Staibdance Summer Intensive in Italy

Applications for our 2024 summer intensive have now closed.
This immersive two-week program will take place July 12-26, 2024 and features daily classes with world-renowned faculty in the beautiful environments of Sant’Agata and Sorrento. Scroll below for details regarding tuition, schedule and faculty. Contact italyprogram@staibdance.com with questions.

 
 

Program Dates: July 12-26, 2024

OUr Mission

The staibdance summer intensive in Sorrento, Italy, serves as a meeting place for emerging and established movement artists from across the globe. Participants are encouraged to create collaboratively, embrace spontaneity, build foundations for life-long connections, and hone authentic, unique voices. The intensive is a source for personalized attention and provides individuals time and space for infinite growth as artists. Together, participants merge with the history, customs, and warmth of the region, celebrating cultural exchange.

“This experience taught me who I am and what I want. It allowed me to spend the time inward I’ve been needing in an environment that gave me the ease to do so. It helped me to fall back in love with myself and appreciate my body and what it can do.” - 2023 Intensive Attendee

 
 

2024 program faculty

staibdance Artistic Director
Born in Tehran, Iran, George Staib is of Armenian descent and has been living in the United States since the age of ten. He began his dance training at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in conjunction with the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, then went on to earn an MFA in dance and choreography from Temple University. Company credits include: Ann Vachon/Dance Conduit, Coriolis Dance Company, Gathering Wild Dance Company, and Paula Kellinger and Dancers. In addition, the fall of 2006 provided Staib the opportunity to perform with the José Limón Dance Company as a guest artist in their re-creation of Missa Brevis.

In 2001 Staib joined the dance faculty at Emory University where he teaches contemporary and ballet techniques, choreography, and a seminar created to examine the impetus and practice of consuming and making art. He serves as an adjudicator for and was an 18 year member of the executive committee for the American College Dance Association, and currently  serves as a member of the Board of Trustees for Dance/USA. Since relocating to Atlanta, GA, Staib's work and teaching have been commissioned across the United States resulting in his recognition by Dance Teacher Magazine in 2014 as one of the top five dance educators in the country. As added service to the field, Staib is a contributing writer and critic for ArtsATL.

Staib is a two-time recipient of Emory’s prestigious Winship Award, taking him to Tel Aviv in 2011 to study Gaga, release technique with Iris Enez, and Jerusalem to conduct choreographic workshops. In 2016, Staib and the company were invited to Stockholm to perform and teach at Södra Latins and BalletAkadamien, and subsequently created new work for Saraceno Dance. 

Since the founding of staibdance, he and the company have been awarded funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Emory University Research Committee, The Latham Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, The New England Foundation for the Arts, South Arts and The Vail Family Foundation.

In addition, staibdance curated and produced the first-ever Atlanta Multicultural Dance Festival, created a summer intensive in Sorrento, Italy, now in its 12th year and hosted a 10-part podcast series titled Secret Architecture: the process of process, that features culturally based artists from across the country.

Staib’s most recent accomplishments include promotion to the rank of Professor of Practice at Emory University, engagement as an educator with ImmerseATL, recognition by the Atlanta Regional Commission as an Arts Leader of Metro Atlanta, and in the summer of 2022, Staib served as a faculty member and choreographer for the American Dance Festival in Durham, NC.

photo by Daylilies Photography

Anna Bracewell is an Atlanta based dance artist. She was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia and began her dance training at an early age at Decatur School of Ballet. While continuing her classical training at DSOB, she trained, and went on to graduate from, DeKalb School of the Arts where she studied under the legendary Pamala Jones-Malave. Anna later received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia. Since 2012, she has had the deep pleasure of being a member of staibdance, under the direction of George Staib, where she is a dancer, collaborator and teacher. Anna was also a member of Core Dance from 2012-2020. As a Dance Artist with Core Dance she has performed in theaters, museums, public spaces, and festivals across the United States, France, Spain and Israel. In her time with the company, Anna has had the opportunity to move and create original works with notable artists such as Niv Sheinfeld & Oren Laor (Tel Aviv), Germana Civera (France/Spain), Frank van de Ven (Amsterdam), Amanda K. Miller (Germany/U.S.), Isabelle Saulle & Adolfo Vargas (France), Leslie Scates (U.S.), D. Patton White, Lori Teague and Sue Schroeder (U.S.). In addition to her collaborations with Core Dance, Anna is able to practice her work with outreach through the Dynamic X-Change Healing Arts Program in pursuit to ignite the creative spirit and actively encourage participation and conversation by and with communities.

In her years of dancing professionally in Atlanta, Anna has also created and collaborated with local artists Blake Beckham (The Lucky Penny), Joshua Rackliffe, Erik Thurmond and Catellier Dance Projects!.

Anna was recognized as “Best Dancer” in Atlanta by ArtsATL.org in 2018 and has been internationally recognized in her collaborative work with: Association Manifeste (Toulouse, France) in which she performed in several public corner spaces across France and the U.S., and in her work with Niv Sheinfeld and Oren Laor performed in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Photo by Daylilies Photography

My name is Leah Cox. I live in Austin, Texas, and I have two kids on the younger side of life. I am firmly planted on the older side.  My aspirational life project is to somehow repurpose the useless toys my kids get into teaching tools.

I teach (mostly dance and dance-related courses) at the University of Texas at Austin. My happy place is teaching embodied creativity and creative thinking.  Exposing our wildest imaginings to the light of day and abandoning standards of success is my idea of a good time.  

I like teaching.

Most of the time.  

Here are the required name drops in my bio so you can trust me a little bit: dancer with Liz Lerman on her latest project, Wicked Bodies; former Dean of the American Dance Festival; formerly on faculty at Bard College; former dancer and education director for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company.

Creative failure credits: I made a lot of material as a professional dancer that graces the cutting room floor, and I can recall at least two instances of falling onstage when I wasn’t supposed to. One was at Lincoln Center.  I have had my share of student complaints memorialized in course evaluation forms.  Jury’s out on whether the comments are more about the student or me.  I made the Failure Collective workshop and got Joshua Dutton-Reaver to make a webpage about it. The webpage might be better than the workshop.  I’m going to try again this year.  We’ll see.

I am not an expert in visual art, writing, or psychology, but I dabble in all of those and inconsistently incorporate them into my classes, dancemaking, and life.

My current passion project is the dance I am making with George Staib, titled Group Therapy. It’s a solo with no imperative to make money or receive funding. But we are enjoying ourselves and have brought on theatre-maker Kristen Osborn as a collaborator.  She’s a total delight.

Photo by Shannel Resto, SJR Photography

Sarah Hillmer has dedicated over 19 years to the professional dance world as a dancer, assistant to choreographers, ballet master, stager, educator, and creator. 

Her company credits include the Atlanta Ballet, glo-as a founding member, and staibdance. During Sarah’s tenure as Ballet Master at the Atlanta Ballet, she worked alongside world-renowned figures in the ballet world, and coached dancers in seminal works by Ohad Naharin, Jiří Kylián, Wayne McGregor, Gustavo Ramírez Sansano, John McFall, Helgi Tomasson, Gemma Bond, Craig Davidson, Ricardo Amarante and Yuri Possokhov. It was during her time at the Atlanta Ballet that ongoing artistic relationships with Twyla Tharp and Helen Pickett were forged. She was instrumental in the building of their full-length ballets and continues to stage their work globally. Sarah’s work as a stager and assistant have taken her to Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, Oklahoma City Ballet, Smuin Ballet, New York Theatre Ballet, UNCSA, UArts, Pennsylvania Ballet, Scottish Ballet, Alberta Ballet, Boston Ballet and Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre.

In 2017 Sarah formed ImmerseATL, a dance training & mentorship program for emerging artists that serves as a gateway to the professional world of contemporary dance in Atlanta and beyond. ImmerseATL provides classes, mentorships, performance opportunities, and professional connections for its Artists who join the year-long program.

Sarah is an active member of the Atlanta dance scene, serving as a guest teacher for Kennesaw State University, Brenau University, Spelman College, Emory University and Terminus Modern Ballet Theatre. As a choreographer, Sarah has been commissioned to create work for Atlanta Ballet’s Wabi Sabi, Backside of the Tent Productions, Emory Dance Company and Admix Project. In 2019, Sarah was a co-collaborator with George Staib on staibdance’s production of “fence”, which was funded by a grant from the New England Foundation for the Arts, National Dance Project.

Sarah currently serves as the Executive Director for staibdance. During her tenure she has planned and managed 6 national tours, 2 world premieres, annual workshops, (MC)2-Atlanta’s first multi-cultural dance festival, as well as a docuseries based on (MC)2 and a podcast series, Secret Architecture: the process of process.
sarahjhillmer.com

Photo by Daylilies Photography

 

Born in Tel Aviv in 1995, Nimrod Poles is a graduate of the dance department at the Aleph High School of Arts and the  ’Maslool’ - Professional Dance Training Program in Tel Aviv. Nimrod danced with Batsheva - The Young Ensemble (artistic director: Ohad Naharin) in the 2013/2014 season, performing in Israel and abroad. From 2014 to 2017, he worked with the choreographers Sharon Vazanna, Miquel G. Font, Maya Popova and Ido Tadmor and in the 2017/2018 season was engaged as a guest dancer with Graz Oper Ballett, Austria (artistic director: Jörg Weinöhl). In the 2018/2019 season, Nimrod worked with the dance company at Theater St. Gallen, Switzerland (artistic director: Beate Vollack) and danced in pieces by Felix Landerer, Yuki Mori and Beate Vollack. From August 2019 until June 2021, he was a member of Tanz Linz (artistic director: Mei-Hong Lin) at the Landestheater Linz, Austria. As of July 2021, Nimrod is a freelance artist based in Graz, Austria, creating his own work and taking part in projects with Emanuele Soavi, Sebastian Weber, Theater Bonn, Wang Ramirez, Eva-Maria Schaller, Filip Löbl, Bruna Diniz Afonso and Kunsthaus Graz, among others. Since August 2023, Nimrod has also been a certified Countertechnique® teacher.

Oliver Robertson (He/Him) is a movement artist, researcher and practitioner currently based in Brighton. Interested in contemporary floorwork, Oliver’s movement style takes inspiration from martial arts, capoeira, breakdance and acrobatics, and more specifically how the combination of these can create unique ways of moving that no longer fall into any of these boxes.

Since graduating Northern School of Contemporary Dance in 2019, Oliver gained his MA whilst on a placement program with James Wilton Dance company, performing multiple full length works across Europe. Continuing his work with James Wilton Dance where he has taken the role of Education Manager, teaching workshops to schools, universities and dance companies across the UK and European countries such as Italy, Germany, Sweden & Romania. Aside from teaching, Oliver has danced for music artist Fred Again as part of his US tour visuals, toured Ireland with Roisin Whelan Dance and choreographed commissions for Youth Academies across the country.

Gavriel Spitzer graduated from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance in 2000 and was a dancer with the Batsheva Ensemble and the Batsheva Dance Company from 2000-2008. In 2009 Gavriel joined Suzanne Dellal productions, working with choreographers Barak Marshall and Renana Raz. He has been a member of the Gaga teaching staff since 2002, teaching both Gaga and repertoire by Ohad Naharin both in Israel and abroad. Gavriel has also been the stage manager of the Batsheva Ensemble since 2012 and in 2019 became the Ensemble's rehearsal director. Gavriel was one of the teachers at the Ido Portal Israel facility and has been a therapist in the Ilan Lev method since 2008.

 

TUITION & schedule

TUITION

Tuition includes:

  • 11 days of intensive study; 3 classes and rehearsals daily

  • 15 nights accommodation at the 4-star Hotel Montana - Double, Triple or Quad room, private bath, air conditioning

  • Full breakfast and dinner daily at the Hotel Montana

  • Group beach excursion

  • 1 outdoor performance in Sant'Agata's central piazza

  • Round trip airport transportation by private bus and car

Total Tuition: $3,525

(Tuition does not include airfare, lunches, or alternative travel arrangements)

Space is limited, and SPOTS WILL BE FILLED ON A FIRST-COME, FIRST-SERVED BASIS. A non-refundable deposit of $750 is due within 3 weeks of acceptance.

SChEDULE / EXCURSIONS

Friday, July 12
Welcome reception at Hotel Montana overlooking the Bay of Naples and Mount Vesuvius

Saturday, July 13
First day of classes

Wednesday, July 17
Group beach excursion to Conca Del Sogno Beach Club

  • Transportation, entrance to the beach, sunbeds, umbrellas, and lunch included

Monday, July 22
Free day to explore the Amalfi coast

  • Attendees have a break from classes and are encouraged to explore the Amalfi coast. Suggested day tips include: Capri, Positano, Pompeii, Sorrento, Herculaneum, Mt. Vesuvius, and Naples

Friday, July 26
Tech and public performance at Sant'Agata's central piazza

Saturday, July 27
Morning departure and hotel checkout

 

Scholarship applications for our 2024 summer intensive have now closed.

 

Please contact italyprogram@staibdance.com with questions.