Thursday, April 25, 2024

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The Deborah Mason School of Dance, newly moved to near Porter Square in Somerville after 37 years in Cambridge, is preparing for its March 8 grand opening. The relocated, enlarged school and Center for Performing Arts Education has also scored a coup in the Cambridge dance world: Dancer and choreographer Rozann Kraus has moved her classes there as of Feb. 17.

Kraus, founder of The Dance Complex in Central Square, will teach Easy Modern and Low Intermediate Modern Dance Technique.

As watchers of City Council meetings will know from her appearances promoting Tromp, a transportation safety nonprofit, Kraus has a puckish sense of humor, and it shows up in her course description for Easy Modern: It’s “for recalcitrant dancers, reforming ballerinas and movers eager to remember why they love to dance” and is taught from 9:30 to 11 a.m. Mondays and Wednesdays. Her Low Intermediate Modern Dance Technique, which has no funny description, takes place from 6:15 to 7:45 p.m. Tuesdays.

But Kraus has what she’s calling a “creative registration process” that charges either $300 or $150 to preregister for a course, respectively, then returns $5 each time dancers attend the classes they’ve paid for. (There are drop-in rates of $15 per class.)

In addition to leading master classes nationwide, Kraus served on the faculties of the Yale School of Drama and New England Conservatory of Music and has been artist in residence at Clark and Tufts universities and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The school’s grand opening event, with hors d’oeuvres and cocktails for adults, is scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. March 8.

The new Deborah Mason School of Dance is at 624 Somerville Ave., Somerville, where it has one other thing the Dance Complex does not: free parking. For information about the school, click here or call (617) 616-5124. To preregister for a course with Kraus, email [email protected].