Questions, answered plainly

Modern dance grew out of dancers who wanted movement to come from the body's own mechanics: weight, breath, fall and recovery, the spine as an active line rather than a held-up column. Ballet trains you against gravity; modern dance trains with it, and the floor is used as a partner rather than a surface to stay politely on top of.

In practice that means more time on the ground, more release through the torso, and more room for the mover's own choices. At Cruz Yen the vocabulary is taught with structure and corrections, so the freedom is earned rather than assumed.

No. The Foundations class is built for people new to modern dance and for people returning after a long pause. It starts on the floor with breath and weight, builds to standing and travelling, and repeats its shapes week to week so you are never guessing. The practice serves beginners, returning dancers and experienced movers who want structure plus room to express; the first group is the reason Foundations exists.

Wear something you can move in fully and that you do not mind meeting the floor: soft trousers or leggings, a top you can raise your arms in without it riding over your head, and layers for the warm-up. Most people dance barefoot so the feet can feel the floor; if that does not suit you, say so and there is an alternative that works.

Bring water. Long hair is easier tied back, and jewellery that can catch on someone is best left in the bag.

Demanding enough to be worth the hour, and scaled to the person doing it. A class moves through breath, warm-up, floor work and travelling, and the same material is adjusted for the room, so a first-timer and someone with years of training are both working at their own edge.

You will be on the floor, you will breathe hard in places, and you will be given the option to take the smaller version of anything. Progress is measured against your own last month, not against the person next to you.

Talk to Raymond before your first class and describe it honestly: what it is, what sets it off, and what a clinician has told you about activity. Floor work and falls can be adapted, and a lot of the material has a lower-impact version that trains the same idea.

If you are currently under care, bring the guidance you were given to the first class. Nothing here replaces medical advice, and nobody will push you past what you have said your body can do.

Come a few minutes early, meet Raymond, see the floor and ask the question you were saving. Bring yourself and some water; there is nothing to prepare and no audition.

The class begins lying down, learning where the weight sits and where you hold tension you do not need. From there you work up through sitting, kneeling and standing, and finish crossing the floor in patterns simple enough to complete. You will leave having been corrected a few times, which is the whole point of coming.

The opposite. Improvisation here runs through structured tasks rather than fixed choreography: each one gives you a rule and a question, and you answer with the body. Move only from the ribs. Begin every phrase from a fall. Let the silence be the loudest thing in the room.

You work the task alone, then with a partner, then with the whole floor moving at once. Afterwards you say what happened, because naming it is how an accident becomes a choice you can repeat. Most people find this the part they look forward to.

Never. The performance workshop is seasonal ensemble work for dancers who want to stand in front of an audience with something honest, and it is optional. The community sessions, the improvisation lab and every other class adapt to the room, and nobody auditions to belong.

You can practise for years at Cruz Yen without ever taking a step towards a stage, and the work loses nothing for it.

Recorded music, counted rhythms and silence, depending on what the hour is training. Musicality work covers all three: riding the beat, sitting behind it, and moving through a rest with the same conviction you would bring to a downbeat.

If there is music you cannot stop moving to, mention it. Tasks are built around real material, and a suggestion from the room has shaped more than one.

Write or call. Say where you are starting from and what you want out of it, and Raymond will tell you which class to walk into and answer anything else before you get here. The contact page has the form, the direct email address and the phone number.

Office hours are Monday to Friday, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Mountain Time. Messages sent outside those hours are answered in the next one.