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Ruth Page Center for the Arts presents

Cunningham Technique® with Xenia Mansour

Friday ,January22,2027-9:30 am

Event Description

Modern / Contemporary

Class

90Running Time

Cunningham Technique® with Xenia Mansour

Friday, January 22, 2027 | 9:30-11 am
Cunningham Technique® class is a rigorous form of training designed to create strength and flexibility in both the body and mind. With emphasis on clarity and economy of movement, the technique trains dancers to move fully and freely in any direction they choose to go. Class begins with a series of standing exercises for the back, progressing to legwork and a gradual layering of the torso and arms. Combinations of greater length and complexity follow, which utilize wide-ranging tempos and rhythms. Sequences then carry the dancers across space, welcoming multidirectional movement. Class ends with several jump combinations that increase in intensity, building strength and stamina. In Merce’s words: “I thought that the ballet technique for the legs was astonishing and I thought many things in the modern dance were remarkable for the torso, and so I tried to find ways to combine those to make a body which was flexible and pliant and allow for as many movement possibilities as I could see.” 
Xenia Mansour is a movement-based artist whose work is guided by curiosity, play, and intentionality. She uses movement as a tool for dialogue, presence, and honest exchange between performers, collaborators, and audiences. Mansour has performed with NYC-based HIVEWILD, Denver-based HOLDTIGHT, and Chicago-based INSEKTA and GRAYSCALE, and is a frequent performer for artist Brendan Fernandes, including in “In Two” at the Pulitzer Arts Museum and “In the Round” at The Driehaus Museum in Chicago. She also choreographed and performed in Grammy-nominated musician Nico Segal’s “Welcome Home” at Steppenwolf Theatre. She was selected as a choreographer for New Dances 2025, and her work has been commissioned by Grammy-winner Kalia Vandever and MOMENTA Dance Company. Through her company, Philoxenia Movement LLC, Mansour works as a movement director and coach, collaborating with musicians, photographers, models, and visual artists. Her movement direction spans live performance, music projects, and fashion and editorial contexts, including an ongoing collaboration with Greek-American pop artist Tommy Bravos and model movement workshops with photographer Anna Blank. Mansour holds a BFA in Dance from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and is a Cunningham Technique® Authorized Instructor.


Ticket Price(s)


$17

Event Media

Upcoming Dates

2027

January

22

9:30 am

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Venue Location

Ruth Page Center for the Arts

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