School of Music, Theatre and Dance

Take Root to host creative movement concert with Oakland Family Services at Strand Theatre

icon of a calendarFebruary 1, 2019

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Take Root to host creative movement concert with Oakland Family Services at Strand Theatre
Take Root creative dance class in Pontiac
Take Root will host a creative movement concert featuring the children of Oakland Family Services on Wednesday, February 13 at the Flagstar Strand Theatre in Pontiac.

Take Root, a contemporary dance company-in-residence at Oakland University, will host a creative movement concert featuring the children of Oakland Family Services on Wednesday, February 13 at the Flagstar Strand Theatre in Pontiac.

“Take Root’s mission is to impact lives through dance,” said OU Dance Associate Professor Thayer Jonutz, who co-founded Take Root in 2013 with fellow Associate Professor of Dance Ali Woerner. “We have been accomplishing this mission through professional performances, modeling high level of artistic productivity to our OU students, and our community engagement work.”

While Woerner oversees Take Root’s Dance for Parkinson’s Disease program, which will be hosting a special presentation and dance session with OU medical students on Thursday, Feb. 7 on the fifth floor of the Human Health Building, Jonutz heads up the dance company’s Arts Education program.

“Since September, Take Root’s Arts Education faculty have been in residency at Oakland Family Services, teaching creative movement classes every Wednesday to about 50 preschoolers, Jonutz said. “All of the classes taught have focused on movement games to help the kids tap into creativity.”

According to Jonutz, the children “will demonstrate their own interpretations of guided improvisations” during the concert, while Take Root professional dancers will perform excerpts from this year’s repertory.

The concert, which is free and open to the public, begins at 4:30 p.m.

The Flagstar Strand Theatre is located at 12 N Saginaw St. in Pontiac.

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