Creative movement for your budding ballerina? Lyrical for your expressive teen? Ballet for yourself? Ormao Center for Contemporary Dance offers all these and more for beginners to advanced dancers. We highly value creativity and expression and truly believe that dance is for everyone!

Ormao Center for Contemporary Dance is special because:

1. •  We make dance FUN! This enhances the learning process
   

2. •  Our students become independent, creative thinkers and problem solvers
   

3. •  By promoting healthy body and mind connections, our dancers’ confidence and self-esteem grow as they mature
   

4. •  We offer performance opportunities that are non-competitive, focused on teamwork and develop and appreciation for life and the art of dance.
   

ORMAO STUDENT REPERTORIES

If your high school or middle school student is serious about dance, consider one of our Ormao student repertories. With an emphasis on creative expression, Ormao Junior Repertory and Senior Repertory will challenge teen dancers technically and artistically. And, as you can see from the picture above, these kids have FUN! Former student performers have gone on to dance at colleges such as the Juilliard School, Cornish College of Performing Arts and on scholarship at CU Boulder. Entrance is by audition only. Contact Jan Johnson at ormao@msn.com for details.

REPERTORY AUDITIONS COMING UP! Auditions for the Junior and Senior Repertories, as well as the Ormao Youth Ensemble (pre-teens), will be held June 13 and August 15. Times to be announced soon. Contact Jan Johnson at ormao@msn.com with questions.

ORMAO CENTER FACULTY

Jan Johnson, director

Tiffany Tinsley Weeks, assistant director

Cheryl Beck (Tots Creative Movement)

Jessi Djonbalaj (Jazz)

Katelin McGrath (Pre-Ballet, Modern)

Debra Mercer (Ballet)

Sarah Tietje (Modern, Creative Movement, & Pre-Ballet)

CLASS DESCRIPTIONS

Tots Creative Movement (3-4yr olds)

A wonderful time for young dancers to learn the joy of movement!  Dancers will explore all the different ways their body can move as well as explore space and dynamics while experimenting with props to enhance creativity.  Our focus here is creativity, individuality and proper class etiquette.

Pre-Ballet (5 yr olds)

More structured than Tots Creative Movement, begins to include many ballet elements, but still focused on joy of movement!  Class includes some ballet barre exercises, an introduction to many ballet terms, as well as expanding upon creative exercises to explore their own body movement and the space around them.

Ballet

With a focus on proper alignment, posture, long body lines, and shapes, it is a graceful, romantic, movement style. The mechanics of ballet can be complex and should be learned slowly with patience as it strengthens the body’s center, legs, and feet for all forms of dance.  Most dancers take several years in each of our levels learning the foundation of simpler ballet exercises before moving on to the next level.

Modern

A free dance style and concept, modern dance is usually executed barefoot and focuses on the spirit of innovation, restricted only by the limitations of the human body.  Modern dance is about the design of motion, supports individual expression, and is generally more grounded or weighted, and initiates movement from the body core. Teachers may use live drums and percussion or other music from world beat to classical. Come see an Ormao Dance Company performance to see the variety of styles included in modern dance!

Jazz

A distinctly American art form, jazz celebrates stylization of shapes and is a melting pot of many dance forms.  It is beneficial for students to have ballet or modern dance experience before beginning jazz since it uses similar vocabulary and teaches discipline and coordination in the legs and feet.  Jazz accentuates body part isolations, flexibility, centered placement, multiple turns, and leaps along with the current dance style seen in clubs using current pop, techno, jazz, or hip hop music.

Lyrical Contemporary

A blend of jazz, modern, and ballet technique which typically expresses the lyrics of pop musical ballads through smooth, connected, and sensuous movement.  Experience in jazz, modern, and/or ballet required.

The Ormao Dance Company admits community members of any race, color, sexual orientation, creed, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs and activities generally accorded or made available at the school or public performances of dance concerts.   It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sexual orientation, creed, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship, and loan programs, and other school administered programs.