This class will cover some of the fundamentals of house dance, including aspects of footwork, floorwork and the importance of a freestyle approach to the form. The cultural context in which this dance was created and where it continues to thrive will be discussed and underscored in the movement. The workshop is open to intermediate to advanced high school, university and post-graduate/ professional dancers. Please wear comfortable dance attire and footwear.
This masterclass is free, but advanced registration is required. Your registration is a commitment to attend. If your plans change, please notify ctauser@upenn.edu so that your spot may be released for another student.
Ephrat “Bounce” Asherie is a NYC-based choreographer, performer and b-girl. A Bessie Award Winner for Innovative Achievement in Dance, Asherie creates work for the dynamic group of multifaceted dancers in her company Ephrat Asherie Dance (EAD).
Dedicated to honoring the ethos of NYC’s underground club community, EAD explores the inherently complex and dynamic qualities of various Black and Latine vernacular forms, including breaking, hip hop, house and waacking. Asherie’s singular way of creating “compact bursts of choreography with rapid-fire changes in rhythm and gestural articulation” (New York Times), brings forth work that is aesthetically innovative, physically rigorous and unceasingly curious. The company's newest work, Shadow Cities, will have its world premiere on Nov 14-15 in Philadelphia at Penn Live Arts.
Asherie has received numerous awards to support her work including Dance Magazine’s Inaugural Harkness Promise Award, a Jerome Artist Fellowship and two fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts. Asherie's work has been presented on stages nationally and internationally with additional commissions from Vail Dance Festival, Fall for Dance, Works & Process at the Guggenheim, Kennedy Center Theater for Young Audiences, Philadanco, Parsons Dance and Malpaso. Asherie is honored to have been mentored by Richard Santiago (aka Break Easy) and to have collaborated with Michelle Dorrance, Doug Elkins, Rennie Harris, Bill Irwin, Gus Solomons Jr. and Buddha Stretch, among others.
Asherie earned her BA from Barnard College, Columbia University in Italian and her MFA from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee where she researched the vernacular jazz dance roots of street and club dance. She is a co-founding member of the all-female house dance collective MAWU, and is forever grateful to NYC’s underground dance community for inspiring her to pursue a life as an artist.
For more information, visit ephratasheriedance.com.
