Beginner Contemporary Dance classes at Peridance offer multiple instructor options, each with distinct teaching methods and movement philosophies. Please review the instructor descriptions below and select the instructor whose approach and style best align with your learning goals and artistic interests.
1. Emily Greenwell
Emily Greenwell is an accomplished educator, choreographer, professional dancer, and certified yoga instructor based in New York City. Originally from the Detroit, Michigan area, Emily has pursued creative and artistic interests throughout her entire life. Emily is deeply passionate about teaching and places tremendous value on education, viewing herself as a perpetual student of life and experience. She has been fortunate to travel extensively around the world, sharing her artistic talents; she has journeyed across the United States as well as throughout Europe, South America, and Asia, creating choreography, leading intensive workshops, and conducting master classes at prestigious institutions. Emily currently serves as faculty at renowned institutions, including Broadway Dance Center, Peridance Center, and Intrigue Dance Convention, among others.
As the founder and artistic director of CLOUDE.NYC, a non-profit arts collective, Emily advocates passionately for the arts community. Based in New York, her organization creates works across multiple artistic mediums, including dance, video, stage performance, and photography. The collective hosts monthly community-centered improvisation events, presents annual workshops, and engages in collaborative project-based performance work with other artists and companies.
Emily's performance credits include appearances in Phish live performances at Madison Square Garden, collaborations with artist Marian Hill for the Want You Music Video, a role in the Muny Theater's production of Aida, and performances in Todrick Hall's production of Oz the Musical, among many others. Her choreography credits span DanceOn's Every Single Step (produced by Brian Friedman and Nigel Lythgoe), the Capezio ACE Awards, Arte Creative, Wise Fruit, The Giving Tree, and numerous additional projects.
Class Approach and Philosophy: Emily's teaching methodology centers on recognizing you as a unique individual. Drawing on her diverse background across multiple sectors of the dance industry, Emily has cultivated a genuine passion for guiding students through practices that encourage continuous creative development and artistic growth. Her primary goal is for you to develop as an artist while receiving practical tools that prepare you to thrive within professional dance settings. Her classes feature a yoga-informed warm-up, improvisation exercises designed to awaken the senses and integrate mind and body connection, and musicality-driven choreography that permits both precision and individual artistic interpretation. Emily's warm and playful teaching style cultivates creativity, self-appreciation, mindful presence, and valuable communicative abilities. Whether your aspirations include professional dance performance, creating your own choreography, or simply moving for enjoyment and wellness, Emily's class offers substantial benefits and growth opportunities.
2. Brandon Coleman
Brandon Coleman is an NYC-based teacher, performer, and career coach originally from Houston, Texas. He was formerly a principal member of Visceral Dance Chicago and has also performed as a guest artist with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago during their 2017 Summer Series. Since relocating to New York City in 2017, Brandon has danced with prestigious companies including KEIGWIN + COMPANY, the Metropolitan Opera ballet, VIM VIGOR Dance Company, and in Punchdrunk's acclaimed immersive production SLEEP NO MORE.
Brandon hosts the Breaking the Wall Podcast, which releases weekly episodes designed to provide tools, strategies, and practical advice for dancers in the early stages of their careers and aspiring professional dancers. As an instructor, Brandon has taught in major cities throughout the United States, including New York, Chicago, Houston, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles. Brandon has served on the faculty of Visceral Dance Center in Chicago, Illinois, and Gibney Dance Center in New York City.
Brandon holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Dance and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication with a minor in Arts Administration from the University of Arizona.
Class Approach and Philosophy: Brandon's class begins with a thoughtfully designed warm-up that emphasizes mobility development alongside stabilization training. The class then transitions quickly into phrase work that challenges dancers to explore how they shift their body weight, discover moments of suspension, and develop smooth sequencing through movement. Brandon's teaching approach draws from his extensive professional experience performing in both contemporary and modern dance companies and is intentionally designed to encourage dancers to explore genuine joy, spatial awareness, and develop a strong, grounded connection with their bodies. Brandon credits his approach to working with notable artists and choreographers including Isadora Wolfe and Maxine Doyle (Punchdrunk and Sleep No More, NYC), Larry Keigwin (Keigwin + Co), Douglas Nielsen, Amy Ernst, Melissa Lowe, Sam Watson, and Michael Williams (University of Arizona faculty), Shannon Gillen and Jason Reese Cianciulli (Vim Vigor), Risa Steinberg (Limon technique and The Juilliard School), and Ami Shulman (Feldenkrais and Goteborg Opera Dance Company).
3. Marijke Eliasberg
MARIJKE ELIASBERG is a native of the Netherlands and the Founder and Co-Artistic Director of The Next Stage Project (TNSP). She has dedicated the past 25 years to dancing, teaching, and choreographing in New York City. Through her organization, TNSP, she travels internationally, teaching workshops, creating original works, mentoring emerging artists, and developing exchange and performance projects worldwide. Marijke holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in physical education with a specialization in dance. She completed her modern dance training at the prestigious Rotterdam Dance Academy (Codarts) in the Netherlands and at Dance Space Inc in New York City.
Marijke's continued professional development includes extensive study of Yang style Tai Chi Chuan with the renowned Grandmaster William C. C. Chen, including work on short form, long form, advanced form refinement, sword form, and partner push-hands techniques. Grandmaster Chen bestowed upon Marijke her Sifu title and official certification in 2022 and granted her permission to teach all his Tai Chi forms. She currently teaches open contemporary dance classes at Peridance and Tai Chi Chuan classes throughout New York City and has presented Tai Chi for Dancers workshops in Amsterdam (Henny Jurriens Studio) and Berlin (b12).
Class Approach and Philosophy: Marijke's contemporary dance class is physically demanding and incorporates modern technique, floor work, and efficient release and strengthening methods. The class synthesizes European and classical modern dance techniques with a contemporary movement sensibility. Marijke's distinctive movement language and teaching style encourage dancers to discover and claim their individual voice while developing expressive power through pure emotion and authentic physicality. Dancers are consistently encouraged to make the movement material serve their unique needs, embrace creativity, take artistic risks, and dance with full commitment and passion. This class is designed for intermediate and advanced-level dancers who are ready for physical and artistic challenge.
4. Miho Ryu
Miho Ryu is an accomplished performing artist, choreographer, and educator originally from Tokyo, Japan. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Drama from Waseda University and received the Best Dance Choreography Award from Oniros Film Awards in 2018. Miho has created and performed in more than 100 works spanning live performances, films, music videos, and interactive installations throughout multiple continents, including Germany, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, and the United States. Beyond her extensive creative portfolio, Miho brings 20 years of experience teaching technique classes in Japan and has led Choreography and Improvisation workshops at prestigious venues, including the Wiz World Dance Festival in Korea, Asia Tri Jogja in Indonesia, and the Japan Athletic Federation. In 2024, Miho relocated to New York, returning to the city where she studied dance from 2000 to 2004 and where she was first introduced to contemporary dance. She continues to present and develop works through her own project-driven dance company, Physical Expression Research Group, and collaborates with diverse cross-genre artists.
Class Approach and Philosophy: Miho's classes begin with quiet, deep breathing practices to develop inner awareness and encourage the body to enter a state of relaxation and readiness. The warm-up phase is designed to develop the muscle strength, balance, and flexibility necessary for dance while simultaneously expanding awareness of space and your body through improvisational movement exploration. The core of Miho's class consists of phrase work where dancers refine both technical and expressive skills through working with her original choreography that integrates diverse influences from her rich background in contemporary dance, jazz, classical ballet, and Qi Gong. As an educator, Miho's mission is to create opportunities for dancers to challenge themselves across physical and mental dimensions and to develop themselves as complete artists who can maximize and celebrate their unique individual qualities and gifts.
5. Guanglei Hui
Guanglei Hui is a dancer, choreographer, and independent artist from China who established his own company, Cross Move Lab. Throughout the past twenty years, Guanglei has worked diligently to establish himself as an independent artist, accomplished choreographer, and professional dancer. He studied at The Bishkek Academy of Arts named B. Beishenalieva from 2001 to 2003, where he earned a degree in Choreography and Russian Classical Ballet Performance with Education. During his studies, Guanglei competed in the Bishkek International Dance Competition and achieved second-place recognition. In 2005, he joined the Guangdong Modern Dance Company, China's pioneering modern dance company. As a member of GMDC, Guanglei performed at the landmark 2008 celebration of Pina Bausch Dance Company's anniversary in Germany. In 2011, he served as an invited choreographer for Yokohama Dance Collection in Japan. In 2012, he participated in the International Choreographers Residency Program at the American Dance Festival. Guanglei joined White Wave Young Soon Kim Dance Company in 2013 and began collaborating with Shen Wei Dance Arts in 2014. In 2016, he participated in the Taipei Dance Round Table Project, creating original choreographic work. Guanglei began teaching at Queens College in 2017 and received Artist Commissioning Program Grants from the Queens Council on the Arts in 2018, when he also began his teaching position at Peridance Center. Throughout his career, Guanglei has performed and created work in more than twenty countries, participating in major international arts festivals. He is also a co-founder of Touch Contact Improvisation in China.
Class Approach and Philosophy: Guanglei's contemporary dance technique class focuses on breaking conventional movement patterns and spatial relationships. He has synthesized insights from his extensive professional training and decades of experience in ballet and American modern dance into his own distinctive movement principles. His teaching emphasizes body deconstruction, gravitational awareness, natural relaxation, force and momentum borrowing, bone power conversion, spatial model innovation, and the smooth, integrated application of gravity and weight between the body and floor to create authentic, organic movement.
6. Andrea Farley Shimota
Andrea Farley Shimota is originally from Minnesota. Following her majors in dance and sociology at SUNY Purchase, Andrea went on to perform multiple significant roles in the acclaimed production of Sleep No More. Beyond her performance background, Andrea maintains professional certifications in Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, Pilates from Kinected, and Functional Nutrition. She has studied human anatomy under renowned educators Irene Dowd and Eric Franklin, and has trained in Meisner acting technique at Maggie Flanigan studio.
Class Approach and Philosophy: Andrea's class welcomes all skill levels as she deconstructs floorwork into accessible, understandable components and progressions. Her instruction strengthens and clarifies movement pathways for experienced dancers while introducing floorwork principles to those newly exploring the technique. She emphasizes developing awareness of your body and its relationship with the floor through anatomically informed exercises that build strength and coordination systematically.
7. Vive
Vivake Khamsingsavath, known professionally as Vive, is a Laotian American dancer, teacher, and choreographer based in Brooklyn, New York. He completed his dance training at Binghamton University, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in English. Vive has performed and taught extensively throughout the world, traveling across Europe, Asia, and South America, sharing his artistic talents. Since 2012, Vive has focused his career in New York City, where he has performed at numerous prestigious venues, including The Shed, Lincoln Center, Radio City Music Hall, Carnegie Hall, Broadway at Bryant Park, Battery Park, and Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. Vive has made television appearances on major programs, including The Today Show, The View, and Good Morning America. He was recognized by The Huffington Post as one of the Hottest Men in Dance and has been featured in advertising campaigns for major brands, including The W Hotels, VISA, Nintendo, and Sears. Vive has served as choreographer for high-profile projects including The US Open, Bravo TV productions, Bloomingdale's, PUMAxMaybelline, NARS Cosmetics, and TNT's television series I Am The Night. Vive serves as director of Dance United, an arts organization providing cultural dance education and workshops to underserved public schools throughout New York City. He currently dances with Battery Dance Company, where he teaches Dancing To Connect, a program that brings arts education and cultural exchange to communities worldwide that lack access to such resources. Vive is passionate about sharing his deep love for dance to inspire people globally to connect more meaningfully with their shared humanity.
Class Approach and Philosophy: Vive seeks to create a welcoming space where artists can tune into their authentic feelings and connect that emotional resonance to their movement vocabulary and expression. His warm-up combines meditative exercises with a choreographed movement flow inspired by Qi-Gong practices while incorporating elements of deconstructed ballet and jazz vocabulary. Vive emphasizes improvisational exploration, introducing various movement tasks that encourage dancers to independently investigate and discover their own artistic choices. The class incorporates floorwork elements throughout the warm-up and across-the-floor phrases. The choreographed phrase work represents an exploration of contemporary movement, characterized as Flow and Floor. Each component of the class intentionally builds upon previous sections, creating continuous movement discovery, meaningful learning, and consistent artistic growth.
