Samantha Bryan

Instructor

The Rhody Center

Sam (she/they) is an events manager, performance artist and feminist writer, currently living in Providence, RI. She is a proud member of award-winning Boston troupes The Slaughterhouse Society and The Lipstick Criminals, and former member of Vadalna Dance Company until their close in 2014. In 2004, she graduated from Bossov Ballet Theater, a Vaganova ballet school and junior company directed by Andrei Bossov, former principal dancer and choreographer for the Kirov Ballet. During her training, she had the honor and privilege of additionally studying with ballet masters including Vladimir Isaaev, Mme. Alla Osipenko, Irina Lebedeva, and Natalia Getman. In 2007, Samantha graduated with a degree in Culinary Arts from Johnson & Wales University, and in 2021 she completed her B.A. in Liberal Studies, with a History Minor focus on social movements and revolution, and a concentration in Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies from Worcester State University. In her 13 year break from full-time academia, she traveled around the world performing, producing, and pursuing her passion in plant-based nutrition. In that time she became very passionate about women's issues, outsider cultures, and understanding art as a form of activism and awareness. She previously co-directed a short film in 2014 on women in metal as part of the Slaughterhouse Society production, "Sirens of Doomsday". This later inspired her to become the director and producer of The Scarlet Tongue Project, a documentary film and art collective exploring the social taboo of anger through art, culture, and intersectional feminism.Sam's approach to dance-- ballet in particular-- comes from a place of self-acceptance, curiosity around the body's possibilities and limitations, and the ability to transcend the mundane world by honing one's craft and overriding the brain through complex movements.Also, just letting go and having fun with it!She prefers a teaching style that embodies more than the cerebral elements of dance, especially while working with a diverse student body that consists of a spectrum of abilities. Her classes are less focused on formal elements such as anatomy and physiology terminology, and more embracing of organic expression and broadly accessible explanations. But that doesn't mean you won't get a butt-kicking if that's what you're here for!If you desire going further into the technical nerdiness of it all, she is always thrilled to provide resource lists for books, schools and documentaries. And she will happily chat it up about dance history and theory.