Classes & Workshops
Winter/Spring 2024
SR ACTING
Creating Dynamic Characters:
Physical Acting Approaches
Grades 9-12
Instructor: Kristina Friedgen
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Over a series of six 90-minute classes, students in grades 9-12 will explore how to create dynamic characters through physical acting techniques, including Viewpoints and Laban Movement Analysis.
Viewpoints explores human emotion in relation to space, time, and shape, but with specific parameters. As a theatrical technique, Viewpoints is used to create a story onstage through time (tempo, duration, kinesthetic response, and repetition), space (spatial relationship, topography, architecture, shape, and gesture), and sound (pitch, volume, and timbre).
Laban Movement Analysis is as much a language for observing movement as it is a dedicated acting technique. This scientific approach divides movement into four categories: body, effort, shape, and space. Applied to theatrical training, Laban movement analysis uncovers small nuances behind behavior, examining everything from dramatic movements (throwing oneself across a room) to everyday gestures (flicking a piece of lint off of one’s shoulder), and maximizing specificity with every action.
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Saturdays, 9:00-10:30am (IN-PERSON)
90 minutes of instruction for 6 weeks
January 6, 20, 27
February 3, 17, 24See full calendar here.
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Academy of the Holy Cross, Kensington, MD
Learn more here.
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Appropriate movement attire includes yoga pants, sweats, t-shirts, tank tops, etc.
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$225 for SIX 90-minute classes
($195 for students currently enrolled in YAACompany)
Minimum enrollment: 5 students -
JR DANCE
Broadway Jazz
Grades 4-8
Instructor: Dana Keane
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In this fun eight-week Junior course for students in grades 4-8, students will learn the basics of movement and get comfortable with the their bodies. Curriculum will include jazz exercises, turn and leap mastery, across-the-floor work and will finish with a dance combo each week.
Appropriate dance attire includes yoga pants, sweats, t-shirts, tank tops, etc. Jazz dance shoes welcome if you have them, but not required.
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Saturdays, 11:15am-12:15pm (IN-PERSON)
60 minutes of instruction for 8 weeks
January 6, 13, 20, 27
February 3, 17, 24
March 2See full calendar here.
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Academy of the Holy Cross, Kensington, MD
Learn more here.
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$195 for EIGHT 60-minute classes
($175 for students currently enrolled in YAAJunior or YAAKids)
Minimum enrollment: 5 students -
Fall 2023
Fall 2023
YAA is thrilled to announce our Fall 2023 Dance Workshops, led by Artist-in-Residence, Baakari Wilder.
Baakari Wilder is internationally known for starring in the Broadway musical Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk. He received a Bessie Award for his performance, and later assumed the lead role for a year. At the age of twelve he opened the show at the Kennedy Center for a star-studded tap review that included the legendary Brenda Bufalino, Sandman Simms, Harold Nicholas, and Savion Glover. At sixteen Baakari became a member of Savion Glover’s tap group “Real Tap Skills”, consisting of three other tap dancers from the metropolitan area.
Baakari’s dancing has delighted audiences around the world in places such as the Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, France, Africa, Brazil, Germany, and Japan. He appeared in Spike Lee's Bamboozled, the Discovery Channel’s “Time Warp”, and as a guest performer on FOX channel’s “So You Think You Can Dance”.
Baakari has a Bachelors of Arts degree in theatre from the University of Maryland at College Park. Baakari was granted the 2014 Pola Nirenska Award for Acheivement in Dance, and 2021 Hoofer Award by the American Tap Dance Foundation.
Many of you will remember that Baakari last was with YAA in the Fall of 2020 to direct and choreograph our first film production, Sophisticated Ladies.
JR Tap Workshop Series
Grades 6-8
Instructors: Baakari Wilder, Paige Freeburg
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In this fun five-week Junior course for students in grades 6-8, you’ll work through the basics and get comfortable with the terms, steps, and Technique of a beginning tapper, and we’ll put steps together for tap combos you can work on in class and at home.
Appropriate dance attire includes yoga pants, sweats, t-shirts, tank tops, etc. and tap shoes. No bare feet.
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Saturdays, 11:00am-12:30pm (IN-PERSON)
90 minutes of instruction for 5 weeks
September 23, 30
October 7, 14, 21See full calendar here.
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Academy of the Holy Cross, Kensington, MD
Learn more here.
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$175 for FIVE 90-minute classes
($150 for students currently enrolled in YAAJunior)
Minimum enrollment: 5 students -
SR Tap Workshop Series
Grades 9-12
Instructors: Baakari Wilder, Paige Freeburg
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In this fun five-week Senior course for students in grades 9-12, you’ll work through the basics and get comfortable with the terms, steps, and Technique of a beginning and intermediate tapper, and we’ll put steps together for tap combos you can work on in class and at home.
Appropriate dance attire includes yoga pants, sweats, t-shirts, tank tops, etc. and tap shoes. No bare feet.
Click here for a link to affordable tap shoes.
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Saturdays, 9:00-10:30am (IN-PERSON)
90 minutes of instruction for 5 weeks
September 23, 30
October 7, 14, 21See full calendar here.
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Academy of the Holy Cross, Kensington, MD
Learn more here.
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$175 for FIVE 90-minute classes
($150 for students currently enrolled in YAACompany)
Minimum enrollment: 5 students -