New! LightHouse Presents: Jam Class at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance

Everyone has jammed out at one time or another, whether it was at a wedding or late at night to a song on the radio. Jam Class turns spontaneous jam into practice. The class operates by listening to and following the rhythms, soulfulness, funkiness, histories, memories, and many shades of joy that already live inside our bodies. Jam Class does not aim at teaching anyone how to dance, but rather at bringing out the inherent ability to dance that everyone already has within them. The class starts slow and quiet, discovering the seeds of rhythm deep within one’s body and momentum. This class is intended for young adults ages 17 to 30. The only precondition for participants is the ability to stand for one hour.

If you want to move and be moved, Jam Class is for you. Jam Class will be held on the third Saturday of each month through May, 2013.

Here is the schedule:

• January 19, 12 to 1:00 p.m.
• February 16, 12 to 1:00 p.m.
• March 16, 12 to 1:00 p.m.
• April 20, 12 to 1:00 p.m.
• May 18, 12 to 1:00 p.m.

The class is led by Malinda LaVelle and Emmaly Wiederholt and is limited to ten people, so sign up now! To reserve your space or for more information, please contact John Liang, Director of Community Services at jliang@lighthouse-sf.org or 415-694-7334.

Malinda LaVelle is the artistic director of Project Thrust, a dance-theater company based in San Francisco. Since its inception in 2010, Project Thrust has performed at Z Space as part of the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance’s Summer Dance Series, at ODC Theater, at The Garage as part of Resident Artist Workshop (RAW), and in the Women on the Way Festival. Project Thrust is currently in residence at the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, Malinda’s alumni, where she currently serves on the faculty. Originally from Colorado, Malinda LaVelle graduated from the University of Arizona with a BFA in Dance. Malinda has performed with Alex Ketley’s The Foundry, Alyce Finwall Dance Theater, Manuelito Biag’s Shift>>>Physical Theater, and in 2012, she was awarded a 2012 Isadora Duncan Award for Outstanding Performance.

Emmaly Wiederholt resides in San Francisco and is a founding member of Malinda LaVelle’s Project Thrust. She also writes about dance; she founded, edits, and writes for Stance On Dance (stanceondance.com), and has contributed to In Dance, The San Francisco Examiner, and the San Francisco Bay Guardian. She is originally from Albuquerque, NM and graduated from the University of Utah with a BFA in ballet and a BS in political science. She is an alumna of the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance and has performed with Vabang! Dance Company, Amy Lewis’ Push Up Something Hidden, Christine Cali (Cali & Co.), Alyce Finwall Dance Theater, Katie Faulkner’s Little Seismic Dance Company, and in David Dorfman’s choreography with AXIS Dance Company.

The San Francisco Conservatory of Dance was established in 2004 by veteran dancer/teacher Summer Lee Rhatigan with a team of collaborators whose principal goal was to create a new kind of dance school specifically designed to guide and support young people in their discovery, understanding, development, and application of the tools necessary to thrive as an artist. Since its inception, some one thousand talented young dancers have participated in the Conservatory’s programs, studying classical and modern technique and learning/performing a huge number and variety of works. Located at 301 8th Street (at Folsom), the studios are drenched with natural light through skylights and north and west facing windows.