What relationships, ideas, people, and places shape who we become?
As a dancer, I have been blessed to learn from many amazing artists and teachers along the way–Amie Dowling, Nancy Stark Smith, Bebe Miller, Candace Feck, Ze’eva Cohen, Diann Sichel, Wendy Perron, Sara Hooke, Francine Landes, Susan Hadley, Vickie Blaine, Victoria Uris, Robin Gee, Nicole Stanton, Karen Davis, Chris Aiken, Peter Schmitz, Wendy Woodson, David Hurwith, Sara Shelton Mann, Heidi Henderson, Kathleen Hermesdorf, my many other teachers and peers at Princeton University (BA Chemistry, certificate in Dance) and Ohio State (MFA Choreography), and so many others…and of course, always, my students.
As a performer, I have had the pleasure of dancing in works by many artists including Amie Dowling, Heddy Malem, Wendy Woodson, Sharon Fridman, David Hurwith, Peter Schmitz, Robin Prichard, Susan Waltner, Maura Donahue, Terese Freedman, Jim Coleman, Aurora Corsano, Susan Van Pelt, and more.
As a choreographer, my work has focused on intergenerational and community-based projects. Most notably, from 2006 to 2014, I directed the intergenerational dance company Dance Generators in Northampton, MA.
As an improviser, my deepest passion is contact improvisation (CI), a form that captured my heart at 20 years old and still continues to feed my soul. I have traveled around the globe teaching CI in places including Germany, Denmark, Argentina, Japan, and Australia.
As a researcher, I bring my deep curiosity about the embodiment of gender, privilege and power to the dance forms I love. Texts on gender theory, queer theory, critical race theory, and pedagogy inform embodied exploration, dialog, and collaborative creation.
As a writer, I share what I am discovering in the areas that I investigate (such as contact improvisation and pedagogy) and ask questions to invite fellow dancers into critical reflection. My published works appear in Contact Quarterly and the Journal of Dance Education.
As a teacher, I have had the privilege of working with students in many places in and out of academia. I taught at Oberlin College, Kenyon College, Keene State College, Providence College, and Dean College, before finding my long-term home at Marlboro College, where I’ve been a Professor of Dance (and now of Gender Studies) since 2006. In 2020, Marlboro College merged with Emerson College, and I now serve as the Head of Dance at Emerson College. As a teacher of contact improvisation, I have taught at dozens of festivals, jams, and workshops including Earthdance, the Freiburg Festival, Contact Meets Contemporary, Tanzfabrik, and Hope Mohr’s Bridge Project, among others.
As a mentor, I revel in the delight of helping my students carve their paths in the world. I am deeply invested in the art of teaching, and consider fostering the explorations of others to be one of my main forms of creative work right now.
Photos by Jennifer Morris
