Change your routine

The Newport School of Artistic Movement is now accepting registrations for fall ballet and modern dance classes for students aged six through adult, with instruction ranging from beginning through advanced levels.

Director Nancy Mittleman has trained dancers from preschool through the professional level for more than 50 years. Assisting Mittleman again this year will be Lucy Katori, also known as Yutonah Katori, who has danced with Mittleman for the past eight years and will continue teaching younger dancers aged six to 10.

Classes draw not only from ballet and modern dance but also jazz and African dance, Pilates, Qigong and yoga, with an emphasis on developing grace, flexibility, balance and strength.

“Classes are designed to develop the student’s technical skills and spark their creativity through a process of exploration and discovery,” Mittleman said.

Mittleman is known for teaching a wide range of dance styles and taking a holistic approach to dance education, incorporating science, art, literature, music and math into her lessons and choreography.

All classes encourage students to explore movement while developing creativity and performance skills.

“All classes include improvisations or ‘dance games,’ which increase students’ awareness of the power of body language, while enriching and developing their creativity, acting abilities and choreographic skills,” Mittleman said.

The improvisations also encourage collaboration, problem solving and leadership. The curriculum incorporates variations from famous choreographers along with partnering, counterbalance techniques and lifting. Mittleman, who played double bass in orchestras for many years and piano when she was young, also weaves music fundamentals into her lessons.

Throughout the years, Newport School of Artistic Movement students have gone on to study and perform with organizations and schools including Juilliard, San Francisco Ballet and California Institute of the Arts.

Mittleman brings more than five decades of experience as a dancer, teacher, actor and director, including nearly 20 years teaching in artist-in-residency programs in Oregon and British Columbia. Her studies have included work with Martha Graham, New York City Ballet and Bella Lewitzky.

In 1990, Mittleman received the Oregon Dance Association’s Honor Award for “History in the Making.”

She also directs Pacific Dance Ensemble, a nonprofit company of teens and young adults that performs throughout the area.

Students who register before September 30 receive a 10-percent discount on their first month’s tuition.

For more information or to register, call 541-961-2316, email pdedance@msn.com or go to pacificdanceensemble.org.