BeMoved®

BeMoved® is a dance experience designed to inspire anyone from first-time dancers to professionals to embrace dance as a lifelong means to health, joy, and fulfillment.  See BeMovedDance.com to learn more.

Artist Bio

Jennifer Edgcomb is a Certified Artistry Level BeMoved® Instructor and has been sharing the BeMoved experience since 2014. Jennifer holds a BFA with high honors in Dance from the University of Illinois and has worked as a dancer, actress, teacher and choreographer. She’s taught jazz, modern, tap, ballet, creative movement and the joy of dance for over 20 years. Jennifer is an avid supporter and advocate of concert dance and served on the board of Luna Negra Dance Theater for 5 years. She is now a proud board member of Lucky Plush Productions, a Chicago based dance-theater company, and Co-Chair of the Auditorium Theatre’s Dance Partners. While dance has always been a passion for Jennifer, she has a 'day job' at a Chicago-based real estate investment firm.

Pilates, Stretch, and Strengthening

Build strength and stability through the core and increase flexibility.  Through exercises that focus on the 6 principles of Pilates (control, centering, concentration, precision, breath, and flow) to maintain a healthy body.

Artist Bio

Nicole Betts was first introduced to Pilates in 1996 and was certified through Romana’s Pilates in 2004.  She earned a BFA in Dance from Barat College in 1999 and went on to perform with Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre, Toured Europe with LaTour productions, and worked with numerous independent choreographers and projects in Chicago.  Nicole currently enjoys teaching Pilates classes and private clients in studio at Common Conservatory and Ruth Page Center as well as online.

Musical Theater

In this open level class, students will learn the foundations of technical dance training seen on the musical theater stage. They will develop an understanding of the structure behind stage choreography and gain insight into the necessary showmanship and performance of that choreography. Exploration into the historical context and artistic impact of jazz dance and music on the musical theatre genre will be discussed. 

Artist Bio

Princess Mhoon is a choreographer, producer, educator, and scholar recognized in 2015 by HUFFINGTON POST as one of 26 Female Choreographers "You Should Know" and Dance Magazine's 2006 "Top 25 to Watch" in the world for the Women's Choreography Project titled This Woman's Work.  Mhoon is a second generation artist and entrepreneur who has set her sights on enhancing the artistic landscape of the Nation’s Capitol. In 2016 she was invited to participate as one of the region's leading dance leaders by First Lady Michelle Obama during her Celebration of Black Women in Dance; she also served as a panelist for The White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans during Women's History Month and acknowledged by the administration as Black Girl Change Maker.


Mhoon is also a 2015 Helen Hayes Award Nominee for Best Choreography in a Musical, a Helen Hayes winner for Best Musical, and one of 37 International artists invited to Lusaka, Zambia for solo performance and master classes at the 2015 Barefeet Theatre Festival for vulnerable youth sponsored by UNICEF. She is also a 2016 class member of Leadership Greater Washington (www.lgw.dc.org).


With work commissioned by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the DC Jazz Festival, Princess Mhoon has been called "A visionary of her generation." She is the Founder and Director of the Princess Mhoon Dance Institute with locations in DC and Maryland. Mhoon has served on faculty at Howard University, where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Dance and a Master of Arts degree in Public History. Her research focuses on Dance History and the African-American experience in dance. In 2015, she was awarded the Owen Dodson DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI award from her Alma Mater.  Mhoon is currently on faculty at American University and a guest Director and Choreographer to main stage productions nationally.


A native of Chicago, Illinois, she began her training with Alyo Children's Dance Theatre, Joseph Holmes Dance Studio, and Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago. Mhoon Cooper has received numerous awards and scholarships for her excellence in dance, including recognition from the American Dance Festival, Dance Magazine, Howard University, Career Transitions for Dancers, and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. She has performed and toured with the world renowned Ronald K. Brown/Evidence Dance Company, Rennie Harris Puremovement, The Chuck Davis African American Dance Ensemble, Nathan Trice Rituals, and Deeply Rooted Productions. She is the founder of DANCING FEET, an integrated arts program that includes classes and workshops for schools and outreach institutions.

Foolery

The adventure is not on the other side of the world, it’s right at your fingertips (maybe closer?!) In this class we’ll invent ways to move and discover reasons to move. We won't be too serious about too much but we’ll pay attention, special attention, to Joy. Open to all levels!

Artist Bio

Adrian Danzig has been in shows at The Goodman, The Second City, Chicago Children’s Theatre, Steppenwolf Studio, Berkeley Rep, Brooklyn Academy of Music and The Public Theater, and with Shakespeare & Company and Lookingglass. He has worked with Mary Zimmerman, Les Waters, Joanne Akalaitis, Tina Landau and Anne Bogart. He has performed his solo works at The Kitchen, P.S. 122, The Ontological Hysteric Theater and Soho Rep. He was an early Neo-futurist and a founding member of Redmoon Theater, Hubinspoke Theater and 500 Clown. He graduated from NYC’s High School of Performing Arts, received his BA from Oberlin College and his MFA from the School of The Art Institute of Chicago. He has studied clown with Ctibor Turba, Philippe Gaulier, Ronlin Foreman, Dominique Jando, Els Comediants, David Shiner and Avner the Eccentric. Adrian worked with The Big Apple Circus at its inception and also for seven years as a clown in Clown Care. Adrian has been the producing artistic director of 500 Clown since it began. He would love to have a conversation with you about developing fear and anger studies as high school and university curriculum.

Intermediate Yoga

This class is great for those with an established movement practice and accurate self assessment. We will work into more dynamic movements and postures that challenge balance and endurance. We will build the breath to move gracefully with the challenges as we work on functional movement and meditation practices for enhanced strength and flexibility for the body and mind! 

Artist Bio

Creatrix, God/dess, Divine Embodiment, Mama A. Raheim White is an experience. Their passion for dance led them to earn their MFA from New York University Tisch School of the Arts and BFA from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, both in dance performance and choreography. As a healer, Raheim is a Reiki Master-Teacher, Akashic Record Reader, 200-hr Certified Yoga Instructor, and Social-Emotional Learning Facilitator. As the Founder and Creative Designer of RahCrystals, Mama Raheim handmakes crystal healing adornments designed with the individual in mind. Raheim’s intention is to help facilitate healing through movement, meditation, and mindfulness with love and joy.

Fitness Dance Jam

Jacinda Ratcliffe Emily Soong

Join us in our 30-min Fitness Dance Jam. You will be guided through a 30 min improvisation, encouraged to say YES to your own impulses and explore familiar & uncharted territory through your own movement practice. This time is what you need it to be- a dance party, a workout routine, time to just be with other people. Open to people of all levels & abilities.

Artist Bio

Jacinda Ratcliffe is a dancer, actor, and choreographer who has been working in Chicago since graduating from Northwestern University. She is a company dancer with Winifred Haun & Dancers as well as an ensemble member with Lucky Plush Productions, where she has originated roles in Curb Candy and Rink Life.

She has also worked as a performer, choreographer, and devising collaborator on immersive theater productions including in roles such as Lucifer in Striding Lion Performance Group’s production of The Great and Terrible Doctor Faustus and the title role in Frankenstein AI: A Monster Made By Many, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2018. Her recent choreographic credits include The Ode at Pint's End with Birch House Immersive Theater as well as the Jeff Award nominated production of Mlima's Tale with Griffin Theatre. She is on faculty at the Actor's Gymnasium and sits on the Board of Directors of Chicago Movement Collective. She is represented by Lily's Talent.

Emily Soong - Bio coming soon!