No previous experience required. Online registration.
Contemporary Dance Opera with DEVIATED THEATRE
Adults •
About this class
- CLASS DATES18-Oct-2026 - 18-Oct-2026
- Class TimeSun 6:00pm-7:30pm
- AgesAdults
- LocationDC | Friendship Heights
Step inside the world of a dance opera. DEVIATED THEATRE choreographer Kimmie Dobbs Chan leads an intermediate-advanced contemporary class that opens with a warm-up drawn from Gyrokinesis, yoga, and Pilates, conditioning the body for her signature style of moving in and out of the floor. Intricate combinations follow, rooted in ballet and jazz, with traveling phrases, floorwork, and expressive gesture that ranges from the pedestrian to the highly technical. The class builds into a choreographic sequence, shaped alongside theater director Enoch Chan, where every movement carries intention, emotion, and character. Dancers leave with stronger technique and with the experience of telling a story through movement alone.
Faculty
Kimmie Dobbs Chan
About DEVIATED THEATRE
Director Enoch Chan and choreographer Kimmie Dobbs Chan are co-creators of worlds — architects of movement, narrative, and atmosphere. Through DEVIATED THEATRE, founded in 2008, they pioneer the form they call the dance opera: evening-length productions that fuse contemporary dance, acting, and aerial artistry into original stories set in otherworlds.
Their works explore the liminal space between the known and the unknown: an Umbrella Girl lost in a circus of the absurd (Aspiro, previewed in The Washington Post); seven spirits whispering warnings only a child can hear (siGHt, commissioned by the Kennedy Center); a post-apocalyptic world where humanity is both creature and creator (creature, which premiered at Breaking Glass in New York and toured to Brooklyn's Wave Rising Series); and an astronaut caught in a Martian dust storm (Beyond, featured in Washingtonian Magazine).
The National Gallery of Art commissioned the company for its community celebration of the East Building's reopening in 2016, and invited it back for its Evenings at the Edge and NGA Nights series. Kimmie spoke about that work on the National Endowment for the Arts' Art Works podcast in 2017. DEVIATED THEATRE returned to the National Gallery of Art in 2022 to bring Josiah McElheny's sculptures to life in Two Walking Mirrors, within the exhibition The Double: Identity and Difference in Art Since 1900.
DEVIATED THEATRE has been featured twice on WETA: as an Around Town "Best Bet" for Sway (2010), and on WETA Arts for Beyond in 2019, the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. Kimmie choreographed the 2019 National Cherry Blossom Festival Opening Ceremony with Skylark Creative Group. Critics have called the work of DEVIATED THEATRE "spellbindingly compelling" and "eerie, esoteric, eclectic" (DC Metro Theater Arts), and "incredibly effective" (The Washington Post).
Offstage, Kimmie and Enoch also run Enoch Chan Productions & Photography, a Washington, D.C. studio for cinematic portraiture and lighting design for stage, film, and broadcast.
CANCELLATION/RESCEDULE POLICY
If a class has low attendance, it may be subject to cancellation. Cancellation decisions for morning classes will be made by 9pm the night before and for evening classes by 3pm that day. In the event you cannot attend your purchased/scheduled drop-in class, please email [email protected] by 9pm the day before to receive a full credit and/or reschedule your drop-in class. Cancellation emails received after 9pm the night before will receive a 50% class credit. If a cancellation email has not been sent before the start of class, our No Show policy takes effect and you will forfeit the full class credit.
WORKSHOP GIFT CERTIFICATE POLICY
In order to receive a full value gift certificate you must call 48 hours prior to the event. No show/no call = no credit. If there is a threat of inclement weather or if the event has low attendance, it may be subject to cancellation. In this case, you will be given a credit to attend a future class of equal value.
