a rotating weekly practice offering expanded contemporary methods to the Seattle dance community
CUNNINGHAM TECHNIQUE®
WITH
UNA LUDVIKSEN
This class explores form, rigor, and the joy of moving in space. Class starts with the Cunningham back exercises based on curve, arch, tilt, and twist. We will progress sequentially through exercises that get our feet, torsos, and limbs warm separately, and then together, increasing in complexity and variation. We’ll discover new combinations of upper and lower body coordination through the Cunningham movement language. We’ll shift our weight and expand our relationship to verticality while traveling and dancing BIG. Exercises range from slow, simple movements to layered combinations of limbs, torso, and rhythmic changes. We will run, turn, hold, lengthen, and leap with commitment, clarity, and self-trust. No prior Cunningham experience needed.
Una is from Seattle. She has performed in New York, LA, and Toronto with the Merce Cunningham Trust, and is an authorized Cunningham Technique® teacher. She has performed for GREYZONE NYC, Dylan Crossman Dance, Emily Schoen Branch, AnA Collaborations, and POGO Dance in Seattle, New York, Toronto, Frankfurt, and Berlin. She has shown work in Seattle at Base‘s Pairings curated by Bebe Miller and Lori Goldston, CO- SHOW 8, and in Berlin for Clemente Ciarrocca’s exhibit,The Joys. Una is on faculty at Bainbridge Dance Center. She received her BFA in Dance from SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance with further study at the Amsterdam University of the Arts.
CONTEMPORARY
WITH
TARIQ MITRI
This class will explore the edges of what a codified contemporary practice could entail and aims to shift and transform. Each class will introduce a different entry point, sometimes through intentional movement flows, improvisation, physical group engagement, and various in-betweens. Following this, we will embody different semi-familiar forms and concepts of technique while moving through space, and challenge the inspirations behind movement. We will typically conclude with everyone’s favorite activity – PHRASE WORK, or a variation of it.
A dancer, choreographer, and teacher based in Seattle, WA, Tariq Mitri was born in Abu Dhabi and raised in Portland, OR. He earned his BFA in Dance Performance from the California Institute of the Arts in 2015. His performance career spans 10+ years across Los Angeles, New York, and Seattle, working with over 25 choreographers. From 2019–2021, Mitri served as Rehearsal and Co-Director of the Brooklyn-based company HEIDCO. Since returning to Seattle in 2022, he has focused on developing solo, duet, and ensemble collaborative works. His choreography has been presented by the International Dance Festival New Orleans, Velocity Dance Center, Friends of Waterfront Seattle, CO-, and On the Boards. In April 2025, he premiered his first evening-length work, “Of Us,” with collaborator Jenna Eady, produced by CO- in partnership with Dunya Productions. Mitri is a 2026 Centrum Foundation Emerging Artist Resident and a past Body Space Time Resident Artist at the University of Washington. He is currently the Program and Operations Manager for Base: Experimental Arts + Space.
DANCE CLASS was founded February 2025 by Una Ludviksen, Tariq Mitri, and Ashley Menestrina.
classes are geared towards intermediate to professional dancers. beginners welcome. everyone is welcome.
DANCE CLASS 