Grant Allows Dance Professor’s Company to Provide Community Classes

Movement Migration, a Charlotte-based professional dance company founded and directed by Associate Professor of Dance Kim Jones, will offer six weeks of free community dance classes for adults and seniors thanks to a Culture Blocks grant from the Arts & Science Council. The classes will take place at the David B. Waymer Recreation Center in Huntersville on Monday evenings (adult classes) and Friday afternoons (senior classes) beginning April 11.

The classes will be taught by Jones and two Movement Migration artists, Alyce Vallejo and Pablo Ruvalcaba, a former principal dancer with the José Limón Company, and will explore different movement practices: modern dance, ballet, yoga, and somatic, an approach that focuses on mind-body awareness. Classes will often feature live music.

“Our goal is to connect with the community members and offer them different approaches to improving their physical and mental health through dance,” said Jones. “We will build community through movement and music to foster individual expression and story-telling and guide individuals on how to move with self-confidence, develop self-discipline, and help build stamina, body strength, agility, and understanding of dancing with the music.”

The program will end with a lecture-demonstration by the artists on May 20, followed by a Q&A session.

Jones is a former principal dancer for the Martha Graham Dance Company. In 2017, she founded Movement Migration, a company of professional dancers steeped in the celebrated traditions of classical ballet and modern dance. The company, with dancers who span four decades in age and hail from across the globe, offers an innovative approach to live performance and dance education dedicated to access, inclusion, and community building.