Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre to Launch Teaching Artist Workshop Series
Sessions at the SoHo studio will cover phrase making, structure, and movement-based literacy for early learners.
Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre has announced its Teaching Artist Workshop Series, running through August, September, and October at Amanda Selwyn Dance Studio, 412 Broadway, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10013. For more information and to register, visit here.
The Teaching Artist Workshop Series is an immersive training in global dance traditions focused on fostering cultural exchange, preserving traditional movement forms, and expanding access to dance education. The Teaching Artist Workshop Series is made possible in part through the Mid Atlantic Folk and Traditional Arts – Community Projects program of Mid Atlantic Arts with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Teaching Artist Workshop Schedule
Collaborative Dance Composition Toolkit with Amanda Selwyn
Tuesday, August 11 from 12-3 p.m. | Level: All | Price: $75, $50 for professional dancers and teachers
Amanda Selwyn's Collaborative Dance Toolkit Workshop will focus on two components of dance creation – phrase making and dance structures. First, Selwyn will guide participants through a series of functional exercises for creating focused and dynamic phrase work -- prompting efficient and clear choice making and specificity of space, time, and energy. These solo, partner, and group activities will harvest a collective movement vocabulary. The second half of the workshop will focus on working with the vocabulary to compose cohesive and resonant choreographic structures. We will experiment with spatial design, pattern, repetition, pathways, direction, dynamics, speed, order, and groupings. This workshop is for dancers, choreographers, and teaching artists of all levels interested in expanding and freeing up their creative process.
Teaching for Joy, Play, and Engagement
Tuesday, September 8, 2026 from 3:30-5 p.m. | Level: Pre-professional and professional dancers/teaching artists | Price: $25
Discover the freedom of movement in a welcoming, judgment-free space where curiosity leads the way. This workshop invites participants to reconnect with the joy of dancing through playful exploration, creative expression, and meaningful connection.
Dance & Literacy for Early Learners: Embodying Story, Text, and Meaning Through Movement
Wednesday, September 9, 2026 from 1-2 p.m., Thursday, September 10, 2026 from 12-1 p.m., & Friday, December 4, 2026 from 1-3 p.m. | Level: Pre-professional and professional dancers/teaching artists | Price: $25
This hands-on workshop equips Teaching Artists with practical tools for scaffolding dynamic, engaging choreography for early learners. Participants will explore developmentally appropriate strategies for generating movement, teaching technical dance skills, building movement vocabulary, strengthening sequencing and memory, and structuring choreography through imagination. Using stories, imagery, characters, environments, sound, rhythm, music, and multi-sensory prompts, participants will experience creative approaches that guide young dancers from exploration to polished performance. Teaching Artists will leave with an adaptable framework for creating original, age-appropriate dances that are imaginative, focused, and artistically rich while fostering confidence, creativity, and technical growth in the early childhood classroom.
Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month
Friday, October 2, 2026 from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. | Level: Pre-professional and professional dancers/teaching artists | Price: $25
Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month through an engaging dance workshop that explores the rich diversity of Latin dance traditions. Participants will experience the history, music, and cultural significance of Latin Dance Styles, while learning fundamental movement vocabulary in an inclusive and welcoming environment.
Leveling Up Choreography with Props and Accessories
Thursday, October 8, 2026, 1-3 p.m. | Level: Pre-professional and professional dancers/teaching artists | Price: $25
In this hands-on class geared for dance educators, we will play with compositional tools that integrate props to create dynamic choreography. Throughout the session, we will utilize different types of accessories that can engage students who might lack interest in dance or have limited dance experience or technique. Educators will experiment with different choreographic structures and leave with tangible techniques to create buy-in with their students.
About the Teaching Artists
Angelica Barbosa Rodriguez was born and raised in Colombia. She graduated with honors from the BFA in Performing Arts with an emphasis in dance at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Bogotá, Colombia), doing her last semester abroad at Institut del Teatre (Barcelona, Spain) in Dance Pedagogy & Choreography and Interpretation. During her studies, she had the opportunity to work with Latin American choreographers such as Humberto Canessa and Jenny Ocampo. After graduating, she moved to New York to continue her professional training at the Ailey School, where she participated in processes with choreographers such as Annie Rigney, Nattie Trogdon & Hollis Bartlett, and Brandi Lewis. She received supplemental training at institutions such as P.A.R.T.S (Brussels, Belgium), Dart Dance Company (Berlin, Germany), Martha Graham School, and GALLIM School of Movement (NYC). Additionally, she has participated in various musical videos by Latin artists like Juliana Velázquez, Aterciopelados, Som Caney, La llama, and as an actress in the Colombian TV miniseries Desde Adentro produced by Buenavida Films. Currently, she is a scholarship student from the Limón professional training program and is doing an administrative & social marketing internship with GALLIM.
Rohan Bhargava is originally from New Delhi, India and holds a B.F.A in Dance from Tisch School of the Arts, NYU. He works for Kizuna Dance, Periapsis Music & Dance, Mare Nostrum Elements, and Notes in Motion Outreach Dance Theater, in addition to serving as Founder and Artistic Director of Rovaco Dance Company. His choreographic work has earned awards and commissions from organizations such as The Dance Gallery Festival, Asian American Arts Alliance, Dancewave, Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning, and LaGuardia Performing Arts Center/CUNY Dance Initiative. Rohan has taught nationally at New Brunswick High School (New Jersey), Gibney Dance (NYC), Sam Houston State University (Texas), University of Houston (Texas), Albert Einstein College of Medicine (Bronx), and 15+ NYC public schools catering to elementary, middle school, and high school students. He has 10+ years of teaching experience in styles of street jazz, contemporary, hip-hop, Bollywood fusion, and modern dance. Rohan was recently named as one of "25 to Watch 2021" by Dance Magazine.
Isaac Kerr, originally from Ontario, Canada, was introduced to the genres of Jazz and Tap at 10-years old. At age 14 began his formal dance training in Ballet, Acrobatics, Contemporary, and Hip-Hop. Isaac is a recent graduate of The Ailey School's Certificate Program. His performance credits include: The National Ballet of Cuba's Hansel and Gretel, CBS' Star Trek: Discovery, and Disney Channel Canada's The Next Step.
Amanda Selwyn founded Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre/Notes in Motion in 2000 and in 26 seasons, has directed over 125 productions, developed a network of artists, and created Notes in Motion's dance education program. Amanda's choreographic works include: Awaken, Habit Formed, Threads, Hindsight, Crossroads, Refuge, Renewal, It's a Game, Detour, Five Minutes, Passage, Undercurrent, Hearsay, Interiors, Disturbance, Salut, Tilt, Tidal, Shift, Siren, Contradicting Unity, Save My Spot, Hold On, Momentum, and Behind Us. Amanda has taught workshops and residencies at Peridance, Hofstra University, New Women, New York, the New York Gender Conference, Temple University, Baruch, SUNY New Paltz, BMCC, and NYU. Her 24th Season was presented at BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center, and her 20th Anniversary Season was presented at Baruch Performing Arts Center, both as Residency Artists of the CUNY Dance Initiative. In addition to her choreographic work, Amanda has directed Off-Broadway theatre in NYC at John Houseman Studio, 30th Street Theatre, Grove Street Theatre, Kraine Theatre, Center Stage, and the Producer's Club. Amanda has been on faculty at The Brearley School, Brooklyn Friends School, Beit Rabban School, Solomon Schechter School, the New Acting Company, the Berkshire Institute for Music and Art, and the Israel Museum. Amanda led the workshops “Accessing Inspiration for Dance-Making” and "Teaching a Choreographic Process" at the 3 NYC Arts-in-Education Roundtable's Face to Face conferences. She has also presented her choreography at NYU's Women and Theater conference and at Dance Teacher Summit. She is the recipient of grants from the NY State Council on the Arts, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, Hyde and Watson Foundation, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, O'Donnell Green Foundation for Music and Dance, the Friars Foundation, Dizzy Feet Foundation, Bronx Council on the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs Cultural Development Fund, NY City Council Members, Manhattan Borough President, Met Life, City National Bank, Credit Suisse, and the Bossak/Heilbron Charitable Foundation. Amanda participated in the Choreographer's Lab program at Jacob's Pillow. Her work has been presented twice on Jacob's Pillow Inside/Out Stage, at Tribeca Performing Arts Center, in the American Dance Guild Festival, DUMBO Dance Festival, APAP Conference, COOL NY Dance Festival, Wassaic Dance Festival, WestFest Dance Festival, Movement Research's Performance Series, Earth Celebrations, Dixon Place, and Pushing Progress at Peridance. Amanda has a 500-hour yoga teacher's certification from Laughing Lotus Yoga Center in NYC and teaches yoga privately and at Crunch Gym in NYC. She has a Master's from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in performance studies and a B.S. from Northwestern University in theatre, women's studies, and dance.
The Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre creates dynamic dance theatre that activates emotional expression. Through an interplay of athletic and articulate motion, they present theatrical and immediate works that engage audiences from start to finish and beckon a response of thought, feeling, and soul.