Core Dance
Morning Class
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After more than a decade without a change Core Dance has increased our class fees this year in order to help cover increasing costs. Thank you so much for your continued support and involvement.
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Led by established, progressive dance artists, Morning Class is offered to the community for $15 per class. Registration and payment must be made online before class time. Any questions or concerns, please contact outreach@coredance.org.​
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Morning Class for Spring 2025 includes:
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Mondays: Contemporary Forming with Annalee Traylor
Tuesdays: Guest Instructors- To Be Determined
Wednesdays: Capoeira with Professor Dandley
Thursdays and Fridays: Contemporary & Traditional Modern Dance Moves with Kristin O'Neal
Special guest instructors are noted within the calendar.
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Sign up through the calendar below. Click on the date for the registration link.
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NOTICE : Advance registration is required. All attendees must follow the instructions of the class leader with regard to masking. Hand sanitizer is available in the studio and each studio is equipped with a high-powered air cleaner. The HVAC system has also been upgraded to clean and sanitize the air.
Core Dance Morning Class Faculty
Annalee Traylor
Contemporary forming
Creator, choreographer, director, and educator originally from Huntsville, AL. Annalee Traylor is a high school graduate of UNCSA. She received her BFA cum laude from Point Park University and MFA from the California Institute of the Arts with the S. Disney Lund Scholarship in Dance. She recently completed a year fellowship as the inaugural Emory Arts Fellow in Dance. In the fall, Traylor will direct Theater Emory’s production of The Other Shore.
A founding member of the critically acclaimed August Wilson Center Dance Ensemble (Top 25 to Watch, Dance Magazine), Traylor has had the honor of working with some of the most illustrious choreographers of our time, including Kyle Abraham, Robert Battle, Sidra Bell, Camille A. Brown, and Darrell Grand Moultrie. As a freelance performer, she danced with various projects and companies in Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, and NYC.
Traylor's choreographic work has been presented nationally and abroad in LA, NYC, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Houston, Durham, Temecula, Seattle, the Netherlands, Italy, and Portugal and at venues including Battery Park, Green Space, New Hazlett Theater, Ailey Citigroup Theater, Diavolo, Ferst Center for the Arts, Schwartz Center for Performing Arts, and Highways Performance Space, among others. Her commissions include Emory University, Kennesaw State University, Periapsis Music and Dance, Texture Contemporary Ballet, Point Park University's International Summer Dance, REED Dance, The Dance Gallery Festival, Houston Contemporary II, Dance Canvas, and Voices Carry Inc. Traylor participated in Dance Lab NY, working with artists of Korzo Theater in The Hague, Netherlands and UNCSA’s Choreographic Institute under the direction of Juel D. Lane. 
In 2020, she was awarded Outstanding Choreographer at the Youth American Grand Prix Regionals.
Traylor’s guest teaching credits include Emory University, Carnegie Mellon University, Sam Houston State University, Point Park University, CalArts, Dekalb School of the Arts, DanceWave, The Creative and Performing Arts High School in Pittsburgh, the virtual international dance school, Ballet Together, among many other pre-professional programs, schools, and studios throughout the US. She is also on faculty for the guiDANCE experience, is an adjunct faculty at Reinhardt University, and is a certified Romana’s Pilates instructor.  
Class Description: Drawing on physicality that explores quick-twitch and intricate rhythms, isolations, extremes among tension and release, asymmetry, and idiosyncratic nuance, this contemporary forms class seeks to cultivate an embodied attunement to a range of movement qualities, dynamics, and musicality. We invest in potential, surprise, and interpretation via improvisational prompts and phrase work as we practice adaptability in the kinesthetic synthesis of space, time, and energy.
Amelia Reiser
tune-up
Atlanta based creator, performer, and movement facilitator Amelia Reiser was raised on the Osage Plains of Central Oklahoma. She attended The University of Georgia, earning a BFA in Dance Performance (2011). Amelia was a founding member of Skwhirlhaus collective in Atlanta, GA (2012-2016) alongside Maryn Whitmore, choreographing, performing and helping curate an annual series of works from emerging and established artists. Her most recent choreographic work includes ditto (2024) a duet in collaboration with Kathleen Wessel, The Games We Play (2023) commissioned by The University of Georgia’s Department of Dance, and thread b a r e (film, 2021) presented at HomeTraining: an experiential gallery show (Atlanta, GA) and Elephant Gallery: Quilty Pleasures (Nashville, TN). 
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Over many years of performing and creating, Amelia has had the profound opportunity to work with numerous dance-makers and artists including T Lang Dance, Nick Cave, Maryn Whitmore, Erik Thurmond, Christina Noel Reaves, Tara Hemmer, Lesley Wingfield, Emily Christianson, Sara Santamaria, Lucy Smith, and Greg Catellier (Catellier Dance Projects!). Amelia was a collaborative company member, teacher, and performer with staibdance (George Staib) in Atlanta, GA (2013-2023)
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In addition to dance making and performing, Amelia creates dance films, is a published writer, and has an active textiles practice. Amelia teaches yoga at local studios, and is a trauma informed yoga and mindfulness teacher working with incarcerated youth through local nonprofit Centering Youth. Amelia is the first Atlanta based instructor of Dance Church®, an fun and inclusive dance party/movement class for all people, founded by choreographer and performer Kate Wallich.
Class Description: tune-up is physical tuning, a group fitness practice for professional movement artists to collectively work towards individual optimal working conditions for strength in performance, safety, and longevity.
This practice is formed of spokes taken from all of the wheels (strength training, physical therapy, cardio, yoga, classical dance forms, rituals…) that we have rode around on for years, and now welded together into another version.
sweat, strengthen, crack open
Professor Dandley
Capoeira
With more than 20 years of experience training and teaching capoeira, Professor Dandley, a member of Capoeira Maculelê and a capoeira world champion has helped to build a strong and energetic community of students that reflects the rich physical, social, mental, and spiritual elements of the art. Professor Dandley has taught capoeira for over 15 years. His approach encourages discipline, focus, and respect in students and immerses them in Brazilian music, language, and culture. His belief in the positive, lasting impact of capoeira on all aspects of a capoeirista's life permeates his classes.
Class Description: These are ongoing classes where anyone can join, no previous experience necessary. It covers all aspects of Capoeira; martial-arts, dance, music, acrobatics, culture, language and more. It focuses on developing the students rhythm, reflexes, balance, coordination and increasing strength and flexibility as they learn. All the necessary skills are taught in class.
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We recommend this class for anyone wanting to start in the art of Capoeira. Class prepares each student at their own pace to join into our beginner Capoeira lessons in which they will start getting a better understanding of the art. You will work on basic steps of Capoeira; Ginga, Esquivas, Attack / Defence / Counter-attacks, dance elements, musical skills, and basic acrobatics. Should you wish to go further than just basics, you should then join our Beginner class to start progressing through the different levels of Capoeira. Capoeira is a great form of fitness and exercise that works not only your whole body, but also your mind.​
Kristin O'Neal
Contemporary & Traditional Modern Dance Moves
Kristin is a Dance Lecturer at Emory University (Atlanta) and teaches contemporary modern technique at Core Dance (Decatur, GA) for intermediate to professional dancers.  Kristin is an avid practitioner of Contact Improvisation and organizes CI workshops, classes and jams for the Atlanta Community.   Kristin also assists in the operations of National Water Dance under the direction of Dale Andree (Miami, FL)—a movement choir that activates artists and their communities to spread water awareness across the nation. Kristin creates and performs solo dances based on the lives of her Grandmothers and Great Aunts, and also co-teaches Contact Improvisation at Emory University with her husband, Greg Catellier, with whom she also collaborates in curious dance-making.
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Class Description: Considering the weight of our bones to activate deep core muscles, we will invite ease and efficiency into our movement phrasing while conditioning thoughtfully and readying the body for the myriad physical relationships that contemporary modern dance asks of us. We will sense all surfaces of our bodies in contact with the floor, noticing anchor points of stability to find freedom of movement in our joints and in space with others, while sliding, swinging, suspending, falling, pouring, gliding and all the things that inspire us along the way.  This class is geared for the intermediate to professional mover. Kneepads and long pants recommended.
Photo by Christina J. Massad
Guest Faculty
Guest Faculty for Spring 2025 Season Coming Soon!
Directions: Our back entrance is accessible by way of North McDonough Street, at the intersection of Trinity Avenue and the Decatur Square. Look for the entrance past Waffle House.
Parking: The Core Dance Parking lot is a public, paid lot. If you are visiting the Core Dance Studios, there are instructions in the studio for a stipend toward that payment. A portion of your Parking Fee is donated to Core Dance. Core Dance does not have any control over the lot or parking fee enforcement.
MARTA’s Decatur Station will plop you down right next to us in the Decatur Square. Visit itsmarta.com for details on Decatur Station and for train and bus schedules.