Dance Church®, the wildly-popular dance-focused movement class, today announced auditions for dance artists who are based in San Francisco, California, and Portland, Oregon. Dance artists will be trained and lead weekly in-person classes at partnering spaces in San Francisco and Portland, and take part in Dance Church Go productions in Seattle to film online classes.

“We are so excited to be expanding our Dance Church Teacher family to Portland and San Francisco” said Dance Church Founder Kate Wallich. “After a long covid hiatus, we are finally re-activating our communities on the ground in Portland and San Francisco and we are looking for local dance artists based in Portland and the Bay Area to lead and guide these cities. Our teachers are foundational to our mission — as we grow, we are thrilled to be able to expand support to more dance artists and spread joy through dance to our broader community.”

Dance artists employed with Dance Church are encouraged to pursue their artistic careers alongside their work at Dance Church, which includes teaching, community engagement and creating their own content. Dance artists interested in becoming a Dance Church teacher should apply online. Following the application process, select candidates will be invited to auditions in San Francisco and Portland.

“Our teachers are the core of our organization, the foundation of our brand and the leaders of our experience. We are looking for dance artists actively working in the field, who are excited to build community and spread the joy and release of dance to people everywhere, both online and in-person!” said Director of Programming Lavinia Vago.

In addition, Dance Church announced a new membership for dance artists and dance students that provides free access to the platform including Dance on Demand classes, as well as $5 IRL class tickets. These Dance Artist Memberships will be offered to individuals who have invested artistry, passion, time, and energy into the field of dance, and aims to help flourish the Dance Church community even further and create more accessibility to classes. People who focus their career or education on dance, and would benefit from a discounted membership rate, can apply online.

“Dance artists hold a special place in our community. We’ve always had a ‘just come’ mentality and pre-covid offered $5 class rates to Dance Artists. This new membership is a really meaningful way for us to formalize that dance artists are always welcome in classes, in person and online, without cost as a prohibitor,” said Dance Church CEO Clara Siegel. “The majority of our leadership team and staff are dance artists, and we recognize that dance artists need a more freeing space to experience dance, and we need to make that possible in an accessible way.”

“We are bringing community into dance spaces, and offering a bridge for people who are new to dance to be able to enter those spaces. Dance Artists coming to class and being part of the community adds a layer of richness that is invaluable,” said Clara. “A major reason people become Dance Church members is to support dance artists. We remain committed to the dance community as we evolve, grow and expand, and this new membership creates a deeper connection there.”

Dance Church has been bringing people together through the joy and release of dance since 2010. Classes bring community together with the arts, and are equal parts fitness, performance, and dance party. Hundreds of thousands of people have attended in person pop-up classes around the world or on the internet at go.dancechurch.com. Dance Church is designed for people of all shapes and sizes, backgrounds, and identities, and builds connection and community through shared experiences. Dance Church is on a mission to empower dancers everywhere — from teachers to takers.

About Dance Church:

Dance Church has been bringing people together through the joy and release of dance since 2010 — in real life and on the internet. Designed for people of all shapes, sizes, backgrounds and identities, Dance Church is on a mission to empower people through dance. Visit go.dancechurch.com to take classes on-demand, join the live-stream every Sunday, or register for in-person classes.

About Kate Wallich:

Kate Wallich (she / her) is the Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Dance Church. Kate is a Seattle-based choreographer who believes in the combined power of artists and the public. A dancer, choreographer, educator, and founder who was named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 To Watch,” Kate has cultivated community through her inclusive dance-fitness class Dance Church®, her dance companies The YC and YC2, and the non-profit arts organization she founded in 2016, Studio Kate Wallich. Kate's work has been commissioned and presented nationally and internationally by the Walker Art Center, On the Boards, Seattle Theater Group, Mass MoCa, The Joyce Theater, Seattle Art Museum and many more. In 2019 she collaborated with Perfume Genius on the critically acclaimed dance and music performance The Sun Still Burns Here.

About Lavinia Vago:

Lavinia Vago (she / her) is the Artistic Director of Programming and a Lead Teacher at Dance Church. Lavinia is an Italian dance artist, performer, educator, and director based in Seattle and working between New York City, Los Angeles, Montreal, Vienna and Berlin. Lavinia has collaborated, performed, created works and toured with Sidra Bell Dance New York, Loni Landon Projects, Vim Vigor Dance Theater, Saint Genet, Tom Weinberger, Corrie Befort,  and most extensively with Montréal based Rubberband. Lavinia has been Associate Artistic Director of the non-profit Studio Kate Wallich (2017-2020), has been the rehearsal director of YC2 (a platform for emerging dance artists), and co-founded and co-directed dance company “The YC” with Kate Wallich. She is currently working with Tianzhuo Chen | Asian Dope Boys and touring the world with “Trance” and “Physis”. As an educator, Lavinia also teaches Dance for Parkinson’s, Rubberband Method, and masterclass series, intensives and workshops aimed to subvert and rethink dance contemporary technique, floor work, and improvisation. Lavinia experiments, processes and creates dance works as a solo artist.

About Clara Siegel

Clara Siegel (she / her) is the CEO of Dance Church, the wildly-popular dance-focused movement class offered in real life in Seattle, LA, and NYC, and on the internet at go.dancechurch.com. Clara comes from a background scaling community-driven technology products and creator platforms having worked at Facebook, Amazon, and Tableau. Clara holds a BA in Theoretical Mathematics from Reed College and an MBA from Stanford GSB.

About Thomas House:

Thomas House (he / him) is the Associate Programming Director, a Dance Church Lead Teacher, and leads the Music Licensing & Curation team. Thomas has been teaching and helping to expand the organization since 2017 including leading over 200 classes with audiences ranging 10 to 6000 people. Thomas is a dance artist, performer, teacher, creator, and thinker based in Seattle, WA. Throughout his dance career, Thomas has performed and traveled around the world with companies including Kate Wallich & The YC, Aszure Barton & Artists, Abraham in Motion, Seattle Opera, and the Merce Cunningham Trust. As a choreographer, Thomas has presented creations with composer Kayla Cashetta in NYC and Seattle. Thomas’s creative practice and interests inhabit a disorienting fantasy, with elements of humor, dystopia, conspiracy, queerness and sensitivity.

About Tariq Mitri:

Tariq Mitri (he / him) is the Training Manager, and a Lead Teacher at Dance Church. He began leading Dance Church classes in 2017, and since has helped with the growth of IRL classes in New York City, currently creating the Training Program for DC at large. Tariq is a freelance dance artist and performer based in New York City. He’s worked for a variety of choreographers in Los Angeles, New York City, and Seattle that include MADBOOTS Dance, Kate Wallich + The YC, WHYTEBERG, and HEIDCO. Tariq has also had the opportunity to create works in Seattle and New York, most recently being the Co-Director of NYC based dance company HEIDCO. 

For more information on Dance Church, please contact: 

Ali ali@culturalcounsel.com
Lauren lauren@culturalcounsel.com