This class follows animal flow method to create a low barrier for entry and a high ceiling. Starting with a shaking somatic warm up, then moving into basic floorwork drills that come from modern, breaking and capoeira techniques, we will move into bigger modality strings playing with momentum, spiral and catch/release. This class prioritizes keeping in the rhythm and pace of the animal flow, rather than the movement sequences created – please bring long sleeves, long pants, and knee pads if needed to the class.

Tia Ashley Kushniruk (亚 女弟) is a queer Chinese-Ukrainian dance artist based in ᐊᒥᐢᑿᒌᐚᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ (Amiskwacîwâskahikan) Treaty 6/Métis Territory of Edmonton AB. She creates performative fantasies grounded in theories of interculturalism, new-materialism, digital futures and individual mythos by weaving dance, buffoon, performance art, physical theatre, and text with collaborative engagements based in devised methodologies. She has had the pleasure of performing the works of Antony Hamilton (CHUNKY MOVE), Celia J. Green, Heidi Strauss (adelheid), Christopher House, Shay Kuebler (SK/Radical System Art), Rock Bottom Movement, Christianne Ullmark and Susannah Haight.

Her work has been presented by Festival Internacional Nomada, the Beijing International Dance Festival, Dancing on the Edge, Fluid Festival, commonGround Arts Festival, FoundFest, and Mile Zero. She is a 2023 EATF recipient and a mentee of Toronto-based performance artist Bridget Moser and holds an MA in Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of Toronto (2025).