2025 Spring Regional Classes

Elise Legrand in Dé-Reconstruire, AVEC Festival, Domaine Howard in Sherbrooke © Dominick Ménard

$10 per classe

Drop-in accepted after session registration.
Classes open to professionals only.

About registration for regional classes

Odile-Amélie Peters

Sherbrooke

April 21 to 25
9:00 am to 11:00 am
Centre des arts de la scène J.-Besré

Class description

Odile-Amélie Peters‘ class focuses on curiosity about bodily possibilities, clarity and fluidity of movement, and letting go. She oscillates between personal experience, using specific suggestions to guide movement in exploration, and written exercises. It combines work on the floor with the various possible levels in space. The aim is to surpass oneself, have fun in space, get hot and have fun! Very physical, the class favors a personalized approach that respects each person’s experience and background. An ease and curiosity for floor work is strongly encouraged.

About Odile-Amélie

Odile-Amélie Peters grew up in Quebec City among hip-hop competition studios (choreography). Her passion led her to pursue her studies in contemporary dance at L’École de danse de Québec, where she graduated in 2012. Since then, she has worked with various companies and choreographers in Quebec City, Montreal and Vancouver, including Le fils d’Adrien danse, Company 605, Radical System Art, Geneviève Duong, Le CRue and others. She is also a performer with Alan Lake Factori(e), with whom she has collaborated on various works since 2013. A teacher and emerging choreographer, Odile-Amélie is currently involved in her own research projects, with a keen interest in creation.

Jamie Wright

Laurentians

April 21, April 28, May 5 and May 12
6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Studio de Danse Laurentides

Québec

June 9 to 13
9:30 am to 11:30 am
Maison pour la danse de Québec

Class description
Fun, relevance, precision, participation, (im)perfection: these are the key words in Jamie Wright‘s class, where the emphasis is on tactile connection with the ground, reinforcement of deep support, the relationship of the central axis with space, and the balance between commitment, efficiency and effort. Jamie takes a biomechanical approach to the body, with the aim of increasing awareness of execution. Accompanied by a live musician, the class proposes a research and creative approach that focuses on coordination, precision and the poles of slowness and speed.

About Jamie
Born in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Jamie Wright studied at York University in Toronto, graduating in 1997. She arrived in Montreal in 1999 and danced for the Flak/José Navas company from 2002 to 2008, then for several artists including Ginette Laurin (2007), Dana Gingras (2015) and Holy Body Tattoo (2016), which led her to perform across Canada and internationally. She is currently artistic assistant for Fear and Greed, a solo danced by Frédérick Gravel, which has been touring since 2019. Jamie has been regularly teaching dance professionals in Montreal since 2003, and has been a proud faculty member of the École de danse contemporaine de Montréal since 2006.

David Rancourt

Québec

April 28 to May 2
9:30 am to 11:30 am
Maison pour la danse de Québec

Class description

David Rancourt‘s class offers a hybrid of dance technique and bodywork. They integrate principles and a quality of presence inspired by Qi Gong (energy work). Participants explore forms drawn from classical, modern and contemporary vocabulary, with simplicity in mind, with the aim of finding ease, agility and integrity in their movements. Time is devoted to connecting with breathing and body weight. The body unfolds in space through various exercises, sequences and improvised structures. The emphasis of the teaching is on the balance between finding freedom while meeting form (external demand). Alternating between subtle and dynamic class segments, the class awakens your body in a sensitive and creative way.

About David
David Rancourt has been a Montreal-based dance artist since 1999. Artistic director of PPS Danse, he regularly alternates between the roles of choreographer, rehearsal director, performer and teacher. He is a member of the Fragments Libres school team, where he has been teaching and practicing Qi Gong for some fifteen years. In dance, he teaches workshops focusing on the creative process, interpretation, partnering and technical training. He devotes most of his energy and professional time to the activities of PPS Danse. Otherwise, he strives to be a loving and conscientious citizen, friend, lover and father.

Alexandre Morin

Laurentians

May 19, May 26 and June 2
6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Studio de Danse Laurentides

Sherbrooke

May 20 to 23
9:30 am to 11:30 am
Centre des arts de la scène J.-Besré

Class description
Alexandre Morin‘s class consists of a series of structured kinesthetic and meditative explorations aimed at developing free, efficient and embodied movement, while awakening the senses, the imagination and curiosity. Through a journey of undulations, spirals, curves and extensions, special attention is paid to improving the power and motor functions of the shoulder girdle, as well as the mobility of the spine. The structure of the class consists of a warm-up and a sensory awakening, followed by phrases in the center, on the floor and standing, then traverses of various coordinations and finally, dynamic choreographic sequences that integrate the principles seen during the class.

About Alexandre
Choreographer, dancer, visual artist and contemporary dance teacher, Alexandre Morin is a graduate of the École de danse contemporaine de Montréal (EDCM). In 2011, he received the Hnatyshyn Foundation grant, awarded to a promising young contemporary dance artist in Canada. In 2016, he took part in the ATLAS – mapping future talents program at the ImPulsTanz International Festival in Vienna, and danced in an installation by visual artist Jimmy Robert at the Art Gallery of Ontario. As a performer, he has worked with Compagnie Marie Chouinard, Sylvain Émard Danse and Système D/Dominique Porte. He teaches at the EDCM and the École supérieure de ballet du Québec.

Elise Legrand

Laurentians

June 9
6:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Studio de Danse Laurentides

Class description
Drawing on her background in contemporary dance, circus, ballet, yoga and tai chi, as well as her training routines developed over the years, Elise Legrand offers a class that combines different elements to maximize the body’s openness and preparation. The aim is to warm up the dancer’s body and enable physical training through different exercises and movement sequences, in space and on the floor. Attention is paid to the circulation of energy in the body, the trajectory of the impulse and the awakening of the joints in different possible fields and textures of movement.

About Elise

Sherbrooke-based dancer and choreographer Elise Legrand has over twenty years’ experience in contemporary dance performance and creation. A graduate of the Conservatoire de Danse de Montréal in 2002, she has worked with choreographers and companies such as Sinha Danse, PPS Danse and Sursaut, touring extensively across Canada, Europe, Asia and Latin America. She has been creating and disseminating her choreographic work since 2010, with a marked interest in in situ and multidisciplinary creation. She has taught classes for professionals as well as introductory workshops in contemporary dance for various communities in Quebec and Puerto Rico.

The Regroupement québécois de la danse’s regional classes, offered in collaboration with Compagnie de danse Sursaut, L’Artère développement et perfectionnement en danse contemporaine and Danse Laurentides, are made possible thanks to the financial support of the Quebec government, through the Intervention-Compétences program administered by Compétence Culture.