Upper School Intersession 2025

You won’t find a more authentic class dedicated to the beautiful art of Mongolian dance anywhere else in the Bay Area. Mongolian dance is renowned for its intricate and diverse movements, with a repertoire that engages the shoulders, arms, and wrists to create an exquisite display of grace and strength. 

In this session, you'll explore the basic body movements that form the foundation of Mongolian dance. Step by step, we’ll guide you toward completing a short dance combination set to music. To inspire your journey, our talented dance team will perform live, and we’ll also showcase highlights from last year’s studio performance through select video clips. Learn by doing! It’s the best way to appreciate Mongolian dance. 

Live Action Role Playing (LARP), players pretend to be someone else, living in a different time or place, and acting out events that might happen in that world. Many of these games involve battles, and so LARPers use safe, padded props that look like weapons to act out the combat. Unlike in a play where everyone has certain lines to say and the story is set, in LARP, the players each act out a certain person and make their own decisions for that person as the game evolves. Live Action Role Playing is a tremendous teaching tool and capable of dynamic, physically driven learning that transcends the usual boundaries of standard education. Due to the interactive, dramatic, hands on methods used in LARP, teaching is often effortless and fun. This class begins with basic battle training and rules of combat, followed by character creation and entry into the game world of Roekron, a game world continuously run for over two decades in the Bay Area and which currently has leagues all across the region with weekly and monthly meetups. Students will have a character at the end of this class that can be taken and used in any of the other Roekron League events they choose and may continue their story at future events if they wish.

Topics Covered:
- First Five Battle Rules
- Equipment Sets and Weapons
- Armor System of AV
- Basic Spell and Skill Types
- Overview of the Classes
- Character Species
- Character Backstory
- Alignments
- Flow of Events
- Playing a Monster or NPC
- Quests and Role Playing
- Magical Items and Money Cards
- Completing a Mission
- Transfer of Characters to other leagues

Check out these videos to get a sense of what we'll be doing!
Intro (2min)
The Regulars LARPing (SF Chronicle)- 
https://youtu.be/YdnqN-TcBq4

Core Rules-(13min)
The First Five Rules- 
https://youtu.be/K7PVm6rw2H8
Armor Zones- (3min)
https://youtu.be/N67hPOenaHU
Color Tags- (5min)
https://youtu.be/XIbgvo-5nnA

-Bonus Material-
TEDx Talk on LARPing with Kids and Teens- (10min)
https://youtu.be/L6xl-qYRHco

Sebastopol Times Article 2024
(10min read)

You won’t find a more authentic class dedicated to the beautiful art of Mongolian dance anywhere else in the Bay Area. Mongolian dance is renowned for its intricate and diverse movements, with a repertoire that engages the shoulders, arms, and wrists to create an exquisite display of grace and strength. 

In this session, you'll explore the basic body movements that form the foundation of Mongolian dance. Step by step, we’ll guide you toward completing a short dance combination set to music. To inspire your journey, our talented dance team will perform live, and we’ll also showcase highlights from last year’s studio performance through select video clips. Learn by doing! It’s the best way to appreciate Mongolian dance. 

This class will work as an introduction to strength and conditioning, as well as weightlifting as a whole.

Topics will include general ideas and highly specific topics like how a muscle actually works. Other topics for example are, why people should lift weights, what benefits come out of it, why it is not exclusive to athletes, and why it can help athletes excel?

In addition we will work to help set goals within the weight room and how you can use these to track your progress in different ways.

This class will focus on all the "dark arts" of weightlifting. Different modalities to help you progress through plateaus, and take yourself to levels never achieved before.

This class will also work to teach more advanced movements, like olympic lifts, to help expand the knowledge of anyone interested.

We will cover different periodization protocols, which set/rep schemes will help achieve certain goals, how to execute more complicated lifts, introducing accommodating resistance. Ultimately this should help you map out a training regimen to reach your goals, as well as give you more tools to help to get you where you want to be.

This workshop will help students understand and analyze the difference between a variety of different martial arts forms as well as a bit of their history as well. Students will learn basic self defense principles and good practices for self improvement. We will break down the differences between various martial arts forms and their pros/cons, so students can help find out which martial art might be best for them.

This will be an overview of many martial arts conceptually, with a focus on jiu jitsu and Muay Thai based self defense. A combination of analysis, history, technique study, and practical application.

Have you ever wanted to know how to shoot using a bow and arrow? Learn archery for the very first time! All gear will be provided. You do not need any prior experience shooting to participate in this session.

From street safety and awareness to full-force self-defense techniques, this 2.5-hour class lays a foundation of skills including intuition, situational awareness, body language and voice proven effective at increasing safety and confidence. Participants practice de-escalating dangerous situations, and get the unique and powerful experience of practicing physical techniques at full force in safe and realistic scenarios against a padded mock assailant.

This class is led by a Whistle Instructor, who is the lead coach, and a Suited Instructor, who plays the role of mock assailant and wears a padded suit to allow students to hit full force. Physical techniques include defending against attacks from the front, being grabbed from behind, and an introduction to fighting from the ground. You'll leave this class feeling strong and maybe surprised by your own power and courage!

Have you ever wanted to know how to shoot using a bow and arrow? Learn archery for the very first time! All gear will be provided. You do not need any prior experience shooting to participate in this session.

This class will work as an introduction to strength and conditioning, as well as weightlifting as a whole.

Topics will include general ideas and highly specific topics like how a muscle actually works. Other topics for example are, why people should lift weights, what benefits come out of it, why it is not exclusive to athletes, and why it can help athletes excel?

In addition we will work to help set goals within the weight room and how you can use these to track your progress in different ways.

This class will focus on all the "dark arts" of weightlifting. Different modalities to help you progress through plateaus, and take yourself to levels never achieved before.

This class will also work to teach more advanced movements, like olympic lifts, to help expand the knowledge of anyone interested.

We will cover different periodization protocols, which set/rep schemes will help achieve certain goals, how to execute more complicated lifts, introducing accommodating resistance. Ultimately this should help you map out a training regimen to reach your goals, as well as give you more tools to help to get you where you want to be.

California's official state dance, West Coast Swing, is a fun social dance that emphasizes improvisation (check out examples of competitive WCS here, here, and here). Originally a form of Lindy Hop, West Coast Swing has evolved into a modern partner dance which can be danced to almost any kind of music and is also degendered (anyone can lead or follow). It's increasingly popular thanks to social media: Learn how to "speak" WCS, and you'll have a community of Westie friends on college campuses and in cities all around the world.
No dance experience necessary. Wear pants and comfortable sneakers/flat shoes.

This introductory class is for those curious about aerial silks or interested in developing strong core and upper body with conditioning exercises on and off the silks. No experience necessary. Try it once and you’ll be hooked! All participants must be in good health, and in proper physical condition to participate in aerial silk activities.

This is an OFF CAMPUS session and students will arrive at the studio at 12:45 and depart at 2:45. Transportation will be pre-arranged.

What to bring to class?
- Yoga Mats and/or Large Towel are optional but recommended.
- Bring your water bottle to stay hydrated! We offer filtered water for refills.
- Cubicles are available to store your belongings.

What do I wear & not wear for aerial classes?
- NO “Metal” Policy. All students are asked to remove all jewelry before coming to class including rings, earrings, piercings, bracelets etc.
- NO ZIPPERS PLEASE! Wear clothing without metal parts (e.g. zippers) it may cause injury or snag the fabric while you are performing. If jewelry cannot be removed it must be covered with sports tape.
- Wear tops that are secure and that can be tucked in.
- Wear leggings. Be sure your pants have a secure waist – loose waistbands may get pulled off by the fabrics. DO NOT wear shorts WITHOUT leggings or tights underneath!
- Be aware of holes or sheer fabrics near the crotch of pants (this happens more often than you think, so check out your pants/shorts)

Restorative Yoga is designed to relax, restore and rejuvenate the body with mindful movements, precise alignment and establishing mind, body and breath connection. The class starts with gentle movements and then will move on to holding yoga asanas using props. The intention is to activate the parasympathetic nervous system with a series of asanas to bring calm and relaxation to the body and mind using breath.

Restorative Yoga is designed to relax, restore and rejuvenate the body with mindful movements, precise alignment and establishing mind, body and breath connection. The class starts with gentle movements and then will move on to holding yoga asanas using props. The intention is to activate the parasympathetic nervous system with a series of asanas to bring calm and relaxation to the body and mind using breath.

This introductory class is for those curious about aerial silks or interested in developing strong core and upper body with conditioning exercises on and off the silks. No experience necessary. Try it once and you’ll be hooked! All participants must be in good health, and in proper physical condition to participate in aerial silk activities.

This is an OFF CAMPUS session and students will arrive at the studio at 12:45 and depart at 2:45. Transportation will be pre-arranged.

What to bring to class?
- Yoga Mats and/or Large Towel are optional but recommended.
- Bring your water bottle to stay hydrated! We offer filtered water for refills.
- Cubicles are available to store your belongings.

What do I wear & not wear for aerial classes?
- NO “Metal” Policy. All students are asked to remove all jewelry before coming to class including rings, earrings, piercings, bracelets etc.
- NO ZIPPERS PLEASE! Wear clothing without metal parts (e.g. zippers) it may cause injury or snag the fabric while you are performing. If jewelry cannot be removed it must be covered with sports tape.
- Wear tops that are secure and that can be tucked in.
- Wear leggings. Be sure your pants have a secure waist – loose waistbands may get pulled off by the fabrics. DO NOT wear shorts WITHOUT leggings or tights underneath!
- Be aware of holes or sheer fabrics near the crotch of pants (this happens more often than you think, so check out your pants/shorts)