. He has also taught for several studios around the country and in the musical theatre department at Marymount Manhattan College, where he also received his degree in musical theatre.
Austin uses his background in acting and fitness, along with his dance training to give his students the ability to not only grow in their understanding of their anatomy and become physically stronger, but also to explore emotion and storytelling through movement as well. He strives to give his students the tools to become confident in their abilities, to take risks in their explorations, and to find community and support in their classes. Austin encourages his students to take every opportunity they have to learn and grow as artists—to believe in themselves and never waste a moment!
Two-Week Intensive Details
Ages
Price
$1,750 / Two Week Intensive
Days
Time
Where?
Upper East Side
428 East 75th Street,
New York, NY 10021
Requirements
Participants not enrolled in American Youth Dance Theater’s school year program are required to send a video audition submission to [email protected] before enrolling.
Video Audition, no more than 6 minutes in length, must include:
- Ballet Barre: pliés, tendus from 5th position, rond de jambes, adagio and grand battements
- Ballet Center: tendus from 5th position, adagio and petit allegro
- Jazz or Contemporary: a combination or solo demonstrating turns, jumps and floor work.
Students enrolled in American Youth Dance Theater’s Graded Level Ballet 5 and up, and Open Level Ballet 3 and up, are eligible to register without video submission.
Register Today!
Just so you know…
We also offer Dance Camps for younger kids!
Exciting Broadway and Musical Themed Dance Camp programs for kids 3.5-11 years.
Where are we?
American Youth Dance Theater is located at:
428 East 75th Street, Upper East Side, NY, New York 10021
Tel: + 212-717-5419
