Jazz Dance for Everyone with Joanne Baker
Jazz Dance for Everyone with Joanne Baker
Sunday, January 28 at 11:00- 11:45 am
Fleck Dance Theatre, Harbourfront Upper Lobby Studio
Limited in-person spots available!
Want to join online? Purchase Virtual Package here
Jazz dance has a broad and varied history that has, over time, evolved beyond it origins within the African American experience and Black American culture. This workshop hopes to re-introduce these origins to people of all levels and abilities and bring an awareness of how to nourish and embrace much of what has been lost in many contemporary jazz classes today. Jazz is deeply personal in its execution and connection to the music. It inspires creativity, honesty and authenticity. It is rhythmic; full of depth and colour. Through guided exploration, circle dances, and set choreography, participants will be encouraged to find their groove, release their preconceived ideas of jazz dance, and understand that jazz dance is for everybody!
About Joanne Baker
After dancing and touring nationally with Decidedly Jazz Danceworks (DJD) for 7 seasons, Joanne moved into several administrative support roles for the organization including Artistic Assistant, Arts in Education Coordinator, Dance School Principal, and most recently, Artistic Outreach Associate. Teaching and sharing her love of jazz dance has been an integral part of Joanne’s 30-year career. Inspired by her mentors of the DJD style and philosophy along with countless jazz artists from the vast history of jazz dance, she has travelled across Canada conducting workshops and intensives in Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Lethbridge, Yellowknife, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, and Halifax. Prior to moving to the GTA in 2020, Joanne was a regular teacher for DJD’s professional company and its professional training program and coordinated and taught at several jazz intensive workshops bringing together dancers from across Canada and the United States. Joanne has taught several sessions as a guest instructor at the University of Calgary, and taught children, teens, and adults at the School of Decidedly Jazz along with many dance studios around Calgary. She has presented at the World Dance Alliance America’s Annual Conference (2012) in Vancouver, BC, the NDEO Special Topics (Jazz Dance) Conference (2019) in Newport, Rhode Island and the NDEO National Conference (2022) in Atlanta, Georgia. Currently living east of Toronto, Ontario, Joanne has been leading workshops and master classes for the Toronto community and recently was a guest faculty member at Toronto Metropolitan University. You can find her at Metro Movement on Tuesday nights teaching Inter/Adv jazz.
Photo by Trudie Lee
