Open Level Adult Contemporary with Stewart/Owen Dance
Wednesdays, 6:30–7:45 PM
Saturdays, 9:15–10:30 AM
Henry LaBrun Studio at the Wortham Center
Instructors: Gavin Stewart / Vanessa Owen / Kendall Teague (rotating)
This open level adult contemporary dance class gradually awakens the body and senses through guided improvisation and a follow-along warm-up, followed by foundational across-the-floor exercises and center-work combinations. All experience levels welcome!
Through the end of 2024: All classes are a flat $15 per session.
About the instructors
Gavin Stewart and Vanessa Owen, a husband and wife duo, are the co-founders of Western North Carolina-based Stewart/Owen Dance. Their bespoke repertoire includes an exciting collection of contemporary choreography that’s as “intimate and intricate” (Washington Post) as it is “humorous, elegant, and wild” (Seattle Dances).
Stewart and Owen’s award-winning choreography has been presented by festivals and companies across the U.S., and their careers have taken them across the globe on fifteen U.S. State Department tours to teach, perform and choreograph contemporary dance with Washington D.C.-based Company E.
In 2017 they made North Carolina their home base where they work to cultivate the craft of storytelling through movement. Working with regional dance artists, writers, musicians, and storytellers, these cross-genre collaborators cultivate the craft of storytelling through movement — even choreographing music videos for Moses Sumney, Sylvan Esso, and Ben Phantom.
The Company won the Audience Choice Award and a commission for new work from NYC’s Dance Gallery Festival (2019), was voted “Artists Who Most Pushed the Boundaries with the Human Body” by Asheville Fringe Festival (2020), a North Carolina Regional Artist Project Grant (2020), two North Carolina Artist Support Grants (2021, 2024), a North Carolina Grassroots Arts Program Grant (2023), the inaugural North Carolina Choreography Fellowship from Trillium Arts (2023), and a commission from American Dance Festival (2024 premier). Throughout the pandemic, they focused on producing COVID-conscious dance experiences for live audiences, including sold-out drive-up performances at the Asheville Outlet Mall, and guided walk-along dance exhibits presented by the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts.
Kendall Teague was raised in the mountains of western North Carolina and attended the South Carolina Governors School for the Arts and Humanities in Greenville, SC. He began his career in the Bay Area in 2008 as a corps de ballet member of San Francisco Ballet. He has since worked with North Carolina Dance Theater, Complexions Contemporary Ballet under Dwight Rhoden, Ballet San Jose, Alonzo King Lines Ballet, ODC/Dance, and Kate Weare Company.
