Fall Masterclass Series
Join RESILIENCE for our Fall Masterclass Series, featuring five acclaimed guest choreographers: Faith Balderrama, Cassie Wang, Hannah Garner, Alice Klock, and Florain Lochner of FLOCK, and two visiting artists: Helena Franzén and Katherine Kiessling. As each artist sets new work on the company, they will also lead exclusive masterclasses open to the public.
These classes are designed for dancers ages 16 and up at the intermediate, advanced, and professional levels. It’s a unique chance to explore diverse choreographic styles, strengthen your technique, and deepen your artistic voice.
The drop-in rate for each class is $15, and dancers who attend at least two masterclasses will receive 50% off a ticket to Entry Points—our fall performance showcasing these new works.
Space is limited, and registration is required via our Punchpass system.
Learn more below about each artist and their upcoming masterclasses.
August 8
August 12
August 22
September 3
September 26
October 10
Helena Franzén
Helena Franzén is one of Sweden's most prominent choreographers, with over 35 years of experience as a dancer and choreographer. Since the 1990s, she has developed a unique and personal movement language characterized by precision, movement quality and a strong presence. Her work has been described as movement poetry with physical intelligence and nerve – characteristics that make her important in the Swedish dance landscape.
Franzén has created nearly 100 stage works that have toured both nationally and internationally. She has also choreographed for institutions such as Skånes Dansteater, Göteborgsoperans Danskompani, Norrdans, The Edge and Nytt Dansk Dansteater. Her artistic work also extends to younger audiences, without compromising on the distinctive movement language that is her signature.
In 2019–2020, her retrospective exhibition My Dancing Life was presented at the Dansmuseet in Stockholm. The exhibition brought together three decades of artistic work through films, photographs, interviews and stage excerpts.
About Helena's Masterclass:
Helena Franzén will share her practice since 35 years with the focus on presence and spacial awareness.. The class ends with a repertoire from her latest work HABITAT diving into precision, musicality and the joy of sharing the dance together.
Helena's Masterclass:
When: Saturday, August 8 | 3:30PM - 5:00PM
Where: Webster Loretto-Hilton Studios
130 Edgar Rd, Webster Groves, MO 63119
Cost: $15
Katherine Kiessling
Katherine Kiessling is a dancer and recent graduate of the University of Michigan, where she earned dual degrees in Dance and Computer Science. She officially joined VIM VIGOR in 2025 and has since performed internationally in the company’s productions THE LONG FALL, MOTHERLOAD, DRACULA, and COUNTDOWN. She has also assisted the company throughout its physical practice and choreographic processes at the University of Michigan Department of Dance, the b12 Summer Festival, the Institute of the Arts Barcelona, Iceland University of the Arts, and Michigan Movement Performance Projects. Recently, she traveled to Croatia to serve as choreographic assistant and rehearsal director for Shannon Gillen’s new work for Zagreb Dance Company, premiering in September 2026. In May 2026, she assisted VIM VIGOR in choreographing for Michigan Movement Performance Projects and for Mavericks, b12’s new three-month contemporary dance training program in Berlin. In June 2026, Kiessling will also serve as a teacher, rehearsal director, and choreographic assistant for VIM VIGOR’s LUZ program in Sitges, Spain, an immersive international apprentice experience for rising artists, before returning to Berlin in July 2026 as an assistant for Shannon Gillen’s workshops at the annual b12 Summer Festival.
Faith Balderrama
Faith Balderrama is a professional dancer, choreographer, and instructor from Southern California. She graduated with a B.A. in Dance Performance from Oral Roberts University in 2020 and is based in Chicago. Faith performed with South Chicago Dance Theatre for three seasons and had the honor of working with Terrence Marling, Noelle Kayser, Jackie Nowicki, Donald Byrd, Monique Haley, Kate Weare, Frank Chavez, and Joshua Blake Carter. She also performed works by Kia S. Smith and Tsai Hsi Hung for the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival in 2024. As a choreographer, Faith has created new works for the Oral Roberts University Dance Department, Little Fire Artist Collective, and the Winifred Haun and Dancers Third Coast Contemporary Dance Program.
Additionally, Faith received a Chicago DCASE Individual Artist Program Grant in 2023 to produce an evening-length work in 2024 entitled “HER.” She was then invited to perform an excerpt of the work at the Harvest Contemporary Dance Festival in Chicago in 2024 and at the St. Louis Contemporary Dance Festival in 2025. Faith currently freelances as a performer, teacher, and choreographer throughout the Midwest and performs with Little Fire Artist Collective and The Seldoms dance company in Chicago.
About Faith's Masterclass:
The Countertechnique® class is a contemporary dance technique class. It stretches, coordinates and strengthens the body, making dancers sweat, build stamina and really move.
The class starts with a recurring set of exercises, allowing dancers to investigate the Countertechnique® principles in detail. The second half of the class consists of varied components, working towards luscious movement combinations, and sometimes including jumping at the end. The Countertechnique® class results in dancers using more efficient energy, losing their fear of taking risks and gaining speed in both level and directional changes.
Faith's Masterclass:
When: Saturday, August 22 | 3:30PM - 5:00PM
Where: Webster Loretto-Hilton Studios |
130 Edgar Rd, Webster Groves, MO 63119
Cost: $15
Cassie Wang
Cassie Wang is a performer and interdisciplinary dancemaker based between Boston and New York. Cassie is a movement researcher with Partnering Lab and a principal dancer with KAIROS Dance Theater. Her other recent performance credits include work with the Boston Lyric Opera, The Slutcracker, Shura Baryshnikov, Jessi Stegall, and Ilya Vidrin. Cassie was a 2025 danceWEB Scholar at ImPulsTanz, a 2024–25 Next Steps for Boston Dance grantee, and is currently in residence at Urbanity Dance. She has also held residencies at Boston Center for the Arts and Bearnstow and been presented by Motion State Arts, Asian American Ballet Project, The Bang Group, and Resilience Dance Company. Cassie worked as a teaching assistant in Dance at Harvard University and earned a BA from Pomona College in Computer Science with minors in Dance and Media Studies.
About Cassie's Masterclass:
Join Cassie Wang for an improvisation and composition class that draws on research from her work, The Head is not the Star of the Body. We will explore the emotional and physical dimensions of longing through letter-writing, speaking games, and movement/partnering scores. Please bring something to write with and on.
Cassie's Masterclass:
When: Thursday, September 3 | 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Where: St. Louis Academy of Dance
9656 Olive Blvd, Olivette, MO 63132
Cost: $15
Hannah Garner
Hannah Garner (she/her), named a 2025 Princess Grace Award recipient in Choreography and ‘25 to Watch’ by Dance Magazine, is a NYC based dancer/choreographer making work that “tackles topics like death and queer identity through rigorous, inventive movement and wit” (Dance Magazine). Since graduating from the Conservatory of Dance at SUNY Purchase with a BFA in Performance and Composition and a minor in Arts Management, Hannah has gone on to work with Doug Varone, Raja Feather Kelly, Sue Bernhard Danceworks, and Megan Williams Dance, in venues such as The Joyce Theater, New York City Center, the Park Avenue Armory, and New York Live Arts.
Her work as 2nd Best Dance Company has been commissioned nationally by leading contemporary dance companies and schools, such as Whim W’Him Seattle Contemporary Dance, GroundWorks DanceTheater, GALLIM x CreateArt, SUNY Purchase, NYU, Bard College, among others. 2nd Best was the Resident Artist of Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning (2022), Atlantic Center for the Arts (2021), GALLIM’s Moving Women Residency (2021), and Triskelion Arts (2019), among others. Hannah's choreography has also been presented through Triskelion Arts, Mark Morris Dance Group, Dixon Place, New York International Fringe Festival, The Wassaic Project, and appears in music videos for artists like Snail Mail, Half Waif and Frankie Cosmos.
In addition to her performing work, Hannah finds a creative home in teaching: she is currently on faculty at SUNY Purchase and Gibney Dance Center. She previously served on faculty at Bard College, Gibney PRO, Friends Seminary, and The Dalton School. Recent credits include national tours of RED (OK, TX, CT, MT, and WA) and Slumber (CA, CO), New Works Lab at Playwrights Horizons, residencies at American Dance Festival (NC) and Green Box Arts (CO), and movement direction for a new Off-Broadway play Calf Scramble. Through her work, she seeks beauty in failure, explores limits of the body, and finds solace in the humor of being human. Hannah is deeply affected by the weather and how the trains are running.
About Hannah's Masterclass:
weekly advanced contemporary technique class. This afternoon shared practice will cycle through a grounded warmup intended to organize the body, conditioning to further investigate use of tone and economical energy, sequential and momentum based traveling material, and will culminate in a final phrase designed to continue our physical research of that day. Text and/or vocalization is often utilized within this class structure in order to familiarize the body and mind with the task of speaking and dancing so that when we are asked to do that within a performance context we don't FREAK OUT.
Hannah's Masterclass:
When: Saturday, September 26 | 3:30PM - 5:00PM
Where: Webster Loretto-Hilton Studios |
130 Edgar Rd, Webster Groves, MO 63119
Cost: $15
FLOCK
Alice Klock and Florain Lochner
Alice Klock and Florian Lochner discovered their co-creative magic while serving as dancers and Choreographic Fellows at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. In 2017, they created FLOCK, through which they perform their own work and co-create new choreography for film and stage. Their most recent international tours include their evening length productions “Somewhere Between” (named one of Chicago Tribune’s top 10 shows of 2023) , “The Designer”, “Quest”, and their feature length film “Holy Grail”. As a team, they have choreographed for multiple dance companies, universities, and cultural institutions, including Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Charlotte Ballet, Whim W’Him, GroundWorks DanceTheater, Backhausdance, Orsolina 28, Ballet Idaho, University of Michigan, Seattle Dance Collective, the Goethe Institut, the Alonzo King LINES Ballet BFA, and the 92nd Street Y.
Every year they create a new production for the Freilichtspiele Schwäbisch Hall in southern Germany where they are company in residence.
About FLOCK's Masterclass:
This class will begin with a FLOCK warmup focused on strength and stabilizing exercises coupled with improv based explorations. This will lead into learning excerpts from repertory and an exploration of FLOCK’s unique style and philosophy. The emphasis of the class is on researching physicality and finding and inhabiting personal artistry.
FLOCK's Masterclass:
When: Saturday, October 10 | 3:30PM - 5:00PM
Where: Webster Loretto-Hilton Studios |
130 Edgar Rd, Webster Groves, MO 63119
Cost: $15