Movement Matters Master Class with Robbie Cook - Floorwork

Mahaney Arts Center, Dance Theatre

This class pulls from various floor work modalities Cook has studied with choreographers from Europe and Latin America who weave the use of the floor into their creative work. His approach is to scaffold the class with passes across the floor that build in complexity and intensity as a means to develop strength, coordination, fluency and personal agency to move in and out of the floor and into inversions safely, and in unexpected ways. Logistically speaking, participants should wear long pants and shirts with sleeves, no tank tops, and possibly wear “dancer knee pads” if they have concerns moving on their knees. All levels of experience are welcome!

Guest Bio

Robbie Cook (he/him/his) has been professionally active in the dance communities of New York, San Francisco, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Based in Rhode Island, he has taught during the summer at the American Dance Festival (since 2012), and has also taught in various capacities at Hofstra University, Douta Seck (Dakar, Senegal), Hong Kong International School, Bates Dance Festival, Shenandoah Conservatory, Loyola Marymount University, Idyllwild Arts Academy, Chadwick International School (South Korea), Japan Contemporary Dance Network (Sapporo) with Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, Universidad de Las Américas (Mexico), and IUGTE Conference (Austria). He is currently working as a dancer with Momar Ndiaye, and has also performed in the works of many other choreographers, including Seán Curran, James Gregg, Guanglei Hui, Teena Marie Custer, Michel Kouakou, Rosie Herrera, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Keith Thompson, Edwaard Liang, Laurel Jenkins, Cheng-Chieh Yu, Stacy Spence, Douglas Dunn, Nancy Garcia, Liz Gerring, Margaret Jenkins, Jan Erkert and Deborah Hay. Robbie has an MFA in Dance from Bennington College and a BFA in Visual Art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.