Micro dance isn’t just about moving small—it’s about making small movements feel alive, dynamic, and intentional. One of the most powerful tools for that is contrast in our tone: knowing when to engage, when to hold tension, and when to let everything soften and release.

We’ll explore the concept of “hit and release” as a way to create texture, musicality, and clarity in micro movement. A “hit” isn’t about force—it’s about precision, timing, and clean activation. A “release” isn’t collapse—it’s about letting go just enough to create flow, breath, and contrast. Together, they form the rhythm that makes small movements feel expressive instead of flat.

The goal of this class is to explore a collection of advanced movements that add moments of openness to our close-embrace micro-dancing. We’ll use combinations, prep steps, responsive frame, compression, and tone to intuitively create space within the embrace. From there, we’ll explore resolving stretch through rebounds, suspensions, redirects, and controlled reunions. Together, these techniques can create bursts of excitement for musically dynamic moments—or bring delicious longing and tension to those long, deep hug dances.

Exploring sensuality (and even sexuality) in our dance can be a meaningful, playful way to be present in our body and with our partner… but how do we know when and how to build up that spice in a way that feels safe, fluid, navigates a continuous conversation of consent, and ultimately… just feels really, really good? What kinds of touch and movement feel sensual or create space for us to play with sexual energy - and how can we tell?

In this workshop we’ll create a body-positive, consent-forward, playful and sensual container where we can explore ways to slow down, check in with our nervous systems, better understand what we want, tune in to what feels good for our partner, and really drop in to find pleasure in our senses and in our connection.
You can choose to rotate partners or come with your own partner for this class.

Borrowing from the work of Brené Brown, Non-Violent Communication, and Emily’s 8 years of experience teaching Krav Maga (street fighting/self-defense) we are going to dive into the art of setting boundaries, accepting personal responsibility and handling consent violations in a way that fosters trust, learning and community rather than division and disempowerment. 

Get grounded in your strength to speak up even when it’s hard. Get rooted into your skills of empathy and listening so you can compassionately respond to someone else’s truth (even if it conflicts with your own truth). This is a hands-on, experiential workshop to grapple with the sometimes tough work of human interaction on the dance floor (and in life), in a safe and supportive environment. 

This foundational micro class explores the geometry of isolations through an understanding of planes and shapes traced through different body parts in motion. We’ll develop spatial clarity and control by mapping clean pathways and directional relationships, building the framework for more advanced isolation combinations and trajectories.

Did you know that you can do micro movements with your feet too? We'll practice moving our own feet to the beat, and gently connecting with our partner's feet too.

Keep it groovin’, keep it mini, keep it short and sweet.  

Steady like a heartbeat, the rhythm never leaves our feet. 

Each weight change is an opportunity to express oneself. We can accent up, we can accent down. We can delay the hip, we can accent the ribcage. We can cushion our movement with softness or sharpen it through clever angles. We can play with colorful rhythms or indulge in the deep pulse of the steady beat. In micro, every minuscule adjustment can affect the vibe of the groove whether it feels playful, sensual, grounded or effervescent. We will learn a variety of mini micro grooves, how to trade grooves with your partner, and how to delicately accent your groove for contrast and variety.

Building on the concepts from part 1, this advanced class explores how independent movements layer, intersect, and resolve into cohesive expression. We’ll break down isolations into combinable units, then experiment with timing and direction to create complex, fluid patterns. Expect a focused, almost mathematical approach to movement that sharpens control while expanding your improvisational range.

A musicality class practicing intentionally pausing our entire bodies, body isolations, or only moving one body part at a time. We'll focus on micro movements and then pausing to accentuate the music.

Slow down to spark magic. We’ll explore how stillness can create some of the most captivating moments in your dance. You’ll learn Emily’s four distinct types of pauses, suspensions, and intentional contrast to build drama, deepen connection, and create dances that are more musicality attuned. Come explore the quiet spaces in between—the places where the real magic happens.

The theme is “breathing to create motion.” Utilize how your body moves through dramatic and muted movements originating in the diaphragm. Feel the sensation of breath throughout the frame; co-regulating and connecting all in one. Build a conversation with your partner through your breath to create a melty dance. You'll be so oxygenated!

Even in the slower, meltier world of micro, rhythms and musical phrasing are crucial for the complete micro experience. We’ll cover all the basics of micro musicality including single time, half time, quarter time steps and how we can build creative musical phrasing in an 8-count phrase. Using only tiny movements, we will learn to implement musicality whether the song is melodic, rhythmical, or a combination of both. Gain musical clarity and insight as you shape your own micro rhythms on the dance floor.

Some of our favorite dances EVER started as hugs. Deeply present with one another in the hug, we let go of dancing the “right” way and before we realized it, movement emerged naturally. Turns out, there is a lot of intention and training that goes into making those effortless moments possible. This workshop will distill lessons from dances like Brazilian Zouk and tango close embrace, as well as a lifetime of really loving hugs. We’ll create a recipe for a really amazing hug that builds into a meditative dance, in a way that prioritizes consent, comfort, and presence with a journey over a destination.

Small movements can carry a surprising amount of power when starting from the right place. In this class, we’ll explore internal rotation as a subtle but foundational tool for creating cleaner movement, deeper control, and more expressive micro movement—without needing to get bigger or more forceful.

We’ll look at how internal rotation in the torso and hips can shift the quality of your movement, helping you create smoother transitions, and more connected weight changes. Rather than thinking in shapes or steps, we’ll focus on how internal spirals and rotations organize the body from the inside out.

We often think of a switch dance as meeting our partner in the middle of a shifting dialogue while maintaining clear roles, but whose role is it anyway? When you can’t tell who’s leading and who’s following, do you take control? Or drop in and listen? Can you tune in enough to do both? 

Understanding that the magic of fusion is in its co-creation, we’ll explore offering (and accepting) space for both partners to find their voice and make distinctly subtle decisions in the conversation of a dance.

To become an intermediate follow, one must master accurately matching the tone, timing, and quantity of a lead’s movement. Advanced followership asks a different question: what can we intentionally change? This class introduces Space Bending, a collection of techniques for preserving timing while altering movement quantity. We’ll explore how changing our weight and density can create new textures and deeper connection—all without back-leading.