Rochester Dance Intensive Weekend at The Roost
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Join the Rochester dance community for a weekend of dance technique, anatomically informed conditioning, and creative exploration. For intermediate-advanced dancers ages 14-99. Hone your skills, deepen your understanding of your own body, and reawaken the joy of dance with like-minded movers.
Instructors:
Donna Davenport (Salsa-Inspired Jazz Dance, Improv/Comp for Performance)
Joanna Rodriguez (Ballet without the Stress)
Elyssia Primus (Injury Prevention, Conditioning for Dance)
Natalia Lisina (Modern Dance Technique)
Schedule:
Friday August 14 5-8:45 PM
Saturday August 15 10 AM-4 PM
Sunday August 16 12-6 PM + informal performance
Friday August 14
5:00-6:45 PM Movement and Anatomy for Injury Prevention
7:00-8:45 PM Ballet without the Stress
Saturday August 15
10-11:30 AM Ballet without the Stress
11:45 AM-1:00 PM Salsa-Inspired Jazz
1:00-2:00 PM Lunch & Connect (Building community)
2:00-4:00 PM Improv’ & Comp’ for Performance
Sunday August 16
12:00-1:00 PM Dance Conditioning
1:15-2:45 PM Ballet without the Stress
2:45-3:15 PM Break
3:15-4:30 PM Modern Dance Technique
4:30-6:00 PM Rehearsal for performance
6:00-7:00 PM Break
7:00 PM Playing with Movement: an informal culminating performance, followed by refreshments & conversation
Pricing:
We encourage attendance for the full weekend to gain the most from the intensive experience. Full weekend attendees are invited to participate in Playing with Movement – the informal culminating performance on Sunday evening.
Full Weekend:
Basic Tier: $150
Standard Tier: $200
Supporter Tier : $250
Drop in options:
Saturday only (10 AM-4 PM): $75 (includes admission to Playing with Movement)
Sunday only (12-6:15 PM): $75 (includes invitation to observe the rehearsal process & admission to Playing with Movement)
Playing with Movement informal culminating performance
7:00 PM on Sunday August 16 at The Roost, 250 Cumberland St, Suite 250
$10 suggested donation (cash/Vemno at the door).
Class descriptions:
Ballet without the Stress is classical technique minus the forcing, shaming, or perfectionism that usually accompanies ballet. Will include a full barre & center practice infused with breath, artistry, and play.
Salsa-Inspired Jazz will begin with a theatrical jazz warm-up, include instruction in salsa steps and practice across-the-floor, and end with a fun salsa-ish jazz combo’.
Improv’ and Comp’ for Performance will be a workshop with playful movement and spontaneous compositions that lead into nuggets to share with an audience.
Movement and Anatomy for Injury Prevention empowers you with the essential knowledge to build resilience for fostering a long and healthy dance career. We'll explore dance-specific principles for injury prevention and integrate it into a practical workout designed to build stability, strength, and knowledge.
Dance Conditioning will help you warm up for a day full of dance! Join for a dance-specific, injury prevention focused circuit to engage your stabilizers and prepare you for a safe, healthy day of movement.
Modern Dance Technique will move through exercises and improvisational tasks where gravity, momentum, musicality, and movement articulation play an important role. We will focus on the different body parts while also forming an understanding of how to dance with the whole balanced body. Class will culminate in a variety of traveling dance phrases and a center combination. Each participant will explore their personal ownership of the phrases, and hopefully have fun in the process!
Instructor Bios
Dr. Donna Davenport has been teaching dance for decades, initially modern dance and jazz technique, then dance improvisation, composition, and movement science. A prolific choreographer, she has presented 82 works in public venues, mostly in Upstate NY, and danced in at least half of them. She was a Professor of Dance at Hobart and William Smith Colleges for many years, chairing the Dance Department four times, coordinating Arts & Education and Social Justice Studies degree programs, and serving as Associate Dean of Faculty (2007-2010). She was honored in 2024 to receive a diversity, equity, and inclusion leadership award from the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO). She has been an annual conference presenter for NDEO, a founding member of the JODE Editorial Board, the journal’s first Media Editor, and former co-chair of the DANCE 2050 think tank. Donna’s love for salsa dance and improvisation began as a child in Puerto Rico. As a writer, Donna has published many articles and recently completed a book manuscript titled Moving into Knowing Self, anticipated in 2027. A 500-hour registered yoga teacher, Donna offers Gentle Hatha Yoga at Crossbridge Wellness in Rochester, NY, and has co-directed Rochester’s Dances at MuCCC for four years.
Elyssia Primus, PT, DPT has been an active and multidisciplinary freelance artist in Rochester since 2011. She is a choreographer, contemporary dancer, poet, costume designer, and producer focused on collaboration and community care. A Rochester School of the Arts grad, she has also trained with Garth Fagan Dance, Push Physical Theatre, and Broadway Dance Center. She is currently exploring our relationships with the environment through the medium of dance on film. She is also researching the concept of overwhelm through an evolving solo, Dew Point, which premiered at the Rochester Fringe Festival (2024) and grew with performances at Dances at MuCCC (2025) and Fringe (2025).
A consistent presence in the Rochester dance landscape, Elyssia has participated in all but one Rochester Fringe Festival since its conception. She’s had the privilege to work with local choreographers, including Rose Beauchamp, Sarah Jacobs, Natalia Lisina, Anne Wilcox, Zachary Frazee, Joanna Rodriguez, and Erika Ruegermer. Elyssia holds a Doctor of Physical Therapy with specializations in Pelvic Health and Complex Chronic Illness care. She created, curated, and administrated the dance training initiative, Movement and Community. This free program provided a consistent opportunity for training and community building among Rochester’s freelance dance artists.
Joanna Rodriguez has been teaching ballet for over 20 years. She is passionate about reframing ballet as an art form that welcomes instead of excludes and heals instead of harms, and frees instead of constrains. Joanna trained at a pre-professional Regional Dance America ballet school in the Chicago suburbs, earned a B.A. in Dance Performance & Choreography from Hope College in Holland, MI, and now teaches, performs, produces, and choreographs with various groups and artists in Rochester. She co-directs Paradigm Shift Dance Company, whose mission is to perform, teach, train, and choreograph the serious dance artistry of “square pegs in round holes” artists of diverse bodies, abilities & backgrounds, challenging conventional thinking about who is a dancer. Joanna has been teaching and dancing in the space that is now The Auguste Roost since 2017 and is delighted that movement of all sorts is still happening here. In her creative work, Joanna often integrates movement with narrative elements and live music, seeking to create performances that connect dancers, musicians, and audiences in meaningful and unexpected ways.
Natalia Lisina is a choreographer, performer, dance educator, and Pilates instructor with a rich international background. She holds a BFA in Dance from Kazan State University of Culture and an MFA from SUNY Brockport. Her global training includes rigorous studies at North Karelia College in Finland and The School of Toronto Dance Theatre in Canada. Natalia has danced with the Chamber Ballet Panther in Russia under Nail Ibragimov, and with BIODANCE in Rochester, New York, under Missy Pfohl Smith. Currently, she serves as an Adjunct Instructor at both Nazareth University and the University of Rochester, where she teaches modern dance, Pilates, and costume design. Deeply invested in community-driven art, she choreographs independent multidisciplinary works, including her 2022 site-specific production, “If These Walls Could Speak...” staged in the historic ruins of St. Joseph's Park. Committed to elevating regional talent, she co-founded and co-organizes with Donetta Tchoroleev the annual summer Lunch Dance Concerts series in partnership with The Landmark Society of Western NY. Outside of her creative and academic pursuits, Natalia is the proud mother of three active boys.
Instructors:
Donna Davenport (Salsa-Inspired Jazz Dance, Improv/Comp for Performance)
Joanna Rodriguez (Ballet without the Stress)
Elyssia Primus (Injury Prevention, Conditioning for Dance)
Natalia Lisina (Modern Dance Technique)
Schedule:
Friday August 14 5-8:45 PM
Saturday August 15 10 AM-4 PM
Sunday August 16 12-6 PM + informal performance
Friday August 14
5:00-6:45 PM Movement and Anatomy for Injury Prevention
7:00-8:45 PM Ballet without the Stress
Saturday August 15
10-11:30 AM Ballet without the Stress
11:45 AM-1:00 PM Salsa-Inspired Jazz
1:00-2:00 PM Lunch & Connect (Building community)
2:00-4:00 PM Improv’ & Comp’ for Performance
Sunday August 16
12:00-1:00 PM Dance Conditioning
1:15-2:45 PM Ballet without the Stress
2:45-3:15 PM Break
3:15-4:30 PM Modern Dance Technique
4:30-6:00 PM Rehearsal for performance
6:00-7:00 PM Break
7:00 PM Playing with Movement: an informal culminating performance, followed by refreshments & conversation
Pricing:
We encourage attendance for the full weekend to gain the most from the intensive experience. Full weekend attendees are invited to participate in Playing with Movement – the informal culminating performance on Sunday evening.
Full Weekend:
Basic Tier: $150
Standard Tier: $200
Supporter Tier : $250
Drop in options:
Saturday only (10 AM-4 PM): $75 (includes admission to Playing with Movement)
Sunday only (12-6:15 PM): $75 (includes invitation to observe the rehearsal process & admission to Playing with Movement)
Playing with Movement informal culminating performance
7:00 PM on Sunday August 16 at The Roost, 250 Cumberland St, Suite 250
$10 suggested donation (cash/Vemno at the door).
Class descriptions:
Ballet without the Stress is classical technique minus the forcing, shaming, or perfectionism that usually accompanies ballet. Will include a full barre & center practice infused with breath, artistry, and play.
Salsa-Inspired Jazz will begin with a theatrical jazz warm-up, include instruction in salsa steps and practice across-the-floor, and end with a fun salsa-ish jazz combo’.
Improv’ and Comp’ for Performance will be a workshop with playful movement and spontaneous compositions that lead into nuggets to share with an audience.
Movement and Anatomy for Injury Prevention empowers you with the essential knowledge to build resilience for fostering a long and healthy dance career. We'll explore dance-specific principles for injury prevention and integrate it into a practical workout designed to build stability, strength, and knowledge.
Dance Conditioning will help you warm up for a day full of dance! Join for a dance-specific, injury prevention focused circuit to engage your stabilizers and prepare you for a safe, healthy day of movement.
Modern Dance Technique will move through exercises and improvisational tasks where gravity, momentum, musicality, and movement articulation play an important role. We will focus on the different body parts while also forming an understanding of how to dance with the whole balanced body. Class will culminate in a variety of traveling dance phrases and a center combination. Each participant will explore their personal ownership of the phrases, and hopefully have fun in the process!
Instructor Bios
Dr. Donna Davenport has been teaching dance for decades, initially modern dance and jazz technique, then dance improvisation, composition, and movement science. A prolific choreographer, she has presented 82 works in public venues, mostly in Upstate NY, and danced in at least half of them. She was a Professor of Dance at Hobart and William Smith Colleges for many years, chairing the Dance Department four times, coordinating Arts & Education and Social Justice Studies degree programs, and serving as Associate Dean of Faculty (2007-2010). She was honored in 2024 to receive a diversity, equity, and inclusion leadership award from the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO). She has been an annual conference presenter for NDEO, a founding member of the JODE Editorial Board, the journal’s first Media Editor, and former co-chair of the DANCE 2050 think tank. Donna’s love for salsa dance and improvisation began as a child in Puerto Rico. As a writer, Donna has published many articles and recently completed a book manuscript titled Moving into Knowing Self, anticipated in 2027. A 500-hour registered yoga teacher, Donna offers Gentle Hatha Yoga at Crossbridge Wellness in Rochester, NY, and has co-directed Rochester’s Dances at MuCCC for four years.
Elyssia Primus, PT, DPT has been an active and multidisciplinary freelance artist in Rochester since 2011. She is a choreographer, contemporary dancer, poet, costume designer, and producer focused on collaboration and community care. A Rochester School of the Arts grad, she has also trained with Garth Fagan Dance, Push Physical Theatre, and Broadway Dance Center. She is currently exploring our relationships with the environment through the medium of dance on film. She is also researching the concept of overwhelm through an evolving solo, Dew Point, which premiered at the Rochester Fringe Festival (2024) and grew with performances at Dances at MuCCC (2025) and Fringe (2025).
A consistent presence in the Rochester dance landscape, Elyssia has participated in all but one Rochester Fringe Festival since its conception. She’s had the privilege to work with local choreographers, including Rose Beauchamp, Sarah Jacobs, Natalia Lisina, Anne Wilcox, Zachary Frazee, Joanna Rodriguez, and Erika Ruegermer. Elyssia holds a Doctor of Physical Therapy with specializations in Pelvic Health and Complex Chronic Illness care. She created, curated, and administrated the dance training initiative, Movement and Community. This free program provided a consistent opportunity for training and community building among Rochester’s freelance dance artists.
Joanna Rodriguez has been teaching ballet for over 20 years. She is passionate about reframing ballet as an art form that welcomes instead of excludes and heals instead of harms, and frees instead of constrains. Joanna trained at a pre-professional Regional Dance America ballet school in the Chicago suburbs, earned a B.A. in Dance Performance & Choreography from Hope College in Holland, MI, and now teaches, performs, produces, and choreographs with various groups and artists in Rochester. She co-directs Paradigm Shift Dance Company, whose mission is to perform, teach, train, and choreograph the serious dance artistry of “square pegs in round holes” artists of diverse bodies, abilities & backgrounds, challenging conventional thinking about who is a dancer. Joanna has been teaching and dancing in the space that is now The Auguste Roost since 2017 and is delighted that movement of all sorts is still happening here. In her creative work, Joanna often integrates movement with narrative elements and live music, seeking to create performances that connect dancers, musicians, and audiences in meaningful and unexpected ways.
Natalia Lisina is a choreographer, performer, dance educator, and Pilates instructor with a rich international background. She holds a BFA in Dance from Kazan State University of Culture and an MFA from SUNY Brockport. Her global training includes rigorous studies at North Karelia College in Finland and The School of Toronto Dance Theatre in Canada. Natalia has danced with the Chamber Ballet Panther in Russia under Nail Ibragimov, and with BIODANCE in Rochester, New York, under Missy Pfohl Smith. Currently, she serves as an Adjunct Instructor at both Nazareth University and the University of Rochester, where she teaches modern dance, Pilates, and costume design. Deeply invested in community-driven art, she choreographs independent multidisciplinary works, including her 2022 site-specific production, “If These Walls Could Speak...” staged in the historic ruins of St. Joseph's Park. Committed to elevating regional talent, she co-founded and co-organizes with Donetta Tchoroleev the annual summer Lunch Dance Concerts series in partnership with The Landmark Society of Western NY. Outside of her creative and academic pursuits, Natalia is the proud mother of three active boys.
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Where is it happening?
250 Cumberland St., Suites 247 + 250, Rochester, NY, United States, New York 14605
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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Host or PublisherThe Auguste Roost
