FREE and no experience or RSVP is required! Classes take place in the 1st floor Dance Studio. Studio entrance is on the east end of the Randolph Square lobby.
A “hafla” is an informal gathering for social dancing. Choreographer Nejla Yatkin invites the public to a series of free and interactive hafla programs where participants can combine movement styles from Chicago’s legacy music genres like blues, house and gospel, with contemporary dance. Expanding from the idea of Baladi dance – which means “dances of the land” in Arabic – attendees will explore: What moves people? How does collective energy inspire people to move? What does moving to house music, the blues, and gospel look like?
In this open movement workshop and dance party, participants will investigate the technical and creative potentials of embodiment through playful interaction. Dancing sharpens the senses, enhances social intelligence, challenges the body and mind and reinvigorates our cognitive, physical and social development.
Chicago choreographer and dancer Nejla Yatkin creates award winning and critically acclaimed dance works inspired by issues of feminism, identity, memory and history. She brings an incandescent trans-cultural perspective to her creations. Her recent dances have been traveling around the world, empowering and inspiring local communities to re-imagine themselves in public spaces anew, by incorporating an interactive participatory dance practice. She is a past 3Arts Awardee and a Princess Grace Choreography Fellow. Past works have received multiple awards from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and five Metro DC Dance Awards, Top 25 To Watch by Dance Magazine, DC Mayor's Arts Award among many others.
February 4th, 25th and March 25th, 2020 at the Chicago Cultural Center
78 East Washington Street, Chicago, IL 60602
see event link here
