Contemporary Dance with Rourou Y.

Rourou is a dance artist whose career spans between China and New York City, incorporating choreographic investigation, theatrical dance content, dance for camera, and student mentorship. She trained rigorously in Chinese dance in a conservatory setting for over 10 years, followed by studies in American and European dance and theater practices since her early 20s. Rourou holds a BFA in Choreography from Shanghai Theater Academy and an MFA in Dance from Sarah Lawrence College. As a teacher, she has taught hundreds of students of different levels, in various dance styles, ranging from contemporary, theater, jazz, hip-hop, Chinese, improvisation, and choreography. She’s passionate about helping students to achieve their individualized goals through her unique, comprehensive, and supportive teaching style. She is passionate about education and believes in the role art plays in how people learn, grow and connect with each other. As a choreographer, her works have been presented by major dance venues in the USA including GIBNEY, Danspace Project, Movement Research, Center for Performance Research, The Field, Dixon Place, Bronx Academy of Art and Dance, LMCC, Arts on Site, Austin Dance Festival, Venice Art Factory (Italy), and in China by Shanghai International Dance Festival, Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Beijing Dance Festival, and China Dance Forward (Hong Kong). teaching style: For me, dance class should be playful and stress-free. Getting to know my students is the first and foremost thing I do, because I believe it is the way to build connection and trust between my students and I. I think the technique is less important than helping my students build their own confidence in their bodies. I use a personalized approach to assist students to be aware of the sensation of their bodies and help them recognize the subtlety of the body movement. While teaching movement, I explain each movement in a very detailed way, I often use imagery to help students understand. My class focuses on choreographing movement for each student based on their own possibilities and levels of dancing. I pace my class accordingly based on students' ability to learn. It’s very fun to take my class and I love to connect with students in both artistic and personal contexts!