Events Calendar

Stepping Workshops with Laina Werner-Powel

October 02 1:15 PM - 5:30 PM

CFA, 103

Free

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Laina Reese is a performing artist, choreographer, writer, and professor of dance. Laina received her MFA in Dance Performance & Pedagogy and Certificate of Study in Feminist Methodologies & Sexualities from Arizona State University; with her BFA in Dance from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Laina specializes in the teaching and curricular advancement of contemporary Modern, Jazz, Afro-Caribbean, and Hip Hop dance. Laina is currently an Assistant Professor of Dance at Illinois State University.

Laina's workshops explore stepping, or step dancing, a percussive dance style that originated in African-American fraternities and sororities. It's a form of storytelling and communication that uses body percussions to create complex rhythms and sounds that stem from the African diaspora. This workshop will introduce movers to the concepts of stepping and give opportunity to embody the histories within this vernacular dance form. Both workshop sessions will include a brief lecture on the complex histories and significance of Black Greek-lettered organizations in American higher education.