Core Dance
Morning Class
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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 2026 includes:
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Mondays: Morning Flow and Stretch with Cheryl Burnette
Tuesdays: Cognition Ignition with Faith Fidgeon
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
Faith Fidgeon
Cognition Ignition
Faith Fidgeon is a dance artist currently residing in Atlanta, Georgia. A graduate of University of North Carolina School of the Arts, they have a BFA in Contemporary Dance with a minor in Arts Entrepreneurship. Faith’s movement practices are influenced by Countertechnique, Release technique, contact improvisation, yoga, and bouldering. They are currently a company member with staibdance.
Class Description: Want to move with more clarity, ease, and presence? This class gives you mental tools to self-assess, problem-solve, and drive your own movement practice. Through exercises and flying phrasework, you'll sharpen your awareness of your body in space—a moving meditation that fuels both mind and motion.
Fire the brain. Drive the body. Dance bigger. Dance longer. Dance happier!
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.​
Photo by Christina J. Massad
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.
Guest Faculty
Isa Newport
Isa Newport is a multifaceted artist from Tallahassee, FL. Their professional training at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) has shaped them into a dynamic mover and creator. Their performance career includes work by Shen Wei, Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, and Trisha Brown, as well as a soloist role in a devised theater piece with UNCSA’s world-renowned School of Drama.
While dance remains their first love, Isa’s practice has expanded into devised performance, interdisciplinary collaboration, and intimacy choreography—supported by training through Theatrical Intimacy Education. Since landing in Atlanta, they have quickly made their mark on the local dance scene, performing with companies like VIA UNI, Monica Hogan Danceworks, and Bautanzt Here, and collaborating with choreographers Meagan Novoa and Graham Shelor. In 2024, they were named the Spring Rising Artist in Residence at Rise City Dance, where they developed and premiered original work.
Their newest choreographic work was presented at 2025 MAD Festival, furthering Isa’s commitment to experimental, research-driven performance that rewires their relationship to form, narrative, and the confines of classical contemporary dance.
Class Description:Rooted in Coordination, Awareness, and Kinetic Embodiment, this class places focus on efficiently exercising the body through physical and anatomical technical practices. With an aim toward building strength, stamina, flow, and specific dynamic coordination, the
movement vocabulary. Designed for advanced and professional-level dancers, this class offers a rigorous environment that meets the needs of those seeking to maintain or expand their technical and expressive range. The 90-minute structure ascends from the floor to standing and will leave students sweaty, grounded, and deeply connected to their body across three dimensions.
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.