Movement is everywhere. Our breath and heartbeat, the ocean tides and waves, the Earth’s rotation around the sun. Movement wires our brain and enables connection, curiosity, mutual understanding and compassion. It is the source of creation even when it emerges from destruction.
Carey McKinley is a multi-disciplinary artist exploring the relationship between dance and painting. Her paintings capture the constant, fluid state of change inherent in the natural environment and in human nature. Her marks on the canvas mirror the unpredictable, visceral movements of living creatures and objects. That same vitality and imagery is present in her choreography, which is akin to moving sculpture. McKinley’s dances and paintings are supported by 50+ years of training, a rigorous practice of reflection, observation and research and a 30 year career in education.
McKinley’s nomadic life was stabilized by dance early on. Growing up moving from Philadelphia, PA to Los Angeles, CA to Charleston, SC to Dallas, TX to Boston, MA, and coming from a family of artists, she spent her life creating new realities and being exposed to a variety of possibilities. Her training in classical ballet began at 3 years of age and was complemented by the expressive freedom of modern dance and the rooted, vital rhythms and postures of African diasporic forms. She trained with renowned choreographers in a wide array of styles and techniques.
McKinley’s choreography blends sculpture and storytelling, and at times, audience participation. Since 2024, she has created work for Unmarked Routes in collaboration with composer, Matt Jenson, and dancer, Sarah Slifer Swift. Her work has been presented at Berklee College of Music, Boston Center for the Arts, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Harvard School of Design, Bard College, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Earthdance (Plainfield, MA), MAGMA (Movement Arts Gloucester Massachusetts), The Dance Complex (Cambridge, MA), The New Arts Center (Newton, MA). See more here.
From 1999 to 2010, McKinley performed extensively with Snappy Dance Theater, Prometheus Dance, Sun Ho Kim & Dancers, Batuke do Norte, Nicola Hawkins Dance Company, among others. She guest performed with national artists: Bobby McFerrin, Sara Rudner, David Parker & The Bang Group, Reggie Wilson. Major venues in New England/New York include: Boston Symphony Hall, Cutler Majestic Theater, Jacob's Pillow, Wimberley Theater and Rogers Theater at Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts, Institute of Contemporary Art-Boston, Berklee Performance Center, John Hancock Hall, Arsenal Center for the Arts, Tsai Performance Center at BU, Shalin Liu Performance Center, Peabody Essex Museum, Hanover Theater (Worcester, MA), The Colonial Theater (Keene, NH), Providence Performing Arts Center (RI), Trinity College (CT), Litchfield Performing Arts (CT), St. Mark’s Church in-the-bowery (NY), Cunningham Studios (NY), and The Egg (NY). Outside of New England: Espace Culturel La Bonne Fontaine, Forcalquier (France), Ruth Seaton James Centre for the Performing Arts (Bermuda), Old Town Temecula Theater (CA), Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TN), University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (NC), Fairfax (VI), Kalamazoo Civic Theater (MI), UWisconsin Milwaukee (WI). See more here.
McKinley spent 30 years serving Boston-area schools and universities in a variety of capacities. Early on, she worked in fundraising, financial administration and communications at Harvard and MIT and helped develop new sustainability programs at Harvard. She was Visiting Lecturer and Adjunct Faculty at Boston University, Tufts University, Harvard Dance Center, Walnut Hill School for the Arts and Endicott College. At The Cambridge School of Weston (2007-2014), she designed and taught integrated dance courses, and produced concerts and events. At The Winsor School (2015-2023), she built a school-wide dance program from scratch, directed concerts, and successfully advocated for dance for all. See more here.
Her teaching philosophy centers empowerment, integrity, and connection, and her classroom is a container for contagious courage. From improvisation to classical techniques, from body conditioning to body percussion, McKinley’s teaching is infused with musicality, imagery, simplicity, whole-body coordination and joy.
McKinley received a Master of Fine Arts in Performing Arts-Dance from The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where she studied composition, improvisation, pedagogy, somatic modalities (Laban, Alexander, Iyengar, Bartenieff), dance on camera, African perspectives, dance history and curriculum design. Certifications in Power Pilates, Simonson Technique. Over 26 years of annual intensives with remarkable artists, companies or programs: Anna Halprin, Trisha Brown, Irene Dowd, Bill Evans, Mark Morris, Jonathan Wolken/Pilobolus, Lynn Simonson, Sara Rudner, Claire Porter, Doug Varone, Bebe Miller, Reggie Wilson, ODC/San Francisco, Dance Education Laboratory, Bates Dance Festival, Stott Pilates Reformer, Actors Shakespeare Workshop, Jazz Camp West, Swannanoa.
McKinley graduated from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX with a Bachelor degree in Psychology and a minor in Dance.
A sixth generation Californian, McKinley will relocate to the north Bay Area in 2027 with her partner, Matt Jenson.