MASTERCLASS SERIES

NOTE: ALL THE MASTERCLASSES ARE BEING HELD AT GIBNEY - 280 BROADWAY FROM 11AM TO 1PM

Teachers: Nicola Iervasi & Kevin Albert
Class Title: The Wave Within - ECS 2026 Masterclass
Sub-Title / Focus: Emotional Movement Theater

Description: The Wave Within is a performance-oriented masterclass that bridges dance and acting through physical exploration and emotional impulse. It will be led by Nicola Iervasi & Kevin Albert, Co-Founders of Mare Nostrum Elements, a dance service organization based in Queens, NY. In a safe, non-judgmental environment, participants investigate movement, voice, and presence to develop a personal physical language. Drawing from physical theater techniques, contact improvisation, and contemporary dance practices, the class guides performers to respond instinctively, live in the moment, and create authentic physical characters—even when working with abstract concepts. Emphasizing process over results, the class empowers participants to build self-confidence, deepen stage presence, and transform emotional experience into expressive movement.

Teacher: Lavy Cavaliere
Class Title: CREATURE_SEARCH - ECS 2026 Masterclass
Sub-Title / Focus: Compositional scoring, structured improvisation, and theatricality

Description: This workshop offers itself as a laboratory for spontaneous creation. For the bulk of our sharing, Lavy and members of VERBAL ANIMAL will explore improvisation through scoring, listening via co-creation, and theatricality. Our space serves as an incubator for risk, one where we can learn to dismantle habits and strengthen the body’s access to primal initiations of movement. Where instinct collides with structure, participants build a shared understanding of tools through play, failure, repetition, reflection, and imagination…. 

CREATURE:SEARCH is a safe environment to throw around ideas, to trust your impulses, and to experience catharsis while doing it. At the end of class, we will engage in a brief Yoga flow.

Teacher: Caroline Brethenoux
Class Title: Movement Memory - ECS 2026 Masterclass
Sub-Title / Focus: Choreographing from Childhood Memories

Description: This master class invites dancers to bridge personal narrative and movement creation through a structured, somatic process. Beginning with Gyrokinesis-based improvisation to awaken the body's natural flow, participants will mine childhood memories as choreographic material, translating written narrative into original movement vocabulary. Through guided exploration, dancers discover how personal history informs physicality, creating authentic and emotionally resonant work. Suitable for intermediate to advanced dancers interested in exploring storytelling through the body.

Teacher: Peter Cheng
Class Title: Play Motion Lab X Contemporary Ballet Forms - ECS 2026 Masterclass
Sub-Title / Focus: Contemporary Ballet

Description: Blending Peter's formative training with LINES Ballet, Contemporary Ballet Forms offers dancers novel ways to think and move fluidly through space, to find nuance in articulation, and to move generously and effortlessly within the ballet language.

Teacher: Isaac Iskra
Class Title: Abstracting Autism - ECS 2026 Masterclass
Sub-Title / Focus: Translating the autism experience into contemporary movement

Description: Abstracting Autism is a contemporary movement master class that explores how lived autistic experiences can be translated into physical expression. Drawing from sensory processing, communication patterns, repetition, and regulation, dancers investigate abstraction as a choreographic tool rather than imitation. The class emphasizes embodied research, task-based improvisation, and phrase development to transform internal states into movement choices. Open to dancers of all backgrounds, this class centers empathy, adaptability, and curiosity—inviting participants to expand their movement vocabulary while engaging with autism through an artistic, respectful, and non-literal lens.

Teacher: Rohan Bhargava
Class Title: Desi Flow - ECS 2026 Masterclass
Sub-Title / Focus: Contemporary & Indian Fusion

Description: Through a fusion of dance styles including Contemporary, Bhangra, Bollywood, Floorwork, and Street Jazz, Rohan's class emphasizes discovering a dynamic flow within the body. The session begins with a holistic warm-up designed to break down the mechanics of moving into, out of, and around the floor. Center and across-the-floor phrases introduce foundational techniques and movements that prepare participants for the choreography and provide cultural context. The session concludes with a musical and virtuosic phrase inspired by Rohan's work as Artistic Director of Rovaco Dance Company. Come ready to sweat, find joy, and challenge both your mind and body. 

Teacher: Laura Peralta
Class Title: Flamenco, Demystified - ECS 2026 Masterclass
Sub-Title / Focus: TBA

Description: TBA

TEACHERS BIOS

Nicola Iervasi & Kevin Albert: Drawing from their combined backgrounds in theater, contemporary dance, and physical performance, actor/director Kevin Albert (Boston Conservatory graduate) and performer Nicola Iervasi (former Martha Graham Ensemble member) developed The Wave Within method in 2001. Initially created to provide performers with practical tools to sharpen their artistic skills, the method was later adapted for students in grades 5–12 as The Young Wave, offered in New York City public schools. Since 2013, Kevin and Nicola have further evolved the method into a nurturing, creative process used to identify and select candidates for the Emerging Choreographer Series. The Wave Within  has been taught throughout New York at Peridance Capezio Center, LaGuardia High School, New York University, and Trinity/La MaMa, as well as internationally in Italy at Fini Dance Summer School, IALS Rome, the Roccella Jazz Festival, and the University of Calabria.

Lavy Cavaliere: is a choreographic dance artist, producer, and DJ. In 2021, they founded VERBAL ANIMAL, a rotating cohort of interdisciplinary collaborators. They have been commissioned by the 14th St Y, TADA! Theater, 3 Dollar Bill, and Triskelion Arts. Lavy was a returning choreographer with Mare Nostrum Elements, premiering an evening-length work at Laguardia Performing Arts Center, and was later commissioned to create a new piece for the 2024 Making Moves Festival. They closed Triskelion Arts’ 2024 season with IN EXCHANGE FOR ANONYMITY and recently received an NYFA grant to premiere CONCRETE GULP as part of the Queensborough Dance Festival’s 2025 tour. Additionally, Lavy is Co-Producer of the NY show Kiss My Face and founder of PLAY ME TECHNO, an experimental rave centering risk-forward performance art in decentralized spaces. They will serve as the 2026 Production Resident Artist at Triskelion Arts, premiering a new evening length work in April 2026.

Caroline Brethenoux: is a French choreographer and performer based in New York City. A self-taught dancer, she has trained internationally in contemporary dance across Paris, Hong Kong, Madrid, and New York. She has performed with Eryc Taylor Dance Company, Mare Nostrum Elements Dance Theatre Company, BalaSole Dance Company, and Arch Dance, among others. In 2020, Caroline co-founded KAFRA, an interdisciplinary collective where dancers, visual artists, and composers create collaborative performance works. Her choreography has been presented at The Shed, Dixon Place, Green Space Bloom Festival, and The Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater. Her recent work includes "The tearing blue of the sky," exploring personal narrative through movement, presented at LPAC and CPW Festival. Caroline is a certified Gyrokinesis® and Gyrotonic® teacher and holds degrees in philosophy from La Sorbonne and HEC Paris.

Peter Cheng: is a multi-hypenate movement artist working in dance, choreography, modeling, film, and TV. He has trained with Alonzo King LINES Ballet, ODC/Dance, San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, POST:BALLET, Sidra Bell Dance NY | MODULE, Visceral Dance Chicago, Springboard Danse Montréal, YYDC, NW Dance Project, NVA & Guests and Henny Jurrïens Studio (NL). 

As the Founding Director of Play Motion Lab (2024), Peter facilitates and teaches workshops for over 200+ professional dancers a year. Play Motion Lab is a 2025 Grantee of the Brooklyn Arts Fund, sponsored in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council. Social Media: @play.motion.lab / @cheng_moves

Isaac Iskra: is a New York City–based dance artist, choreographer, and educator. He began dancing at age 17 and earned a BFA in Dance Performance and Dance Education from the University of Texas at Austin. His training includes Contemporary Ballet, West African Contemporary, House Dance, Gaga, and Graham Technique, shaping a movement practice grounded in curiosity, musicality, and embodied research.

After moving to NYC in 2019, Isaac choreographed his first professional work through the Mare Nostrum Elements Emerging Choreographers Series in Spring 2020. He is the Artistic Director of Nefelaba Dance Theater, a contemporary dance company creating interdisciplinary work that centers autistic perspectives through abstraction, empathy, and human connection. As an educator, Isaac emphasizes accessibility, adaptability, and artistic rigor in both technique and creative practice.

Rohan Bhargava: originally from New Delhi, India, Rohan holds his BFA in Dance from NYU Tisch. As Founder & Artistic Director of Rovaco Dance Company, he was featured in Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch" in 2021. Rohan produces work at the intersection of queer identity and Indian culture, fusing Eastern and Western traditions into one fluid whole.

Rohan has presented choreographic work and taught classes in New York, New Jersey, Texas, Massachusetts, Vermont, Hawaii, and Minnesota. Rovaco has received grants, commissions, and residencies from organizations such as CUNY Dance Initiative, Asian American Arts Alliance (A4), Dance/NYC, Battery Dance Festival, Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning, and Sam Houston State University. Rohan currently works for Kizuna Dance, Studio Susan Marshall, Notes in Motion Outreach Dance Theater, and Mare Nostrum Elements.