Company Class with Mary Grace McNally
Wednesday, November 13th, 10:00am - 11:15am
About Mary Grace
Mary Grace McNally is a New York City based dance performer, choreographer and teacher, originally from Massachusetts. In June 2018, she self-produced, directed and choreographed her first evening-length work, Not For Picking, which premiered at Theaterlab NYC. After presenting an excerpt of this work, Mary Grace was awarded the grand prize at the 2018 Capezio A.C.E. Award. She was also announced as ADA's National Choreographer of the Year in 2016. Her work has been presented at The Dance Gallery Festival, WiseFruit NYC, Dixon Place, Young Choreographer’s Festival, NewSteps Series, Salvatore Capezio Center, Centre National de la Danse in France, and deSingel in Belgium. She has studied with artists such as Medhi Walerski, Jesse Zaritt, Adi Salant, Jermaine Spivey, Spenser Theberge, Tilman O’Donnell, and has performed the works of Doug Varone, Tommie- Waheed Evans, Katie Swords-Thurman, Emma Portner, Erica Sobol and Ryan Spencer. Most recently, she was invited to re-set her evening-length production, Not For Picking, for Theaterlab's 2018 Fall Season and created a new work with Divinity Dance Company in Salt Lake City, UT. She is a guest instructor, and choreographer, at studios and workshops across the country, as well as Guest Faculty at Peridance Capezio Center and Broadway Dance Center in NYC. Mary Grace is the Artistic Director of MG + Artists, a project-based dance collective, and they are incredibly excited to be working on a new evening-length work to be premiered in Los Angeles in January 2020. Mary Grace received her BFA in Dance from the University of the Arts in 2015.
Class Description
Classes begin with a guided improvisational warm up, as a way to release tension in the body and mind, allowing access to new pathways of movement. Exercises focusing on proper alignment, flexibility and strengthening are integrated throughout. Phrase material is introduced to challenge dancers to fulfill certain shapes, energetic pathways, textures and momentum while working inside of specific musical phrasing. With this, Mary Grace works to create a space that feels safe for exploring and for supporting one another - leaving class with a sense of community is incredibly important to her.