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Our Pre/Professional Dance Intensive offers 2 full days of classes designed for professional dancers and pre-professional dancers alike. Dance teachers are also welcome! Each day will consist of technique classes, Q&A sessions, networking, and more. The day will run generally 9-5 Saturday and Sunday. This intensive is aimed at Intermediate to Advanced dancers ages 13+. Find full schedule details below!
Saturday + Sunday
Saturday + Sunday
Teacher can take classes free
Saturday + Sunday
Saturday + Sunday for noted classes only!
Classes available for Drop in:
8/15 Contemporary with Janice Lancaster (Option to Audition)
8/15 Contemporary Fusion with Eli Motley
8/16 Contemporary Rep with Kendall Teague
Audition details:
Saturday, August 15, 2026
10:30-12noon
Greensboro Cultural Center, Studio 323
Janice will teach a contemporary technique class, including improvisational tasks and phrasework for the new work. This class is part of the Pre/Professional Dance Intensive, a weekend of class, professional development, and networking for professionals and pre-professionals to further their dance career. To audition for Janice’s work:
Step 1: Register on Studio Pro. You may sign up for the full weekend of classes ($250), purchase a Pick 3 pass ($75), and attend Janice’s class as one of your 3 classes, or drop in to this class only ($25). You only need to register for ONE of these options! You will create an account in our registration system, and then select the option you want. (Our goal is to make these opportunities widely available to all. If cost is a barrier for you, please reach out so that we can support you!)
Step 2: Fill out the audition info form before class
Step 3: Show up at 10:00am on August 15
You may participate in the class without auditioning. However, if you intend to audition, please fill out this info form before arriving at the studio, and plan to arrive between 10-10:15 am to sign in and get an audition number. Following the class, 3-4 dancers will be selected to participate in this project.
Set to Michael Laurello’s piano composition of the same name, Boreal will be an 8-10 minute contemporary work that will parallel ecological terrain with maternal terrain. Created in the wake of new motherhood, the work will reflect on the body as a site of transformation. Boreal landscapes are vast and enduring, yet acutely vulnerable to climate change, wildfire, and ecological disruption. The dance will hold tension between vulnerability and endurance, starkness and wonder, asking how fragility and resilience coexist within both ecosystems and families.
Rehearsal schedule will be confirmed in consultation with selected dancers.
We are planning for approximately 20-22 hours of rehearsal/performance, paid at $20-$25/hour, depending on funding.
Proposed Schedule A: 3 hrs of rehearsal daily from Saturday 9/26-October 2 (1 week)
Proposed Schedule B: Wednesdays 10am-1pm and Sundays 2pm-5pm from Sept 9-9/30
Must be available for Open rehearsal Sunday Sept 27 2-5 and performance October 2.
8:30am | Check-in
9:00-10:30am | Ballet with Gevorg Khachatryan
10:30-12:00pm | Contemporary with Janice Lancaster
*Option to drop in and audition!
12:00-12:45pm | Lunch
12:45-1:30pm | Q&A with intensive artists
1:30-2:30pm | Contact Improv with Todd and Christine Fisher
2:30-4:00pm | Contemporary Fusion with Eli Motley
*Option to drop in!
4:00-5:00pm | Hip Hop with Christa Oliver
*All classes are included in the full weekend price, all classes are an option to pick for the “Pick 3”, and some classes are an option for an individual drop in!
8:30am | Check in
9:00-10:30am | Ballet with Gevorg Khachatryan
10:30-12:00pm | Contemporary with Kendall Teague
12:00-12:45pm | Lunch
12:45-1:45pm | Housing with Eli
1:45-3:15pm | Contemporary Rep with Kendall Teague
*Option to drop in!
3:15-4:30pm | Jazz with Hannah Marr
4:30-5:00pm | NCDF with Anne Morris and The Dance Photography Experience with Andrew Bowen
*All classes are included in the weekend price, all classes are an option to pick for the “Pick 3”, and some classes are an option for an individual drop in!
Saturday + Sunday
Saturday + Sunday
Gevorg is a former professional ballet dancer and educator originally from Yerevan, Armenia. After training and performing with the Armenian National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet, he continued his career in the U.S. as a performer and educator, bringing his expertise in classical ballet, technique, and artistry to his students.
Janice Lancaster is a dancer, choreographer, educator, and interdisciplinary collaborator whose work explores choreography as a site of sensory inquiry, ecological awareness, and collective exchange. Her work spans performance, improvisation, and community-based research, often emerging through collaborative processes that bridge artistic, ecological, and social contexts. She has presented work nationally and internationally and performed for over a decade with Shen Wei Dance Arts, touring extensively across contemporary dance, opera, and visual art platforms. Her own choreographic projects have been supported and commissioned by organizations including Hubbard Street 2, the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, the Bessie Schönberg Residency at The Yard, Movement Research at Judson Church, and Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center. Lancaster holds an MFA from Hollins University/American Dance Festival and a BFA from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and is a certified Hatha and Restorative yoga teacher. She teaches widely in university, conservatory, and community settings, including adaptive dance for the NIH-funded clinical study IGROOVE, and her work is further informed by collaborations with Biota / CoAction Lab and her role as Garden Manager for the Piedmont Land Conservancy’s Emily Allen Wildflower Preserve. Currently, Lancaster is revisiting her artistic practice and evolving perspectives on worldmaking through the lens of motherhood, bringing renewed attention to care, temporality, and interdependence as generative forces within her work.
Todd Fisher is an Actor, Playwright, Dancer, Producer, Teacher, Lighting Designer, Husband, Beer Brewer, and sometimes, if it’s your birthday, Singer. Todd is a graduate of UNCG Theater and Dance, has studied with the SITI Company, and served as Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Greensboro Fringe Festival for over 15 years. He has worked for the City of Greensboro since 2008, currently serving as Creative Greensboro’s Performing Arts Coordinator focusing on new work for the stage and creative community partnership development.
Christine Kiernan Fisher is a dance educator, teacher educator, researcher, performer, and choreographer whose career bridges professional dance and public education. She earned an MFA in Dance Performance and Choreography from UNC Greensboro (2005) and also holds a Ph.D. in Teacher Education from UNC Greensboro, where her research explores high-quality and equitable instruction. Christine currently teaches on several higher education faculties, working with both undergraduate and graduate students in dance education and teacher preparation. She is also on faculty with Uprooted Jazz Dance Education and facilitates the Greensboro Contact Jam. She is the 2020 National Dance Education Teacher of the Year and the recipient of the National Dance Education Organization’s 2022 Presidential Award for her work in Justice, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Christine has performed with John Gamble Dance Theater, Van Dyke Dance Group, The Power Company (SC), Informall Theater Company, and 2B Tribe Dance Theater. Her choreography has been presented throughout the Southeast, including the Greensboro Fringe Festival, American Dance Festival, NC Dance Festival, and NC Dances, with commissions from The Sun Valley Ballet (Idaho) and the Power Company (SC).
Elijah (Eli) Motley (Greensboro, NC) is a choreographer, dancer, teacher, and MFA Graduate of Dance and Choreography. Eli holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance and Theatre and a Bachelor of Science in Civil/Environmental Engineering from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, and an MFA in Dance from UNC-Greensboro. In 2015, Elijah joined a Hip Hop company called Baila Fusion where he began learning Breaking, Popping, House, and Krump. His studies took him to Israel for a summer semester to Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company and New York City to study Gaga movement. After graduation he performed three seasons as a company dancer for Chicago Dance Crash and became a freelance performer/ choreographer in the Chicago area. Eli also taught Breaking, Popping, House, Modern and yoga at various studios in the city and conventions around the country. He has been commissioned to set choreography by various companies, taught at studios and public schools in Chicago, and co-founded a dance collective called Concepts Dances. In addition to performing, he teaches dance in university, private studio, grade school, and festival settings.
Christa Oliver is an Associate Teaching Professor in the Department of Performing Arts and Technology at NC State University and the Director of the Panoramic Dance Project. Prior to joining NC State, she spent eleven years teaching in the Department of Theatre and Dance at Texas State University. Christa holds a Master of Arts in Dance Performance and a Professional Diploma in Dance Studies from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London. She is also a Mellon Fellow in the School of Theater and Performance Research at Harvard University. Under Christa’s leadership, the Panoramic Dance Project received the 2025 to 26 Provost’s Award for High-Impact Experiential Learning.
Throughout her career, Christa has collaborated with choreographers and dance pioneers including Donald McKayle, Valerie Preston-Dunlop, Rafael Bonachela, Donald Byrd, Rennie Harris, Lula Washington, Victor Quijada, Christopher Huggins, Willi Dorner, Miguel Pereria, Robin Lewis, and Dominique Kelly. She served as dance captain on the national tour of The Color Purple. Her performance experience spans the Netherlands, England, Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Kosovo, and Mexico, and she has appeared in Avatar and Crazy on the Outside. Her scholarly work has been published in Dancer-Citizen.
Kendall Teague was raised in the mountains of Western North Carolina and attended the South Carolina Governors School for the Arts and Humanities in Greenville, SC. Teague began his career in the Bay Area in 2008 as a corps de ballet member of San Francisco Ballet. He has since worked with North Carolina Dance Theater, Complexions Contemporary Ballet under Dwight Rhoden, Ballet San Jose, Alonzo Kings Lines Ballet, ODC/Dance and Kate Weare Company.
Hannah Nicole Marr is a dancer, choreographer, and educator from Raleigh, North Carolina. A graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, she currently serves as Director of Dance at Jordan-Matthews High School and is a Company Dancer and Rehearsal Director with ShaLeigh Dance Works. She is passionate about exploring the connection between movement, emotion, and storytelling through dance.
Andrew Bowen is a photographer who works exclusively with dancers. He creates a space where dancers are respected and supported, given the time they need for their creative process, and have the dedication they deserve from their photographer.
Beyond the dance community, images that Andrew creates with his dancers have received accolades from professional photography associations. Andrew is a master photographer through the Professional Photographers of America and a master portrait photographer through Master Photographers International. His work has been accepted at multiple gallery shows and recently earned third place in the portrait category of the International Image Competition.
Accolades aside, Andrew believes that the dancer is the most important artist in his studio. He avoids the term “photoshoot,” preferring to consider time with a dancer as a creative dance retreat where dancers can explore their art in a safe and supportive environment.
Kendall Ramirez is a dance-based performer, improviser, and maker. She received her B.F.A. in Contemporary Dance from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Cascading up and down the east coast Kendall has been informed by a delightful range of processes and ways into embodiment. They are a featured artist in Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” for 2025.She has performed in works by Taryn Griggs, Chris Yon, Janice Lancaster, Kimberly Bartosik, George Staib, Isa Newport, Annalee Traylor, Danielle Swatzie, Lucy Tozzi, and Marielis Garcia. Kendall was most recently a guest artist at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, generating iterations of their work on students for the spring 2025 semester. Kendall sustains her interest in being a total nerd for experimentation, collaboration, and seeking collective effervescence in performance and community spaces.
Carrie Plew received her BFA in choreography and dance performance from UNC-Greensboro. She also trained at Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in Perth, Western Australia. Carrie is proud of the early dance education she received at Walkerdance Ballet Theater and Burlington Academy of Dance Arts in Burlington, NC. Currently, Carrie is Certified in Laban Movement Analysis through the Laban/Bartenieff Institute for Movement Studies in Brooklyn, NY. As a choreographer, Carrie enjoys the challenges of site specific work and has created and performed installation dances for several NYC organizations- No Longer Empty, Flowers Art Gallery, Dance New Amsterdam and FIGMENT NYC. Her musical theater choreography has been seen in the New York Fringe Festival (The NEW Hopeville Comics), through Broadway Training Center (New York) and on several stages across North Carolina. She is the founder of Danceploration Expedition, a panoramic, improvisational, traveling, movement experience in which the participants become the performers in an outdoor dance safari. Carrie has performed as a singer with Terese Genecco and Her Little Big Band (Iridium Cafe, New York City), Witches in Bikinis (New York City) and John Gamble’s Gate City Remnants (North Carolina). She was featured as an actor in an award-winning independent film titled The Fear Inside (Director: Rick Hamilton). NC Dance credits include: John Gamble Dance Theater, Jan Van Dyke Dance Group, Horn in the West, X Factor and Centennial Station Dinner Theater. NY Dance credits include: Maverick Dance Experience, INSPIRIT (Rehearsal Director and Company member), Malleable Dance Theater and Sydnie L Mosley Dances. Carrie has a wealth of experience teaching, choreographing and directing children of all ages and is thrilled to currently be on faculty at Dance Project: The School.
Dance Project is a non-profit resident organization of the Greensboro Cultural Center, made possible by a significant in-kind contribution from Creative Greensboro, the City of Greensboro’s office for arts & culture.
Dance Project is a non-profit resident organization of the Greensboro Cultural Center, made possible by a significant in-kind contribution from Creative Greensboro, the City of Greensboro’s office for arts & culture.
