Tess Losada began her dance studies at age 14 through the Orchesis Intercity Dance Company (Normal, IL) where she developed a passion for modern dance and the mechanics of the dancing body. Tess earned her BA in Dance Performance from Illinois State University’s School of Theatre and Dance in 2014. She is a Pilates Teacher-in-Training with Balanced Body, teaching mat and Reformer classes. Tess is currently performing and teaching in New Orleans with Good Dance Since 1984.

Yanina Orellana is originally from Guadalajara, México. She began her studies in Modern Dance with The Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing. She received a BFA in Dance at California Institute of the Arts. She has danced in a creation of Rosanna Gamson, Herb Alpert award winner Julia Rhoads and NOLA-based choreographer Meryl Murman. In 2014, she received a full scholarship to be part of the Summer Residency for Teaching Artists at CalArts. Her teaching philosophy emphasizes education as a process of humanization where the student is conscious of his/her agency to express, create, and transform. The student participates actively–physically and critically–to self-assess and direct his/her learning process. Yanina relies on a contemporary release-based technique to provide a base for healthy movement patterns and to explore an organic physical vocabulary, and she uses Laban Movement Studies to provide an organized structure to study and describe movement.

– Tuesday: Contemporary technique with Tess. This class will focus on strategically developing strength and conditioning the body for contemporary movement; we will close with phrasework that explores our relationship to the floor and the air around us.
– Wednesday: Structured improv with Yanina. 
– Thursday: Phrasework with Tess. We will open with a warm-up strategically developing strength and conditioning the body for contemporary movement; this class emphasizes learning and refining phrasework that will explore our relationship to the floor and the air around us.

All classes from 10-1130am at Live Oak Dance (1128 Dublin St) in Riverbend. Drop-in rate is $12. Class cards are available in 10-class increments for $100.