Contemporary Dance and Partnering Workshop

Rivers through, Oceans in: Contemporary Dance and Partnering Workshop | Jessy Crist and Maya Schwartz

About Maya: Maya Schwartz is a dancer, choreographer, and teacher of Release Technique, Contact Improvisation, and Yoga, as well as a certified Ilan Lev Method therapist. Originally from Ukraine and Israel-Palestine and currently based in Berlin, she is the co-founder, with Asaf Bacharach, of Larretude, a horizontal study group for dance improvisation, which has taken place at Larret en Mouvements in France. She has performed and collaborated with choreographers including Roni Chadash, Gil Kerer, Lilach Pnina Livne, Michal Ben Lior, Sally Ann Friedland, and Maya Brinner, and has worked with Vertigo Dance Company and its project Power of Balance. Her choreographic works include solo pieces NoThing and Growing Pains, as well as collaborations such as Primal Feelings (duet with Judy Adini) and Alata (duet with Schahar Dolinsky). Maya is the creator of Deep Into You, an ongoing series of retreats blending art and movement in nature, hosted across Israel-Palestine, Sinai, France, Portugal, and Peru. She has performed and taught in Panama, Peru, the Canary Islands, Japan, the UK, Switzerland, Germany, Greece, Slovakia, Croatia, and the United States (New Mexico, New York).

About Jessy: Jessy Crist (she/they), is a choreographer, dancer, and teacher based between Brooklyn and the Hudson Valley. Jessy has worked professionally with EMPARA/Megan Paradowski, Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber, Alan Lucien Øyen, Dimitri Chamblas, Dark Circles Contemporary Dance Company (Las Cruces, NM), and VOID Movement Project (Istanbul). They joined LA Dance Project as a guest artist for the 2022-2023 season. As a freelance artist, Jessy creates their own work in collaboration with multimedia artists. Her dance film, GYPSUM, has screened at Dare to Dance in Public Film Festival in Los Angeles, and was selected as an installation for Currents: New Media Festival in Santa Fe, NM. Jessy premiered her solo work VAMP for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, and has been an artist in residence at Moulin/Belle (France), and Keshet Dance Center (Albuquerque, NM). Jessy teaches ongoing workshops and classes focusing on embodied movement practices, contemporary dance, contemporary partnering, and creative practice.

@jessydae and @mayaschwartz__ on instagram