Bill Evans & Don Halquist Workshop

Bill Evans & Don Halquist Workshop

Workshop | Available

Teens & Adults

6/15/2024 (one day)

9:00 AM-2:45 PM PDT on Sat

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$75.00 USD

We are excited to welcome icons in the field of dance, Bill Evans and Don Halquist, to Creative Dance Center for an engaging and rich day of somatics, dance, and learning. You don’t want to miss this opportunity!

9:00 – 10:15am, Somatic Lab for Dancers, Breath & Pelvic-Femoral Bone Rhythms with Bill Evans with Don Halquist
This class will be an experiential exploration of functional anatomy including movement improvisations based on anatomical and metaphorical imagery. It will focus on diaphragmatic breathing and the closed chain and open chain bone rhythms of the pelvis and femur. It will also include imagery derived from Bartenieff Fundamentals.

10:30am – 12:00pm, Evans Somatic Dance Technique with Bill Evans with Don Halquist
This class will begin with movement explorations drawn from Bartenieff Fundamentals and include floor, center, and moving through space etudes created by Bill Evans over decades of helping people become more efficient, connected, expressive, and musical dancers. Participants will be invited to explore improvisationally and to modify choreographed movement patterns to make them personally appropriate.

12:45 – 2:45pm, Dance Pedagogy with Don Halquist
This class will focus on two or three chapters from Bill Evan's book, Teaching What You Want to Learn, and will involve reflection, personal meaning-making, and social construction of knowledge. Don is known for making learning fun and adventurous. He will give each participant opportunities to bring their unique selves into the studio and share it with others.

  • Intermediate level dancers ages 12-18 have the option to register for the first two classes of the workshop only.  Email registrar@creativedance.org to receive a discount code to register at the discounted rate of $55. 


    This workshop is in-person at the Creative Dance Center.


    Tuition assistance is available.  Email registrar@creativedance.org     for more information.

Bill Evans is a celebrated teacher of dance technique and Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies. He was based on Capitol Hill in Seattle from 1976-1983 and was known as the “father of modern dance in Seattle” throughout the 90s and 2000s. He directs the Certified Evans Teacher program from his home base in Port Townsend, where he and Don Halquist became permanent residents in 2018. Bill is the author of Teaching What You Want to Learn: A Guidebook for Dance and Movement Teachers, published by Routledge Press in 2022. He has been honored with Lifetime Achievement Awards from NDEO, Dance Teacher Magazine, and the American Dance Guild. The guiding tenets of Bill’s teaching are; Embracing Change, Cultivating Community, Honoring Personal Uniqueness, Seeking Specificity, and Dancing as an Expression of the Human Spirit. Bill will produce the 10th annual Somatic Dance and Movement Conference at Fort Worden in Port Townsend from July 13-16, 2024. 

Don Halquist, Ph D, is a specialist in early childhood education and a superb contemporary dance performer and teacher. He joined the Bill Evans Dance Company in 1985. Don has been a college professor, department chair, and dean. He has taught dance pedagogy, based on his profound knowledge of how young people learn, in the Bill Evans Teacher Intensives since 1999. Beginning in 2019, Don has been a second grade teacher at Salish Coast School in Port Townsend, where he is known as “Dr. D.” He is also an author of two books for children.