Sandy Hagen Dance: About Sandy

Sandy Hagen is a dancer, teacher, choreographer, and conditioning coach with a BFA and MFA in dance from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. She is the creator of jazz-barre-stretch (established in 1974) a therapeutic, total body conditioning program for men and women that develops endurance and a balance between strength and stretch in all the major muscles of the body.

Sandy has choreographed and staged many professional productions. Most recently, she revamped the show "Fever: A Tribute to Peggy Lee," starring Buddy Grecco and Leslie Anders. The show played in Boston in Spring 2003 and is now touring. During her career, Sandy has worked on a wide variety of other productions, from a female impersonator revue ("An Evening At La Cage," Bally's Park Place Casino in Atlantic City) to a children's opera (Peter Maxwell Davies' "Cinderella," American Debut) to the "New England Patriots Cheerleaders, first edition" the first use of both men and women in dance and gymnastics routines. She nurtured "Lullaby of Swing" from a 4-man, 1940s style swing band into a full-scale musical revue with a cast of 18 at Honolulu's Waikiki Plaza Hotel, and later, with a cast of 23, at the Royal Swan Ballroom of Atlantic City's Tropicana Hotel and Boston's Bradford Hotel.

Sandy has created dances for television, film, and live industrials; staged fashion shows (including a Special Olympics benefit); and choreographed such productions as "Jerry's Girls," "Damn Yankees," "Guys and Dolls," and "Two Gentlemen of Verona." As an Equity actress and dancer, she has appeared in numerous productions, including "The Pajama Game," "West Side Story," "Cabaret," and "The Boy Friend," as well as countless industrials and revues. She has also portrayed a dancing carrot for the American Cancer Society, and appeared in a public service announcement for AIDS.

Sandy has studied extensively with Luigi, who recommends her as a teacher of his "Luigi Jazz Technique" (see "Core Programs"). Sandy also studied with her good friend Joe Tremaine, who was her dance partner from her teen years. Sandy herself has taught at numerous universities in the Boston area, including Boston Conservatory of Music, Northeastern University, Boston University, and Harvard University; as well as in France and Germany. Until 2001, she operated Sandy Hagen's Jazz Dance Center in Boston, where she taught dance, conditioning for dancers, and therapeutic exercise. She continues to offer classes and personal conditioning in the Boston area.

For more about Sandy's course offerings, click "Core Programs" and "Classes."

Teaching Philosophy

Sandy believes in continually and methodically training the body to reach and maintain its full potential, both artistically and in muscle structure/definition. Her methods guide and encourage professional dancers, instructors, therapists, gymnasts, athletes and ordinary people in a wide age range to work out systematically and properly, in their homes, a dance studio, or a specialised facility. These regimens have been proven to result in improved basic body alignment and correct usage of all muscle groups leading to the reduction or elimination of pain and stress, and greatly improve longevity for the dancer's or athlete's career. This "how to" training in working the muscles develops "muscle memory" (kinesthetic awareness). In all Sandy's work, she teaches muscle function and relationship, and she emphasizes the concept of patiently, properly, and regularly working out to maintain sound body structure as the basics for dance, athletics, or healthful and pain-free daily living.

For a detailed explanation of the value and history of Sandy's jazz-barre-stretch program, see "Core Programs."

All materials copyright 2002-2009