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Youth Artist Chinese Dance Adv. Dance Int. Drawing Oil Painting Art Filmmakers Musical Theater SAT Math

The HSArts Summer Advanced Dance Intensive is where serious dancers come to refine their technique, improve their flexibility and skills, and expand their repertoire in a fun, focused environment. Join internationally-acclaimed HSArts faculty in exploring your artistry on your path to reaching your maximum potential. Choose from either classical Ballet or classical Chinese dance as the major focus, while discovering and drawing inspiration from ethnic and folk dance, contemporary, and more. Scholarships opportunities available for talented dancers. Audition or invitation required.

Classical Ballet

$750/week

Session II: June 29 - July 15
Full-day

9:30am–4:00pm, Monday–Friday

Early drop off and late pick-up extended care available upon request.

Chinese Dance

$390/week

Session I: June 14 - July 2

Session III: July 26 - August 13
Half-day

1:00pm–4:00pm, Monday–Friday

Early drop off and late pick-up extended care available upon request

Classical Ballet Intensive

Featuring Mr. Dongsheng Wei, internationally-acclaimed artist and HSArts Honorary Artistic Director, the Ballet Intensive incorporates the Vaganova method in training to ensure ample understanding and development of ballet technique and execution. Dancers will learn repertoire and variations to be performed in a demonstration on the final day of the intensive.

Daily Schedule

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Featured Instructors

Mr. Dongsheng Wei is an internationally acclaimed dancer and dance teacher. He was the principal dancer of Atlanta Ballet for 14 years. He has been teaching dance for over 25 years. He is currently the honorary Artistic Director of the dance program at San Francisco High School of the Arts, and teaches various dance classes to the intermediate and advanced dance students at HSArts.

Ms. Alyssa Puleo, a professional dancer and teacher, began her ballet career under Hanna Karacic in Southern California. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Dance from the University of Oregon, with a focus in Kinesiology. She has over ten years of teaching experience and specializes in preparatory ballet, folk dance and technique coaching.

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Chinese Dance Intensive

Classical Chinese Dance is a comprehensive dance system that incorporates fundamentals training, tumbling, ethnic and folk dance, flexibility and conditioning, as well as repertoire and character dance. Train your form, posture, bearing, and techniques with talented and passionate instructors and discover all that Chinese dance has to offer! Extended training and private solo preparation available upon request.

Daily Schedule

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Featured Instructors

Ms. Hanna Zhang’s love for Chinese dance began when she was only 9 years old. She graduated from Tianjin Normal University in 2019, majoring in Chinese dance. Ms. Hanna continued her education in the U.S., receiving her Master of Education (Curriculum and Instruction) from Kings College in 2020. Ms. Hanna worked at Tianjin TV Station as a dance teacher and choreographer, preparing many dances and fairy tale spectaculars for children of all ages. She has participated in CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala and the National Dance Performance competitions multiple times.

Ms. Fengxuan Cao choreographs and teaches dance at High School of the Arts. She graduated from Beijing Dance Academy, the leading dance college in China, in 1997. Before she came to HSArts, she was a choreographer with Shen Yun Performing Arts Company.

Mr. Mike Lai graduated from Fei Tian Academy of the Arts in New York and received a B.F.A. in Dance Pedagogy from Fei Tian College. He trained and performed with the world-renowned dance group Shen Yun for 5 years. He is an experienced choreographer and teacher of classical Chinese dance.

The Summer Dance Intensive will be held in-studio at the HSArts facility in San Francisco, CA. SPACE IS LIMITED for in-studio participation as required to meet DPH health and safety guidelines.

Class Descriptions

Ballet Technique
The foundation of ballet training, technique class emphasizes body placement, posture and form through barre exercises and center routines. Class content is based on the Vaganova curriculum.

Classical Ballet Variation
Group variation pieces are a chance for dance intensive students to work within a corps. It is a significant chance everyday to work in unison with classmates and peers. When a class learns corps choreography, they are challenged to work together to achieve beauty of all. This class is an excellent way to train teamwork, musicality, and make friends!

Character Dance
Character Dance is a massive part of dance performance. Without the ability to communicate with words, dancers must be able to tell stories with body language. Students involved in our Dance Intensive will emerge from this program confident in their ability to communicate characters on stage. This specific class covers Vaganova Character Dance training, musical theatre acting, and gesture studies.

Contemporary
Contemporary dance encourages dancers to be versatile in their expressions and able to portray a wide array of movement styles and emotions. This section focuses on spatial and body awareness, use of body weight, floor work, technique, efficiency of muscle usage, musicality and safe body alignment.

Dance Kinesiology
Dancers work extremely hard to train their bodies throughout a pre-professional career. This class speaks to the healthy way of taking class, stretching and reviving the body following class, and practicing dance in the most efficient way bio-mechanically. Without getting too scientific, this class simply explores major muscle systems in order to inspire healthy training, injury prevention, and smart recovery.

Chinese Ethnic and Folk Repertoire
This repertoire class will focus on classical Chinese dance or Chinese ethnic and folk dance styles in its choreography. The choreography will draw inspiration from China’s 5,000 year history and from over 50 ethnic and folk groups in China, culminating in a dance that will celebrate artistry and the human spirit.

Flexibility and Conditioning
This course includes rigorous classical training to improve dancers posture, flexibility, and musicality. Within this hour, students will practice the fundamentals of Ballet and Classical Chinese Dance. Throughout the week, students will develop their skills gradually and gain a better understanding of their balance, weight transfer, and classical dance technique.

Solo Variation
Students in our Dance intensive are provided a chance to learn a piece of work that they may want to perform solo. In this class, we break down the differences of solo works in order to showcase talents of individual dance intensive students. This way, we can offer students a specific hour to spend working on specific skills for their personal development. This class is an excellent part of the program as students are able to take the solo choreography with them into the future and beyond!

Bearing
Bearing, or “yun” (韻), can best be described as a particular inner spirit. Bearing is an essential part of classical Chinese dance, emphasizing internal spirit, breath, intent, personal aura, and deep emotional expression. In essence, the spirit leads form, so that form is imbued with spirit. This class will explore the depths of bearing and bring out the dancer’s inner beauty.

Registration Fee

(One-Time)

$50

Early drop off

8:30am–9:00am

Fees apply

HSArts COVID guidelines

Each of our 3-week camp cohorts will have a teacher-student ratio of 1:10.

Following DPH Guidelines, HSArts summer camps require:

1. Children and youth attend the first week of each session;
* Those who do not attend the first week may not join the session.
2. Masks worn while on campus;
3. Students socially distanced 6 feet apart.

As we continue to face the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, HSArts is committed to supporting families this summer. If you are uncomfortable with our in-person summer option, we will work with you to find the best solution for your family.

“Both sisters truly enjoyed every single day attended, thank you for the great staffs, programs, and facility!”

—Yvonne, parent of 12 and 8 years old
“This is the best summer camp I ever had!”

—Angel, 13
"My daughter progressed so much in dance in just one summer!"

—Nan, parent of 11 year old
Dance classes were so fun and the teachers were so amazing that I wanted to stay for full-time!

—Jocelyn