PERIDANCE FACULTY
Guest / Past
Ami Mattison
Contemporary
BIOGRAPHY
Ami Mattison is a teacher, choreographer, and the artistic director of Mattidance. Originally from Michigan, Ami spent several years training and teaching in New York City before relocating to Los Angeles. She is on faculty at the Edge Performing Arts Center and has traveled nationally teaching master classes at studios and universities like Loyola Marymount University, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Joffrey Academy of Dance. Ami teaches and sets choreography on many top competitive studios. She has won several Choreography Awards and trained top national soloists. Ami was an original member of collidE dance (Erica Michelle Sobol, artistic director) and was featured in several of collidE's evening length company shows. Her focus has turned to her own choreography and her passion of training dancers as artists. She has showcases pieces for Medium.Live.Art, Talent Lab, Mashed Up Contemporary Dance, and Choreographer's CarnivalShe launched her contemporary jazz company, Mattidance, with a sold out two evening performance in May 2014.
CLASS DESCRIPTION
Ami teaches a Contemporary Jazz Style that incorporates elements of jazz, ballet, acro, modern, and pedestrian movement to allow for a dynamic vocabulary. There is often a lot of floor work involved. Class begins with a thorough warm-up based on elements of yoga and technical exercises. The initial exercises are developed to focus the dancer while challenging them to breath, move, and lengthen without compromising alignment. This leads into exercises that develop technique, maintain flexibility, and build core strength. The choreography emphasizes musicality, technique and personal expression. The movement is created to be danced from the heart.