DanceBreak Session 10

Presented by projectALCHEMY

Join us for the 10th Session of DanceBreak, an outlet for dance artists to talk about their practice, their work, and their goals for themselves and the community at large. This intimate dance conversation series continues via Facebook Live-stream with host Alexander Jones and featured dance artists Helen Hansen French and Lauren Slone.

Since 2006, Lauren Slone has re-imagined and created grant programs, arts education curricula, youth mentorship programs, presentation platforms, and performance projects that democratize public access to arts and culture throughout the United States. Currently, she serves as MAP Fund Director of Grants and Research, Grantmakers in the Arts Individual Artists Support Committee member, Live in America Support Team member, 2021 Palladium Creative Class Performer, and as an advisor to the Creative and Independent Producer Alliance.

Helen Hansen French, a native of St. Petersburg, began dancing at Judith Lee Johnson’s Studio of Dance, and at the Pinellas County Center for the Arts. After attending the HARID Conservatory, she was accepted into the Juilliard School under the Early Admissions Option and received her BFA in 2001. Upon graduation she was invited to join Buglisi Dance Theatre where she is currently a principal dancer as well as rehearsal assistant. Mrs. Hansen French has also been instrumental in restaging BDT’s works at Marymount Manhattan College, The Alvin/Ailey Fordham B.F.A. program, George Mason University, and the University of California at Long Beach. Helen appears in Lois Greenfield’s 2005 and 2012 Breaking Bounds calendar and was featured in the New York Times Arts and Leisure section and Dance Teacher Magazine with BDT. In February 2010 she presented a solo show at Studio@620 that featured the re-created works of Ruth St. Denis, Doris Humphrey and Jacqulyn Buglisi. Most recently Mrs. Hansen French, in collaboration with Erik Wagner and Erin Fletcher presented, “Look Tonight’ an evening length dance/theater work at Studio@620Mrs. Hansen French has been a member of the dance faculty at the Neighborhood Playhouse in NYC and The Juilliard School. Currently she is on the faculty of St. Petersburg College. Helen is also a nationally certified Alexander Technique teacher and maintains a private teaching practice in NYC and St. Petersburg.