CrossKinect Method
A somatic floorwork dance class
I developed CrossKinect dance classes in late 2020 during the pandemic, when dance studios were closed and the only in-person movement training available to me were GYROKINESIS® Method teacher trainings. With limited options, I immersed myself fully in the GYROKINESIS® Method, which significantly changed my body and movement patterns—I even grew an inch. When I eventually returned to the dance studio, moving full out in the studio space after months of virtual classes in my small apartment, I found myself relearning the dance technique I’d religiously practiced since I was a little girl through a newly, deeply connected internal body. The experience felt foreign but transformative. After taking some time to research, I feel more connected and stronger in my dancing than I ever did pre-pandemic in my early twenties. The challenge of sustaining these
connections across separate practices led me to integrate them into a single approach. CrossKinect combines the GYROKINESIS® Method (the 1st hour) and dance technique (the 2nd hour) into one cohesive class, supporting body awareness, strength, coordination, and long-term physical sustainability. It offers the cross-training dancers need for a healthy, lasting career—allowing essential connections to be discovered all at once.
A deeper look into CrossKinect Classes
CLASS SET UP
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Warming up with GYROKINESIS® for the first half of class
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Flowing into some improv
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Applying those GYROKINESIS® concepts to dance technique with:
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Drilling skills with games & across the floor
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Ending with a more advanced dance phrase taught by Malia or by a guest artist tying everything together into a flow!
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DETAILED CROSSKINECT CLASS BREAKDOWN
The GYROKINESIS® warm up is slower to allow time for you to research the movement in your body. Throughout the warm up, we will build on concepts and ideas within the GYROKINESIS® methodology to workshop within our dance technique later. Following the GYROKINESIS® first half of class, we then play with those connections through some guided improv leading into more structured movement across the floor utilizing familiar floorwork exercises. Class will end with a fun floorwork phrase taught by Malia (occasionally Malia will invite a guest teacher in another style of dance for specific classes2). The phrase will focus more on tricky pathways and transitions unique to that teachers style, while utilizing the GYROKINESIS® method to aid our movement. Teaching dance technique and GYROKINESIS® in the same class allows students to find body awareness and connectivity while doing strenuous dance movements without injuring themselves. My class emphasizes flexibility and breath work, while consciously activating the nerves and muscles to make healthy, balanced pathways in the body for dance. More about The GYROKINESIS® Method: “The GYROKINESIS® Method is an original and unique movement method that addresses the entire person by opening energy pathways, stimulating the nervous system, increasing range of motion, and improving strength and movement efficiency. With GYROKINESIS® exercises, each movement flows into the next, allowing the joints to move through a natural range of motion without jarring or compression. These carefully crafted sequences create balance, efficiency, strength and flexibility.”
Contact for lessons
Please email Malia@MaliaLam.com or visit the contact page for inquiries about privates, subbing or teaching classes or workshops for a studio.