Our programs center the choreographer as a catalyst for social change, self-expression, and community building. Through movement-based workshops and courses, we invite participants to connect deeply with their bodies, question norms, and explore identity.
workshops at
Aeris Körper
Neighbourhood Moves is back — find your groove.
Formerly known as move: Here&Now, our monthly nomadic workshop series now has a new name: Neighbourhood Moves.
We’re still wandering around Hamilton, popping up in new places on the last Saturday of each month, from 2–4PM for the next 6 months! The vibe? No experience needed, just bring your curiousity and a willingness to move in and with the community!
Each workshop is guided by a different guest facilitator, offering unique perspectives and approaches to movement. Whether you identify as a dancer or not, there’s space for you here.
Why do we do this?
Because dance doesn’t belong to a select few. Because joy, expression, and embodiment are for everyone. Because we believe in disrupting the limiting norms of what dance is “supposed” to look like.
In this space, all bodies are dance bodies.
Come move with your friendly neighbours!
Upcoming Workshops.
OCTOBER 25th, 2025 / 2-4 pm / PWYC
@ Studio Zee Pilates, 430 York Blvd.
Jenna will be sharing choreography influenced by her diverse dance background, incorporating elements of Contemporary, Hip-Hop and Street Dance. With emphasis on storytelling, Harris will cover approaches to movement texture, style and performance. Be sure to come with comfortable sneakers! Open to all levels.
Open Choreography
with Jenna Harris
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Jenna Harris (she/they) is a Hamilton-based dancer and choreographer. They have over a decade of training in West African, Caribbean Folk, Modern, Ballet and Hip Hop dance from their time at the Collective of Black Artists (COBA). She also attended the Regional Arts program at Cawthra Park Secondary School as a dance major. Since moving to Hamilton in 2018, Jenna has been a member of various competitive dance crews in the city, including Republic and RXD. Through their time with these teams, they have also gained experience in street dance styles such as House, Locking and Popping. She has performed throughout the city at Supercrawl, Fresh Up Festival and as a cast member of the Uncomfortable Project. Jenna is the creator, director and choreographer for WASH DAY, a Hamilton Arts Week Signature Event. They also teach Commercial Choreo for competitive teams at Defining Movement Dance.
NOVEMBER 29th, 2025 / 2-4 pm / PWYC
@ Ore Movement Studio, 140 Locke St. S
This workshop invites participants into a two-hour journey of embodied discovery through functional movement and free-form dance. Supported through a sonic landscape by DJ Savage Good, LOR will guide movers into practices that invite curiosity, care, and presence. Through gentle facilitation and an emphasis on the body's inherent wisdom, this workshop will encourage participants to move authentically, whether new to dance or experienced. Together we will explore dance and embodiment not as performance, but as a pathway to belonging, liberation, joy and connection.
Unbound: Dance & Release
with LOR + DJ Savage Good
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LOR is a FilipinX queer embodiment artist and facilitator. She weaves mindfulness practices, functional movement, ecstatic dance and ritual as pathways to embodied liberation and authentic relating. Her offerings are rooted in trauma awareness and led to inspire self-exploration, curiousity and creative care. She’s trained with GOODBODYFEEL, The 360 Emergence, The Embody Lab, Somatic Soul Coach School, and Downward Dog Yoga Center.
LOR aims to empower folks - especially those made to be marginalized - to resource their inherent wisdom, embodied agency and expression to foster a trusting relationship with their mind, body and soul and the wider community.
Honouring Land through Movement Inspirations
with Heryka Miranda
DECEMBER 27th, 2025 / 2-4 pm / PWYC
@ The Cotton Factory, 270 Sherman Ave N
This experiential workshop invites participants to connect with the heart of the sky and earth through breath, gentle movement, and improvisational dance, inspired by memories and stories held in the body from a land that holds personal significance. Together, we will explore the Seven Galactic Directions, embody the values of the Dish with One Spoon Treaty, and engage in a process of renewal through connection, movement, and shared experience.
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Heryka Miranda (she/her), Spirit name 'Blue Hummingbird', is a first-generation Guatemalan-US American choreographer and dance educator, honoured to live on the traditional territories of the Mississauga of the Credit, Anishinaabe, and Haudenosaunee peoples. Her dynamic dance practice weaves together ecological land dance, expressive arts therapies, and sacred traditions, with movement as a powerful tool for liberation, healing, and community. Committed to accessibility and the transformative power of embodied expression, Heryka works to make dance an inclusive and meaningful experience for all.
Kathak Intro
with Priyanka Topé
JANUARY 31st, 2026 / 2-4 pm / PWYC
@ Magnolia Hall, 115 Hunter St. W
This Kathak workshop introduces participants to the technical foundations and expressive qualities of North Indian classical dance. The session will focus on core elements such as rhythmic footwork (tatkaar), precise spins (chakkars), and the use of hand gestures (mudras) to convey meaning. Participants will also explore abhinaya—the storytelling aspect of Kathak—learning how expression, gesture, and rhythm combine to bring narratives to life. Through guided practice and short combinations, dancers will experience both the physical discipline and the expressive depth of Kathak, gaining an appreciation for its balance of structure, improvisation, and storytelling traditions.
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Priyanka is an emerging Kathak artist, choreographer, vocalist, and dance educator originally from New York, now based in Hamilton, Canada. She began studying Kathak at a young age under Pandita Guru Archana Joglekar and has continued her training for over a decade with her teacher and mentor Parul Shah. Priyanka has also trained in Bharatanatyam under Smt. Guru Satya Pradeep.
When Priyanka moved to Hamilton in 2022, the city lacked a Kathak community. Since then, she has made it her mission to foster a growing community through teaching at her home and McMaster University. Priyanka’s aim is to raise awareness of Kathak and strengthen Hamilton’s diverse arts scene.
Movement Through Play
with Jody Boston
FEBRUARY 28th, 2026 / 2-4 pm / PWYC
@ Dundas Museum & Archives, 139 Park St. W
Movement Through Play invites people of all bodies and abilities to explore dance as a playful way to laugh, move, and connect. Led by therapeutic clown Jody Boston, this workshop uses games, improvisation, and comedic prompts to spark creativity, expression, and fun. Activities are guided by the group’s energy and each person’s needs—participants set the pace. No dance experience is necessary, just a willingness to move and play in your own way. The session concludes with a lighthearted group dance that celebrates creativity, laughter, and the joy of being ourselves together.
Grief & Gentle Movement
with Allie Blumas
MARCH 28th, 2026 / 2-4 pm / PWYC
@ TBA
This gentle movement and grief workshop offers a supportive space to explore grief as something tangible, approachable, and deeply human. By connecting more intentionally to the physical sensations of grief in our bodies, we begin to understand how we respond to and move through difficult times. Somatic simply means relating to the body, and how our emotions live and show up within it. When combined with gentle movement, it provides a conscious, compassionate, and non-intrusive way to engage with our internal experiences. Grounded in the ethos of arriving as you are and doing what you need, this workshop invites curiosity, presence, and self-trust.
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Jody Boston (she/her) is a therapeutic clown practitioner with Red Nose Remedy, working in healthcare settings. An arts educator, she teaches drama in Hamilton schools, privately teaches improv and clown, and appears as a guest artist at McMaster University. As director of Under the Willows, she leads a multidisciplinary team of artists delivering outdoor arts, garden, and play programs for pediatric mental health and developmental support services. Boston has taught Therapeutic Modality courses at Mohawk College and works as a community arts consultant. Recent performances include Femme Arts (Farts) Comedy, Eiler’s Dance Theatre, Open Hearts Theatre, and FiXT POINT.
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Allie is a non-binary dancer, musician and death doula currently living on the traditional land of the Erie, Neutral, Huron-Wendat, Mississaguas, and Haudenosaunne people. Colonial known as Hamilton, ON. Allie graduated from Concordia University in 2013 with a BFA in Contemporary Dance, as well as a Minor in Religious Studies. Their current artistic practice explores how we can embody and move through the sensations evoked by landscapes to engage with grief and death, ultimately deepening our proprioceptive awareness. Their explorations in presences, and their work as a death doula, challenges the way dance and movement are commonly expressed and experienced. Allie is a founding member of Tkaronto (Toronto) based dance collective Open Fortress who explore collaboration through the use of different types of technology, sound and movement to create non-traditional and subversive atmospheres. They are also a founding member of the musical group DOOMSQUAD (2011-2020), and new musical project A L M A.
Creation & Conversations
A Solo Dance Lab on Choreography & Critique
Photo by Katrina Medalle of a work-in-progress showing of Fairly Becoming by Mayumi Lashbrook, a solo choreographed in Solo Dance Lab, Toronto.
About the Series
Aeris Körper brings the inaugural Solo Dance Lab to Hamilton!
The Lab was created by the prolific choreographer and performer, Denise Fujiwara, to support choreographers in the most challenging of choreographic forms; the solo. Creation & Conversations follows the 5 week Lab structure, plus a culminating social for Hamilton choreographers and dance artists to deepen community connections.
This process is a path to finding, developing and deepening one’s own voice as a dance artist. Develop your work with prompts and feedback from Denise, advancing your creativity and choreography while in community with peers. Through this Lab, which includes talks, homework assignments, informal showings and feedback, we give space to ask questions, experiment, and allow for trial and error, all in service of growing our knowledge, skills and ability to create solos.
CRITERIA
Choreographers must be Hamilton-based, work primarily in Hamilton, OR face similar regional barriers to choreographic study. Choreographers should have a solo work in progress to focus on throughout the lab - it may be new, in-development, or previously performed and needing fresh developments. Aeris Körper recognizes the barriers to developing choreographic skill and practicing the art of choreography in Hamilton are high; choreographers with little to no experience are encouraged to apply and will be considered.
A cohort of 5 choreographers will be selected to maximize enrichment.
Denise Fujiwara’s work as a dance artist has developed over 45 years of intensive practice, performance and study. Her most influential mentors include master dance pedagogue and dramaturg Elizabeth Langley, and the late Japanese Butoh masters Natsu Nakajima and Yukio Waguri. She has developed a practice of Butoh that artfully assists participants to experience deeply embodied movement through the cultivation of curiosity, the imagination, awareness and presence. Her solo repertoire has travelled to 4 continents. She has led workshops and master classes across Canada and the U.S.A., in Denmark, Poland, Germany, the U.K., Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador and India. She is a recipient of the Toronto Arts Foundation’s Muriel Sherrin Award for international achievement in dance and the Canada Council for the Arts’ Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts and distinguished career achievement. www.fujiwaradance.com
“The Solo Lab helped me clarify what I want to work on. I loved working in a small group and witnessing others’ processes and the dialogues. I am so inspired to continue. This was a definite breakthrough experience.”
“This lab brought in a curiosity and a freedom I never expected. I experienced a state of ‘no judgement’, which was incredibly liberating. It has changed me as an artist and has deeply inspired me. ”
DATES: 5 SUNDAYS
October 26-November 30th
TIME: 1-5pm*
*November 30th will conclude with a social from 5-6pm
PLACE: ANDTHENYOU, Upstairs Studio
145 Main St. E, Hamilton
INVESTMENT: $300*
*Further subsidies are available; please inquire at info@aeriskorper.com. The cost of Solo Dance Lab in Toronto is $400.
Expressions of Interest are due Thursday, September 25th at 11:59PM
Applicants will be notified by October 1st, 2025.
Photo by MP Photography
Meet Your Facilitator
Photo by Denise Grant
Body Space Creation Place
with Dreamwalker Dance Company
Dreamwalker Dance Company invites you to join us in expanding and opening our bodies and minds through a series of free wellness movement experiences facilitated by skilled artists. These videos are created for you, and are available 24/7 for you to delight in the diversely creative approaches found in The Body Space Creation Place practice. Our video sessions are designed to be fun, relaxing, rejuvenating, calming and connecting.
You will be guided into: flowing gentle stretches, simple vocal play, image rich visualizations and movements. No experience is required, just bring a curiosity for exploring, sensing, feeling and moving in space. As you move with us through these videos, please move in ways which fully support what you know to be "safe and supportive to you" in the moment you are doing it. BSCP is designed for our community to share time: gaining experiences and practicing embodied knowing, with the intention to activate this practice beyond the parameters of the session time into lived experiences with family, friends and community.
Session 1
Guided by Sid Ryan Eilers
with Shannon Kitchings and Mayumi Lashbrook.
Music from macrophone: aleatoric solo duets for electro-acoustic hurdy gurdy by Ben Grossman
Special thanks to: Henry Mak
Session 2
Guided by Mayumi Lashbrook
with Shannon Kitchings and Sid Ryan Eilers.
Dance music: Song for Slow Motion
by Joshua Van Tassel
Special thanks to: Henry Mak
Dancing is for Everyone
Online Education Course
Let’s get sweaty! We’re bringing dance to your home with these invigorating online workshops. This course is for YOU. You do not need any prior experience with dance and these workshops were designed to keep you creative and investing in your magnificent body.
The online course Dancing is for Everyone includes:
Introduction Video (7 min)
Video #1: Warming Up and Tuning Into Creativity (25 min)
Video #2: Curiosity and Precision: the creators tools (25 min)
Video #3: Dancing Like Nobody's Watching: a guided improvisation (20 min)
What to bring:
• Water
• Comfy clothing
• Space to move (this can truly be anywhere - we have found taking a few minutes to make it a creativity welcoming space - opening the curtains, bringing in a potted plant)
• Journal and pen
This course costs $45.00. Upon purchase, you will be emailed a private link to access in perpetuity.
This course was made possible by the Ontario Arts Council and is filmed in Hamilton, Ontario, at the Goodbody Feel Studio.
Past Workshops.
January 25th, 2025 / 1-3 pm / PWYC
@ eFIT Institute, 105 Beach Rd, Hamilton, ON
i am always curious about our physical relationships to spaces, and what makes a place feel like home. even further, i am curious about how our sense of home in our own bodies might contribute to our sense of belonging in community.
in this workshop, you can expect to take some time to get grounded, create familiarity with the space and the others in it, and learn some improvisational tools that will culminate in a final, collective jam.
come ready to move your body, connect with others, gather your thoughts in writing, and play! all are welcome.
homebodies with Skye Rogers
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Skye Rogers (she/her) is a dance and theatre artist based in Attiwandaronia (Hamilton, Ontario), dearly devoted to making spaces for people to feel at home. Skye was the RBC Apprentice Choreographer with Musical Stage Co. in 2023-24, and is a graduate of Brock University (Arts & Culture, 2022) and Randolph College for the Performing Arts (Triple Threat, 2019).
Skye’s creative process is collaborative and wholehearted, and her practice spans choreography, workshop facilitation, devised theatre creation, and performance. She has worked with Aeris Körper, Ontario Culture Days, Suitcase in Point, Frog in Hand, Stand Up Dance, and Spindle Collective, among others.
Photo by Joshua McMillan
February 22nd, 2025 / 1-3 PM / PWYC
@ Hamilton Artists Inc., 155 James St N, Hamilton, ON
Fareh Malik will be going over some of the basics of hip-hop dance, movement, and choreography, and how it can apply to beginner and intermediate levels of dance.
Hip-hop & Choreography
with Fareh Malik
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Fareh Malik was a co-founder and choreographer for Hamilton's Vie Division, a co-founder and choreographer for Mississauga-based collective GLUM, and is currently a co-founder and director of the Hamilton competitive company RXD.
He’ll be presenting his piece, “Drown,” at the upcoming Here&Now Festival, presented by Aeris Körper in April 2025.
Contemporary Dance & Choreography
with Julia Garlisi
March 29th, 2025 / 1-3 PM / PWYC
@ The Staircase | The Bright Room, 27 Dundurn St N, Hamilton, ON
This workshop will be based in contemporary dance using expression, interpretation, improvisation, and aspects of choreography. Classic movement, dynamic form, and an emphasis on communicating with our bodies through time and space. Personal interpretation is the cornerstone throughout the whole dance workshop. What will YOU bring to the movement and choreography? All levels welcome!
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Julia Garlisi is a nationally and internationally acclaimed dance artist, performer, and choreographer based in Hamilton, Ontario. She is a graduate of the Dance Arts Institute Canada (formerly The School of Toronto Dance Theatre Professional Training Program). Julia performed, danced, and toured extensively as a company member of Dancetheatre David Earle for over 15 years. Currently, Julia is an active freelance performer and choreographer. Independently, she has had the pleasure of performing and working with Katie Ewald, Denise Duric, Newton Moraes, Suzette Sherman, Lacey Smith, Imageo Artworks, Toronto Heritage Dance and The Niagara Dance Company. Choreographically, her work has been commissioned for Art of Creation, Guelph Dance Festival, Stratford Spring Works Indie Theatre & Art Festival, Dancetheatre David Earle, The Suzuki String School, Dusk Dances Hamilton, Art Spin Hamilton, Short&Sweet (Guelph) and Internationally (Austria, Germany, Italy) for the SIBA Performance Tour. Julia is the founder and Artistic Director of Dance Contemporary. A platform to educate, create, and express our bodies through classes, workshops, and performances based in Modern and Contemporary dance.
AWE IS NOT PRECIOUS AWE IS EVERYWHERE with Camille Huang
SUNDAY, April 27th, 2025 / 11AM - 1PM / PWYC
@ McMaster University, Togo Salmon Hall, Room 118
AWE IS NOT PRECIOUS AWE IS EVERYWHERE is an experiment where participants enter into a writing of a fictional dance world. Together, through a practice of guided improvisation and choreographic tasks, we will enter a dance, sweat, and open pockets of shared/private imaginations, allowing for the messiness of creation. We will conjure remembered information together, tapping into the body as a vessel for transporting information. This workshop invites questions, messiness and contradictions of the body to lead us into a pool of awe. Through a series of creative or choreographic exercises, we will enter a training ground for diving into dancing, astonishment and unknown worlds.
We will practice being unprecious with creative decisions and draw a thread through various creative tools. Expect to move, dance and write. bring pen and paper, comfortable clothes to move in and a water bottle. This open level offering is based in contemporary dance and open towards anyone with movement practice.
THERE IS ENOUGH AWE for everyone, forever.
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Camille Huang is making works unfolding between the realms of dance, scenography and experimental performance. Guided by attention and agency, Camille explores plural making sense of identity, relations and possible futures. They are part of the asian diaspora and a settler living in Tiotiá:ke / Montreal. Their choreographic works have been presented at SummerWorks Festival, OFFTA, Festival Entractes and Tangente. Camille received her training in contemporary dance performance (EDCM) and anthropology. Their solo work “Slug Meal” is nominated for the Prix du CALQ 2024 Work of an Emerging Artist.
As a dancer and freelance artist, they have worked on the teams of Dana Gringas (Animals of Distinction), Lucy M. May, and Sarah Rossy. They have received mentorship from Angélique Willkie and Mélanie Demers as part of the ATLAS choreographic programme of Impulstanz 2023.
Photo by Julie Artacho