the training ground sf

“Live Landscapes” with Laja Field and Jessie Lee Thorne: REGISTER NOW!

Step into a full-body immersion where floorwork, dance-theater, and spontaneous composition collide. Led by powerhouses Laja Field and Jessie Lee Thorne, this incubation builds from visceral, momentum-driven floorwork into explorations of character, voice, and theatricality.

💡 “Live Landscapes: Floorwork, Voicework, and Improvisational Play”
📅 August 10-14, 9am-3pm*
📍 City Dance Studios, San Francisco
🔗 Link in bio for details and registration
*options for the complete workshop, full-day drop-in, or morning class only

‼️ Please register by JULY 31. If we don’t get a few more sign-ups to reach our minimum enrollment, we’ll unfortunately have to cancel.

Close out the summer strong with our final HATCHERY Incubation workshop!

“Embodied Storytelling Within Immersive Environments” with Ja’Moon Jones: REGISTER ASAP!

Unlock the power of physical storytelling in this dynamic workshop for movers and movement enthusiasts alike. Blending performance techniques, acting, and composition, the workshop supports participants in channeling their stories through sensation-based and narrative-led movement approaches.

This workshop will serve as an incubation process for “Sweat!,” an immersive new dance work by Ja’Moon Jones, a company dancer with ODC. Reimagining club culture as sacred spaces for transformation, resistance, and survival, Sweat! is rooted in the ecstatic and communal energy of the dance floor—spaces where marginalized people have long gathered to grieve, celebrate, and transcend. This piece will explore sweating together as both physical exertion and a powerful act of collective endurance.

💡 “Embodied Storytelling Within Immersive Environments”
📅 August 3-7, 9am-3pm*
📍 City Dance Studios, San Francisco
🔗 Link in bio for details and registration
*options for the complete workshop, full-day drop-in, or morning class only

‼️ Please register by this Wednesday, July 22. If we don’t get a few more sign-ups to reach our minimum enrollment, we’ll unfortunately have to cancel.

“The Word in Motion” with Maurya Kerr and Christian Burns: PLEASE REGISTER ASAP, LIKE YESTERDAY!

Examine the relationship between movement, text, and meaning with seasoned Bay Area artists maurya kerr (she/her/hers) and Christian Burns. Christian and Maurya are interested in investigating a grammar of both embodied and lingual language in an effort to help workshop participants gain clearer and more objective improvisatory and creation tools. Each day will consist of a ballet-based warm-up + physical practice; skill + technique building; and assimilation, making + sharing.

💡 “The Word in Motion”
📅 July 17-31, 9am-3pm*
📍 City Dance Studios, San Francisco
🔗 Link in bio for details and registration
*options for the complete workshop, full-day drop-in, or morning class only

‼️ We know you can’t wait to work with these incredible artists, but if we don’t get a few more sign-ups to reach our minimum enrollment, we’ll unfortunately have to cancel. If you’re interested in attending, please register by this Wednesday, July 22.

Photos by Keith Wang and alan kimara dixon.

📣 UPCOMING WEEKDAY MORNING CLASSES

Drop in for morning classes during our remaining four HATCHERY workshops! Classes run 9:30-11am at City Dance Studio. No pre-registration, simply show up. Payments will be accepted onsite via Venmo and cash ($30/class).

🌀 Babatunji: July 20-23
Contemporary/FloorWork using contemporary methods that orbit breaking-based floorwork, making movements accessible for dancers of all styles, body types, and levels of experience. (Note: NO morning class drop in on Sunday, July 19)

🩰 Christian Burns & Maurya Kerr: July 27-31
Ballet class cultivates, invites, and demands abandon, care, creativity, commitment, curiosity, expansiveness, failure, fluidity, generosity, investigation, love, mastery, musicality, personal investment and responsibility, rigor, risk, and sweaty joy. All levels welcome!

✨ Ja’Moon Jones: August 3-7
Contemporary for movers and movement enthusiasts alike, using sensation-based and narrative-led movement approaches.

🌩️ Laja Field & Jessie Lee Thorne: August 10-14
Building foundations from visceral, momentum-driven floorwork; awaken joint mobility, gain strength and efficiency in motion while harnessing explosive power with cloud-like landings.