Tandy Beal Master Class

Master Class Saturday January 22 from 11 am to 1pm Little Haiti Cultural Center Free Call 305-960-2967 for a reservation Dance Now! Ensemble has an early Valentine’s gift for you: a master class with West Coast choreographer Tandy Beal, who will be in residence with the company for a week this month. Artistic director of Tandy Beal & Company, she has created work for performers from John Adams to Frank Zappa in styles ranging from ballet to the circus and the opera — and even choreographed the movement for Tim Burton’s animated film The Nightmare Before Christmas. At this one-day workshop, Beal told Artburst that she plans to emphasize “theatricality” and the movement quality what she characterizes as “liquidity.” In town to set some of her work on the Dance Now! dancers, Beal knows that a one-day workshop will bring dancers from “all walks of dance: some will be skilled and some will just be starting out.” For that reason, she says she’ll also be working with “improvisational structures.” Don’t let that scare you off: Beal sees improvisation as an exercise in imagination. And imagination, she believes, “is the key to a successful life.” How’s that? “All of us in our lives are going to have to reinvent ourselves over and over,” Beal explains. “If your imagination is strong you will have a much better chance.”