During the week of April 17, the “Introduction to Dance and Movement” class and the “Continuing Dance and Movement” class were joined by the DanceWorks Chicago company, a professional group “providing a laboratory from which early career artists propel themselves and the art form to a new level through training, collaboration, mentorship, and performance.”

The company of six dancers not only led classes and shared their dances but also watched and gave feedback on Parker student performances. The company dancers also performed in an MX and in various locations around the school.

Alejandra Gonzalez, the choreographer and teacher of both Parker’s beginning and continuing dance classes, has known Julie Nakagawa, a co-founder of DanceWorks Chicago and the current artistic director of the company, for years. Gonzalez calls Nakagawa a mentor and says she has “always supported DanceWorks and tried to collaborate with them in many past occasions, but the timing was never right.” But this time, when Gonzalez reached out to Nakagawa and asked if DanceWorks could come to Parker and do an intensive with the students during dance month, the stars aligned.

According to Gonzalez, the purpose of DanceWorks’ visit was to “have a more up-close experience with a professional company and setting.” Gonzalez added, “The company provided the students with a different perspective and more information.”

Katlin Michael Bourgeois, one of the six visiting company members, described DanceWorks Chicago as “a company for young artists and a launch pad for a dance career.” Bourgeois’ fellow company members are David Gourov, Sarah Jones, Teresa Marsala, Ginny Ngo, and Jimi Loc Nguyen. Every season of DanceWorks brings a new set of six company members, who rehearse Monday to Friday from 9:30 AM to 3:30 PM.

In one of Parker’s beginning dance classes, the company led a fun, energy-filled warm-up with the students. Nguyen led the activity–which included cardio work, stretching, and simple dance steps–while his fellow company members warmed up alongside the students. Freshman Ava Sato described the warm-up as “difficult and very different from what we do here at Parker.”

Next Nguyen lead exercises across the floor, demonstrating each move for the students. The exercises mainly consisted of improvisation and leading movements with various parts of the body, starting with the head and moving through the arms, hips, and legs. Nguyen emphasized the importance of using the entire body in dance. When demonstrating improvisation through leading with the arms, Nguyen described that the dancers should “reach for gold coins like you are Mario”–and showed how far the dancers should be reaching.  

In the MX, the company performed two pieces. One was a melancholy duet performed by Sarah Jones and David Gourov, while the other was an upbeat full-company number.

“I really enjoyed taking the class led by the DanceWorks company,” Sato said, “because it was very interesting to get a feel for their unique style of dance and movement.”  Junior Zoe Gardner, who is in the continuing dance and movement class with Sato, described the experience as “beneficial because we were exposed to different ways of running a class.”  

Gonzalez emphasized the importance of the opportunity for dance students to work with a professional company.  “I believe the students got really inspired by the company’s visit,” Gonzalez said. “They saw new things, they participated in new challenges, and they learned more from a group of professionals.  The visit was important because it created awareness and community. I believe these type of collaborations are an example of progressive education.”

Sato agreed that the company’s visit was beneficial.  “The class helped open our view of dance, and their advice made us stronger and helped us learn from our mistakes,” she said.  “Seeing them perform really enhanced our understanding of applying feelings and emotions to different movements to create a story.”