Virtual Soul Arts Immersion
Soul Arts Academy’s Virtual Summer Program gives students the opportunity to pursue their passions and study with experts in the fields of Dance, Voice, Creative Writing, and Digital Arts.
Virtual
Soul Arts
Immersion
Virtual Summer Program 2020
Our online program brings this unique experience directly to you, wherever you are in the world. Each one-week session encourages students to think critically and creatively while training in and exploring the arts. Highlights will include live instruction in DANCE, VOICE, SPOKEN WORD, exciting guest speakers and remote content via Google Classroom.
Dance
Mind-Body Wellness
Voice
Spoken Word
View Dates & Rates
Virtual Soul Arts Immersion 2020 is a one week program offered in two separate sessions. Students may enroll in both for a 10% tuition discount.
Session 1: July 20 – July 24 (WAITLIST ONLY)
Session 2: July 27 – July 31
Program Fee: $395
Click HERE for Tuition Assistance/Scholarship Application
View Class Descriptions
Dance
Contemporary & Improv
Contemporary Dance is a style of expressive dance that combines elements of several genres including modern, jazz, lyrical and ballet. All classes are open level and modified to best fit participants. Students will work toward creating their own short piece of unconventional choreography.
Musical Theater Dance
Musical theater dance is the study of Broadway dance and dance styles, adding elements of acting and storytelling. Each class, students will learn a short piece of fun choreography from an instructor who was actually in that Broadway Show! Only in NYC do we have access to the best Broadway Dancers in the world!
Hip Hop
Class focuses on the popular urban style of dance. Class work consists cardio warm-up, stretch, and developing a vocabulary of steps and short combinations!
World
High-energy classes where students explore the rich diversity of traditional dance styles through rhythm and movement.
Bomba:
Both a traditional dance and musical style of Puerto Rico. It’s origins are rooted in the island’s history of African slavery. Bomba is a creative and interactive relationship between dancers and percussionist. Live Drummer!
Creative Writing & Spoken Word
Our writing component encourages every student to find their voice and tell their story. Class will incorporate a mix of direct instruction on creative writing tips, short activities to build confidence and gain skills, and critiques that encourage personal growth. We aim to incite a passion for writing in students and an understanding of the power words carry. The class will meet writers where they are and help them further develop their style and creativity.
Voice
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but it is just the beginning. Finding your own voice opens doors to a world that is hungering for artists who embrace their individuality. Class will first explore breathing and the singer’s connection to their primary instrument, the body. Students will explore vocal exercises that help create a stable and connected sound. Selected repertoire will allow students to incorporate this foundational technique while developing their unique abilities and style. Class will include live performance and video submissions of short selections, and constructive feedback from our seasoned vocal instructor.
Frequently Asked Questions
What can we expect? What makes Virtual Soul Arts Immersion different? How is the program taught? You have questions. We have the answers.
Virtual
Summer
Program
Faculty
Rosie Lanziero
Founder/director Rosie Lanziero is a working professional artist. She has been involved in the performing arts her entire life, with Broadway, film, commercial, studio session, theater and professional dance credits under her belt. She a graduate of the Harkness Dance Education Laboratory and holds a degree in Arts Education and Clinical Counseling (pending). Rosie’s style of teaching comes directly from her love of life and artistic expression. She has a pure, honest and uninhibited creative energy which cannot help but be passed on to her faculty and students.
“When I see them embracing the entire creative process – feeling it in their bodies, writing about it, singing it, asking for more, that’s when I know they are getting it, that it belongs to them and will stay with them throughout their lifetimes.” RL
Anna Moskowitz
Anna Moskowitz is a 2019 graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University. At Barnard, she studied directing and psychology, and recently worked as an administrative assistant in the President’s Office. In New York City she has worked with Corkscrew Theatre Festival, The Broadway League, and Broadway Teacher’s Workshop. Anna is from Minneapolis, MN, and has assistant directed productions at major regional theaters in the Twin Cities including the Children’s Theatre Company and Theatre Latte Da. She has also worked as an actor and in company development at the Guthrie Theater. Anna was the Hennepin Theatre Trust Spotlight Triple Threat Award Winner in 2015, and she continues to direct, produce, perform, and work in arts education in New York and Minneapolis.
Danita Shaheen
Danita Shaheen is a dancer and choreographer who has always drawn inspiration from a wide variety of artistic mediums. She was classically trained in Balanchine technique under the direction of former New York City Ballet soloist David Otto and the Capital Ballet Company. Shaheen has done intensive training with the Boston Ballet, River North Dance Company, Burklyn Ballet, Bates Dance Festival, and Parsons Dance. She graduated magna cum laude from Marymount Manhattan College’s BFA program and has been performing professionally in New York since 2006. During that time she has had the honor of working with Jacobs/Campbell Dance, Ariel Rivka Dance, Dance Cat-alyst, Gehring Dancetheatre, Banana Peel Dance, Tamara Saari Dance, Ryan McNally, Remi Harris, MAD About Dance , H.T. Chen and Dancers, AERA, Beth Soll & Company, Andrea Gise and Dancers, Laura Ward/ Octavia Cup Dance Theatre, and Nina Buisson Contemporary Move. Danita’s own works, including collaborations with various choreographers and artists, have been seen throughout the metropolitan region. Shaheen is a founding member and head choreographer for Dance Riot Rep., a local contemporary dance company. She is also the founder and President of the Alternative Arts Association, a multimedia arts organization and registered 501c3. www.alternativearts.org
Lisa Larson
Lindsay Detwiler
Lindsay is a high school English teacher and author. She started writing Voice of Innocence while still in college, and it was published in February of 2015. She aims to show the power of love and the beauty of life through her writing while also instilling a true sense of realism. She examines the difficult questions, looks at the tough emotions, and paints the pictures that are sometimes difficult to look at. Lindsay’s fiction resonates with readers as realistic, poetic, and powerful. She achieves this through her unique narrative voice, and easily relatable characters. Lindsay hopes to inspire students and other aspiring writers to pursue their own passions.
Sage Caprice Abowitt
Sage Caprice Abowitt is a certified yoga instructor, birth doula, and childbirth educator who specializes in providing training that is adaptive, creative, and joyful.
A classically trained dancer, Caprice committed to a yoga practice after sustaining a severe back injury in college. After teaching yoga for more than a decade, she now specializes in prenatal and postnatal yoga and yoga for children. She is a certified doula and Childbirth Educator, and provides education and support to expecting students and their families. Caprice has designed children’s yoga programs for a variety of diverse organizations and leads children’s yoga teacher trainings in NYC and abroad. Additionally, she is a senior teacher and co-leads teacher trainings at the Prenatal Yoga Center, and is a founding instructor for Birth Smarter.
She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and son.
Ashley Blaire Fitzgerald
Milteri Tucker
Milteri Tucker was born and raised in Puerto Rico. She is the founder and artistic director of BOMBAZO Dance Co., New York’s leading Bomba dance company. Ms. Tucker holds degrees in dance, biology, and chemistry from New York University, as well as a master’s degree in dance education. She has performed and showcased her work at prolific theaters including New York City Center, Alvin Ailey, Pregones Theater, Thalia Spanish Theatre, Castillo Theatre, El Museo del Barrio, and Lehman Center for the Performing Arts. As an educator and master Bomba dancer, Ms. Tucker lectures in dance departments internationally and has worked for dance companies and choreographers from the United States, Puerto Rico, the Carribbean. Ms. Tucker starred in the Macy’s Herald Square tribute to Josephine Baker in 2007. She has also performed in Broadway’s Easter Bonnet and at the Latin Billboard Awards. Ms. Tucker is featured in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s upcoming 2021 film adaptation of “In The Heights.”
Robert Taylor Jr.
Robert Taylor Jr. is an American entertainer whose goal is to inspire and spread love and peace to people of all ages through music and dance. He was born and raised in Coney Island and developed a love for music and dance as a young child. He went to John Dewey High School and trained under the late John Goring in the styles of Modern, Ballet, Afro Caribbean, and Jazz. During this time, Robert’s first Hip-Hop teacher, also a student of John Goring, was Eddie Morales. He graduated from Marymount Manhattan College with a B.A. in Dance and a minor in Musical Theatre, where he studied the Graham, Horton, and Limon techinques, as well as acting, theater, and other styles of dance. He also performed in several musicals, including New Girl In Town and The Boyfriend.
Later, Robert went on to study with teachers such as Brian Green, The Amountboyz, Jared Grimes, Ephrat “Bounce” Asherie, Eric Jenkins, Jamie Jackson, Future, Eric Negron, and Spex. He performed for Michael Jackson, in 2002 with a singing/dancing group called Uneti.
Robert was selected as one of the nation’s top 20 contestants for Season 8 of So You Think You Can Dance, and made it to the top 16. Other credits include American Idol Season 3, So You Think You Can Dance Season 2, MTV’s ‘Say What? Karaoke, Kat Deluna’s Whine Up music video, and the national tour of Hairspray as a singer/dancer/actor in 2008. He has performed for Michael Jackson at Webster Hall for the Sony Music protest party, and danced for L.L. Cool J at Carnegie Hall for the CBS Network Rundown (choreographed by Gio Hubela from Iconic). He also performed with Rihanna as a recording artist/entertainer for the Peace and Love festival in Sweden in 2012. Robert recently performed in Rihanna’s Budweiser commercial with fellow faculty member Anthony Rue II aka AntBoogie. This past summer, he was a part of America’s Got Talent as a finalist with The Mothmen. Recently he worked with Sarah O’Gleby for a Target industrial in which John Legend was the character of The Rat King.
Robert’s latest accomplishment was being in the original Broadway cast of the Tony Award winning musical SpongeBob SquarePants.
John Del Cueto
Originally hailing from Texas, John Del Cueto is pretty much a native New Yorker after 25 plus years in the city. Although he started his career on Wall Street, his heart and soul belonged to music and the arts and so he has spent the last decade and a half exploring and honing his craft working with people from all walks of life, of all ages….through music! Through his work at Middle Collegiate Church as the director of their Gospel Choir he has taken that group on air with The Today Show, Good Morning America, Carnegie Hall and most recently CBS for A Bold New Love – Christmas special. In addition to this he has had the privilege of preparing and leading his choir at Shakespeare in the Park’s – The Tempest with Norm Lewis. His gospel chorus was one of the featured groups in New York Theatre Workshop’s production of David Greig and John Brown’s play – The Events. He has worked with artists in the music world such as Moby, Roseanne Cash, Tituss Burgess and Joan Baez. In addition to this work, John is also a music consultant and works regularly in schools and community organizations helping students to find their “best” voice, tailoring programs for all sorts of events that celebrate life and accomplishment. John has also received his Certificate of Completion in Orff Schulwerk. This was a three year process that focuses on a particular teaching philosophy developed by Carl Orff and Gunild Keetman. This approach to music allows children to develop their instincts to imitate, experiment, play and then create music.
Gordon “Nappy G” Clay
Nappy G (a.k.a. G-Don) is a Brooklyn-based producer, DJ, and long-time percussionist in NYC’s dance club scene. A veteran frontman in his own right, Nappy G has shifted his energies and used his musical expertise to become a respected beatmaker and digital music composer, as well as a video editor/director.
As a DJ, Nappy G is known for his unique take on Latin rhythms and Afro-based sounds, flavored and accented by his deep history of Soul, Hip-Hop, and Funk. In 2011, he created a new style of music that fuses these sounds – called the “FUNKY PASSPORT” sound. This style brings together uptempo music (Tropicales, Latin House, Electro, Kuduro, Afro House, Bailefunk, and Samba), mixes it with mid-tempo sounds (Moombahton, Funky Breaks, Bhangra, NuSoul), spices it up with rare traditional classical sounds from all over the place (Reggae, Salsa, Cumbia, Souk, Rumba, and Tropicalia), and turns up the heat with Global Hip-Hop from countries all over the world! The FUNKY PASSPORT sound is feeding peoples’ souls and lighting up dance floors everywhere Nappy G plays.
Esteemed
Guests
Poet Ali
Poet Ali is a compelling performer and identifiable speaker who inspires people to approach and understand their problems from unique perspectives. His performances, presentations and writing focuses on the human spirit. He pulls relatable moments from a reservoir of life experience and anecdotal story-telling. Ali’s “soulosophy” is heavily based on using our gifts as catalysts for self-discovery and the facilitation of human well-being. The subjects tackled in his presentations vary, but they always relate to matters of human connectivity and the human spirit.
Ali has been invited to share his talents on multiple national and international stages and conferencees. His 2014 TEDx Talk, “The most important language you will ever learn,” has been viewed more than a million times. His client list includes names lik: Chlorox, Kind Bars, Hewlett Packard and Rachel’s Challenge. Ali is actively engaged in social justice and youth intervention through performing and speaking on school tours. Outside of his corporate workshops and seminars, he runs a creative design firm called The Poet Society. He believes part of his responsibility as a creative is to serve impact-driven brands, specializing in producing branded entertainment content for social good.
Sue Jaye Johnson
Sue Jaye Johnson is a Peabody award-winning journalist, filmmaker and writer exploring the ways cultural expectations shape our public and private behavior. As a TED Resident, she has been writing and speaking about pleasure, sense education. Her TED Talk, What We Don’t Teach Kids About Sex, has been viewed 2.5 million times and is translated into 27 languages.
For more than 20 years, Jaye has pioneered new forms of storytelling to engage audiences in conversations about social justice issues around the world, from the US Criminal Justice System, women boxers, AIDS, and the legacy of apartheid in South Africa. Much of her work has centered the voices of young women. She produces the annual BRAVE GIRLS Festival, bringing together young women for a day of activism, movement and connection.
Jaye is a recipient of a Creative Capital award for her pioneering interactive documentary about US prisons. Her first feature film, T-Rex (PBS, Netflix) followed 17-year-old boxer Claressa Shields from Flint, Michigan to the gold medal at the London Olympics. Her work has been broadcast on PBS, NPR, WNY and published in The New York Times and The Washington Post.
She studied visual arts at Harvard University and Interactive Telecommunications at New York University and has taught visual story telling at Harvard University and City College. She lives in New York City with her husband and frequent collaborator Joe Richman and their two daughters.
Aly Palmer
Alyson Palmer is the performing artist best known for her work with the indie rock trio, BETTY. She has circled the globe performing concerts since BETTY formed in Washington DC in 1986. Protest and activism is as much a part of the trio’s DNA as are fat beats and thrilling harmonies. Along with their concert dates, the band leads workshops with their non-profit wing, The BETTY Effect, an advocacy project for women, girls and the LGBTQ+ community. Aly founded 1@1 Equality Actions, the 1@1 Minute for Women’s Equality, and the ongoing women’s history through music project, CHIX. Aly and BETTY have been given numerous humanitarian and music industry awards. She is the producer of This Moment rally, an artists’ uprising urging Americans to vote, in response to the toxic behavior of the current administration. BETTY’s theme songs for television and radio are
wildly popular, including for the original L Word, and their music appears on film soundtracks. Aly and BETTY are currently recording their 11th album. Aly created the math+music project, AlyAstra.com to give pre-k students greater numbers confidence for a lifelong love of learning. @alyzonpalmer www.HelloBETTY.com