Happendance

Alice Bloch has a doctorate in dance history from Temple University with a dissertation on the dance of Isadora Duncan and Vaslav Nijinsky and the body in culture. She also has a choreographic MA from UCLA. Alice is a 4th generation Isadora Duncan dancer, training with Lori Belilove, Gemze DeLappe, Ellen Foreman, Julia Levein, and Linda Tarnay.

Alice has performed and taught Duncan dance in many venues. Her presentations include: Isadora Duncan: Life into Art, a biographical lecture-performance, and Isadora Duncan and the Dance of Democracy on Duncan’s radical educational theories. Her article, Duncan Lives! on the importance of Duncan technique for today’s dancers, will appear in the June issue of Dance Magazine.

Alice’s work with poetry includes The Watching Heart: A Journey in Peace, a collaboration with Rumi scholar and poet Dr. Fatemeh Keshavarz, performed at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Washington University, and the Veterans for Peace National Conference. She performed at the Gerard Manley Hopkins International Festival in Ireland in July, 2006, and returns to Ireland this summer to offer a paper comparing the philosophies of Duncan and Hopkins.

Alice leads workshops on Creativity and Healing. She presented Healing and the Sensuous Body, a workshop combining dance/movement therapy and Isadora Duncan dance at the National Dance Education Organization national conference in Fall, 2006.

In the area of dance education, Alice works with troubled teens at the PAIS Center, and teaches choreography to 6th graders at New City School. She presented “How to Dance a Painting,” at the 2007 MOVEnture Summer Institute at Michigan State University. She offered “Transformations: Using Movement to Teach Peace” workshop at the University of Missouri, St. Louis’ “Educating for Change” 2007 curriculum fair. She is on the boards of the Missouri Dance Organization and the Missouri Alliance for Arts in Education and is part of a team that is developing Grade Level Expectations for dance for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

In 1991 Alice founded the Dance Program at Lindenwood University where she taught until 2006. She currently adjuncts at Washington University where she teaches Dance/Movement Therapy and Duncan dance.

In 2002, Missy entered the graduate dance program at Arizona State University to earn an MFA degree in dance. After completing her degree Missy returned to Lansing where she currently serves as the Artistic Director of Happendance Professional Company, producing all concerts and outreach performances. At Happendance School, Missy teaches ballet, jazz, hip hop, modern dance and creative classes for young children in addition to running Happendance 2.

Missy is a former Happendance School student who also served as a teaching assistant to the program for 5 years. After graduation from Haslett High School, Missy attended the University of Michigan, completing her BFA in dance in 1998. Missy then auditioned and joined the Happendance professional company and Happendance School staff. She also served as the Dance Faculty Liaison at Lansing Community College from 1999-2002. Once again a Lansing area resident, Missy seeks to make dance her full-time career.

Andrew is a Monterey, California native who began his dance studies at Pacific Grove High School. He won a competitive scholarship to study at Stephens College where he received a BFA in dance. He went on to dance with Mordine & Company Dance Theatre in Chicago and with Indiana Ballet Theatre NW. Andrew has taught at Columbia College in Chicago and is currently teaching at Danceworks, Happendance, and Greater Lansing Ballet Company in Lansing. He auditioned for Happendance professional company in August 2004 and was accepted with full-status. Andrew was served as the Artistic Director of the company's education outreach team Happendance To Go in 2005-2006, and co-directed the Winter Concert in 2006.

Amanda grew up in metropolitan Detroit, where she trained in Cecchetti ballet with the Rosemarie Floyd studio in Royal Oak. She attended Interlochen Arts camp and was a dance major at Western Michigan University. After getting her certification in Massage Therapy and opening her own business, Amanda auditioned for Happendance in the fall of 2005 and was accepted as a full status artist. Amanda has also been a member of the children's outreach program, Happendance To Go, for the past three years.

Daniel Holt has been dancing for three and a half years at Lansing Community College (LCC). He began dancing after watching his sister’s career through LCC’s dance program. During his time at LCC he has studied ballet, modern, jazz and tap with an emphasis on ballet. In addition, he has choreographed three pieces, including one in Happendance’s Community Dance Project 2007. Daniel currently serves as the Artists' Representative to the Happendance Board of Directors.

Anna started gymnastics when she was two and by the age of eight she was competing for Southern Indiana Gymnastics School. She came to Michigan State University to compete on the gymnastics team. She graduated with a degree in Kinesiology, and now she is almost finished with her masters in Exercise Physiology. In the winter of 2008 she will take a temporary leave of absence from Happendance To Go while she tours with AntiGravity.

Emma Martin grew up as a Happendance student taking classes in ballet, modern, and jazz along with serving as a teaching assistant for five years. She will complete her training there this year as well as at the Academy of Dance Arts. She has been a member of Children’s Ballet Theater of Michigan since 1999 and will be dancing her last show with them this May as a graduating high school senior. Emma has attended summer dance intensives at Joffrey Midwest, ABT-Detroit, Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, and American Repertory Ballet’s Princeton Ballet School, the latter two locations on scholarship. She was accepted into the Happendance professional company as well as the To-Go team in August 2007.

Katie was raised in Canton, Michigan. She studied Cecchetti ballet, pointe, tap, jazz, and lyrical dance at studios throughout metropolitan Detroit. Katie performed with the Plymouth-Canton and the Livonia Civic ballet companies, and continued her study of advanced Cecchetti ballet as an undergraduate at Michigan State University. After receiving her B.A. in Political Theory with a specialization in French she worked in France for a year where she performed with a contemporary jazz company under the direction of Jean Greffet, formerly of the Paris Opera Ballet, and studied traditional French folk dancing. Katie auditioned for Happendance in September 2005 and was accepted as a full status artist performing in the 2006 Winter Concert and as a dancer with the company's education outreach team Happendance To Go. Since then she has taught tap and begun her studies in modern dance choreography as a guest choreographer for the Community Dance Project. Formerly the Artists' Representative to the Happendance Board of Directors, Katie now serves as a Member at Large.