BMC DANCE welcomes two new faculty
Chicago-base dance artist Molly Shanahan Will be teaching Intermediate technique:Modern
And in a joint residency project with Swarthmore College Dance, Idan Porges will be teaching
Gaga/Dancers for advanced dancers and directing the Spring Modern Ensemble.
MOLLY SHANAHAN Molly holds a B.A. in Dance and English from Denison University, and an M.A. in Dance Composition from 
The Ohio State University. She is the founder and artistic director of Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak, a critically acclaimed Chicago-based contemporary dance company and has received support for her work through two National Performance Network Creation Fund Awards, a Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist Award, and an Illinois Arts Council fellowship for choreography, among others. She has also taught in Northwestern University’s Dance Program and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Dance at Temple.
IDAN PORGES In conjunction with Swarthmore College Dance Program, we are welcoming Idan Porges as a guest artist in residency for the Spring semester. Idan will be teaching a class in Gaga/Dancers and will direct the Modern Ensemble. Idan is one of the preeminent teachers of the Gaga method in the world. Gaga is a movement language invented by dancer, choreographer, dance educator, Ohad Naharin. Naharin was invited by Martha Graham to dance in her company and while in the states also studied at Julliard and Balanchine’s School of American Ballet. A skilled choreographer as well, he first began developing Gaga when recovering from an injury and continued exploring its potential until it developed into its present form of movement investigation. Gaga is a new way of gaining knowledge and self-awareness through your body. It provides a framework for discovering and strengthening your body and adding flexibility, stamina, and agility while focusing the senses and imagination. Many top companies and schools are now incorporating Gaga into their work or classes including Hubbard street in Chicago, Peridance and Steps in NYC, Koresh Studio here in Philly. Idan will be teaching this class for advance-intermediate and advanced dancers, a class appropriate for students with a minimum of three—four years of dance training or permission of the instructor. The class can be taken for academic (.5) or PE credit (2). In Ensemble, he will draw on the work in the Gaga Dance classes and from his own repertoire and will work with students to create new material for a dance work to be performed in the Spring Dance Concert.
Idan has studied physical theatre and Lecoq in Tel Aviv, graduating from Teatron Haguf
School & S
tage for Physical Theatre in 2005. From 2005-2007, he was a dancer in the Batsheva Ensemble, and from 2007-2008, he danced in the international cast of Ohad Naharin’s Kamuyot as part of a project of the Riksteatern. Since leaving Batsheva, Idan has danced in projects at the Klipa Theater and Cameri Theater as well as in the Suzanne Dellal Centre’s production of Barak Marshall’s Rooster and his choreography has been presented in venues around Israel and in Europe. He has also worked as therapist in the Ilan Lev method and is a sought-after teacher of Gaga in Europe and the Mid-East.
