FOR COMPANIES

Dance for Joy workshop

Classes that help relieve stress and energize by allowing people to revel in the joy that dance brings. In Dance for Joy workshops Maura guides participants through a series of movements that culminate in a celebratory dance. Through careful curation of uplifting music and choreography, Maura helps people let loose and shake off their worries.

Honey Body Workshop

A workshop designed especially for smaller spaces with the goal of making one's body feel more like honey - smooth, sweet, and relaxed. Maura leads participants through a series of movements designed to reduce stress and activate the entire body. People will leave feeling energized, more relaxed, and have some new self care ways that they can use at home and/or work.

See It Differently workshop

Classes that use movement, dance and choreography to help participants find new ways of thinking about the challenges they encounter in work and life. Whether it be a problem that needs solving, a decision that needs action or a situation that needs mediation, See It Differently workshops help people create responses by harnessing their inner creativity and kinetic energy. Participants leave with a new way to interpret their experiences and new tools to help change their point of view and generate innovative solutions. See It Differently workshops are offered as one-time sessions or 1-2 week residencies with the variety and depth of tools explored increasing with length.

Movement Response workshops

Experiential, movement-based classes that teach participants techniques for using movement to respond to anything and everything. Whether it be a machine, a personal experience or a strategic plan, movement response classes explore how phenomena can be understood and deconstructed via dance. Participants leave with deeper appreciation of the ideas being explored. Movement Response classes are offered as one-time sessions or 1-2 week residencies with the variety and depth of tools explored increasing with the length.

FOR UNIVERSITIES

Choreography Residency

Over the course of 1 - 3 weeks, Maura will teach a series of intensive workshops covering her movement style and choreography. During this time period, she will also set a piece on the students. Students will explore personal and cultural stories as sources for creating a choreographic vocabulary. García’s movement is tied to family stories and Indigenous cultural references. Students will also learn about the sources of the imagery she uses in her work.

Site-responsive Dance

A series of classes taking students through the creation of site-responsive performance works from conception to performance. Students learn techniques to respond the visual, sensory and auditory elements of specific sites. Maura's classes will explore all of this but within the context of the Indigenous history, present and future of the land. Classes are offered as a course unit, 1-2 week residencies or multi-day-long master classes with the variety and depth of tools explored increasing with length.

Sources of Movement Lecture Demo

This lecture introduces audiences to behind the scenes processes used to create choreography and convert everyday events into movements. In addition to outlining choreography-generating techniques and providing examples of how they can be used, Maura demonstrates the techniques via audience participation activities. She also discusses the stories behind her own choreography. Demonstrations typically run 45 minutes - 1.5 hours.

Movement Response workshops

Experiential, movement-based classes that teach participants techniques for using movement to respond to anything and everything. Whether it be a tree, a personal experience, a math lesson or a painting, movement response classes explore how events and objects can be interpreted, understood and explored via dance. Participants leave with deeper appreciation of whichever subject is being explored. Movement Response classes are offered as one-time sessions or 1-2 week residencies with the variety and depth of tools explored increasing with the length.

FOR COMMUNITIES

Choreography Masterclass

Participants are guided through a challenging and innovative dance class complete with warm-up, conditioning and a chance to learn Maura's original choreography. One workshop generally runs for 1.5 or 2 hours.

Dancing Stories workshop

These workshops allow people to move, learn and have fun while exploring the oral tradition through dance. Students interpret stories through self-created choreography and group dance collaborations. Minds and bodies are activated at the same time, allowing students to develop a new relationship with the narrative. Classes run from 45 minutes - 2 hours.

Honey Body Workshop

A workshop designed especially for smaller spaces with the goal of making one's body feel more like honey - smooth, sweet, and relaxed. Maura leads participants through a series of movements designed to reduce stress and activate the entire body. People will leave feeling energized, more relaxed, and have some new self care ways that they can use at home and/or work.

Liberate Yourself workshop (18+, women & femmes only)

The power that people can access when connected to their sensual nature is transformative. In Liberate Yourself workshops, Maura guides participants through interactive dance and storytelling experiences that help them harness their sensuality in a safe and consentual environment. Event activities include a series of professional anecdotes, gentle movement-based prompt exploration, witnessing dance performance and a closing reflection. All activities will take place in circle formation. Length 75 - 120 minutes.

Movement Response workshops

Experiential, movement-based classes that teach participants ways to use movement as a technique to respond to and explore events and ideas. Movement Response classes are offered as one-time sessions.

“Maura’s teaching style is challenging, encouraging and elegant. She provided me with a space to explore my body’s limitations as well as it’s strengths. In just a few weeks many of the students in her class were commenting on how they felt that they were improving and how they felt that they were gaining stability and strength. No matter how challenging the moves or positions were, she was consistently motivating and would adjust according to the needs of the student.”
- Charlotte McCloskey (Lakota), Ph.D. Licensed Psychologist

"Another Community Day activity that drew a lot of interest was two different sessions of a "Moving to Art" workshop taught by dancer/choreographer Maura Garcia. Garcia explained that the workshop was an opportunity for people to explore ways to react physically to art.…Participant Kelly Agan of Carrboro said she had a great time at the workshop, and that it was a perfect way to make art more interactive.” 

- Lisa A. Young, The Herald-Sun CHAPEL HILL  

"The artist residency was one-of-a-kind...the holistic approach to working with young artists in our AfterSchool Arts Immersion (AAI) program exceeded the standards we set for our teaching artists. Although the focus of the residency was creative movement, our AAI artists (ages 5-11) learned about dance as a form of resistance, the importance of meditation and ritual-building, and how to work as an artistic collective. AAI parents were particularly impressed by the “family sharing” performance concluding the residency. One parent called the performance a “great program that has helped open the eyes of our young artist and our family.” Another parent confirmed, “Excellent program! My daughter loved this program. She had a wonderful, enriching experience.” 

- Shirlette Ammons, former Childrens Arts Manager, The ArtsCenter

"Thank you so much for facilitating such an engaging and relevant workshop as part of the Ackland Art Museum's Heart of Progress Community Day...I appreciate your careful attention to the content and tenor of the exhibition... As a facilitator, you selected ways to acknowledge these aspects of the exhibition without letting it's serious nature overwhelm the workshop or negatively influence the participants enjoyment of the process...It was so wonderful to witness people of different ages in the galleries - many of whom had just met thirty minutes before - working together to create their own "working machine" and expressing such joy as they did." 

- Beth Shaw McGuire, Museum Educator

“It meant connecting to me. Connecting to "core" family, connecting to “local” family, connecting to earth family. It reinforced the circle of living (in the broadest sense).”

- Shade Little (Cherokee/Mattamuskeet), Center of the Universe project workshop participant