Summer Intensive Workshops

Dance Anonymous strongly believes that art, whether that is music, dance, painting, or theater, plays an important part in shaping someone’s life and personality. Exposure to art provides people with an avenue to opening their minds and their souls to a new form of sensitivity and functioning.

For this reason we have made a commitment as a company to try and bring Art to as many children as possible all around the world. We have created an annual summer intensive dance program in Cyprus called “A Taste from New York” where Master Teachers and Choreographers from New York visit Cyprus to teach dance to young aspiring dancers. It is a two-week intensive workshop that offers different styles of dance such as Ballet, Modern, Jazz, West African, Contact Improvisation and Hip-Hop. The workshop concludes with a performance of all the work the dancers and teachers worked on during the intensive.

The workshops are funded entirely by the Cultural Services of The Ministry of Education and Culture of Cyprus. Without their support this institution would not have existed.  We are forever grateful for their generosity and their immense concern for artistic development in children.

Teachers who have taught at the Workshops

July 2005:
Ballet: Nancy Lushington & Barbara Verlezza
May O'Donnell Technique: Barbara Verlezza
Modern: Jurij Konjar & Jonette Ford
Funk: Ayelen Liberona

July 2004:
Ballet: Nancy Lushington (former soloist of May O’Donnell Company)
Modern: Curt Haworth (former soloist of David Dorfman Company)
Cunningham: Mandy Kirschner (former dancer of Merce Cunningham Company)
Modern and Ballet: Isaac Gonyo
Jazz & Hip-Hop: Tanja Konjar-Hall

July 2003:
Ballet: Nancy Lushington
Modern: Alexandra Beller (former dancer of Bill T. Jones Company)
Lyrical Jazz: Mara Reiner
Afro-Cuban: Ayelen Liberona
Jazz & Hip-Hop: Tanja Konjar-Hall

July 2002:
Ballet: Lonne Morreton
Limon: Maxine Steinman
Jazz & Hip-Hop: Tanja Konjar-Hall
Horton: Solomon Bafana Matea

July 2001:
Ballet: Nancy Lushington
Horton: Hugo Gallardo
West African: Youssoupha Lo
Contact Improvisation: Jonette Ford

Workshops for Children and Adults with special needs

We strongly believe that all individuals are born equal and therefore deserve equal educational opportunities. As a result of our belief we have focused on teaching dance in a program designed for children and adults with special needs. Over the last two years we have been in cahoots with the St. Christopher Home in Cyprus. St. Christopher's is dedicated to the care of the mentally challenged and is devised to provide a home in an environment which will not leave guests feeling institutionalized.

The residents of St. Christopher are guests to all the performances of Dance Anonymous that take place in Cyprus and teachers from the summer school visit the home to teach movement classes.

Dance Anonymous’ Olympic Games for the Arts

The goal of the workshop is to introduce children to different cultures of the world. The space where the workshop takes place is transformed into the Olympic Games For The Arts. The Olympic Games began in ancient Greece more than 2,000 years ago. It was the first time in the history of the world that all countries of the “civilized world” would come together and compete with each other. What made the Olympic Games special was that all wars paused for the duration of the games.

With this concept in mind and the importance of art in society we have created “The Olympic Games for the Arts”.  We are trying to expose children to different cultures and thus promote harmony, respect and understanding for all who are different.  Living in our society there is an immediate need for acceptance and we feel that through dance and music, people can unite.

Students will study and research different countries from around the world.  They will familiarize themselves with their dances, history, art, language, music, and everything else that makes a culture unique.  Depending on the length of the workshop there will be approximately 2-3 sessions per country. The school has twenty countries to choose from.

The workshop culminates to a small performance for friends, relatives, teachers and classmates.  The students present each country with a dance and a short presentation on the country’s history, facts and culture.  The audience decides which country was best presented and the winners take home a medallion.  Since all children take part in all countries, everyone is a winner.

If you are an organization who is interested in movement classes for your residents then please contact us.


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