ABOUT

Growing up moving from Philadelphia to Los Angeles to Charleston, SC to Dallas to Boston, and coming from a family of artists (musicians, painters, producer, designers, architects, tattoo artist), I spent my life creating new realities and being exposed to a variety of possibilities. Dance was a stabilizing force throughout my life and became my career. I trained with prominent choreographers, performed nationally and internationally, received national commissions, and designed curricula and programming at prominent Boston area schools and universities. Visual art was always a hobby taking the back seat to performing and teaching until 2024 when I opened my downtown Gloucester art studio, putting my painting practice in the forefront. My paintings are a reflection of my experience and training in improvisation, different dance techniques and choreography. I wish to relate how the body feels in a dynamic action and the emotional expression to the brush, gesture, color, depth and composition. I work from life and from images collected throughout my career of students, collaborators and myself bumping up against the spontaneity of the moment. I want the viewer to experience the movement and its emotion viscerally. Reach out to visit my studio at the West End Artist Studios on Main Street in Gloucester, MA.

Service

Jean Appolon Expressions, board member, 2023-present
Movement Arts Gloucester, MA (MAGMA), teacher, choreographer, 2023-present
The Art of Reggae, financial administrator, 2024-present
Unmarked Routes, grant writer, videographer, performer, 2024-present
Endicott College, guest lecturer in Dance History, 2023
The Winsor School, founding dance program director, 2015-2023
The Cambridge School of Weston, dance faculty, part-time department chair, 2007-2014
Tufts; Harvard; BU; Babson: adjunct and guest faculty, 2009-2015
Harvard Green Campus Initiative, founding program administrator, 2000-2002
Prometheus Dance, Snappy Dance Theater, Sun Ho Kim & Dancers, Batuke do Norte, Rebecca Rice Dance, Anna Myer & Dancers, Nicola Hawkins & Dancers, Peanut Butter & Jelly Dance Co., dance company member, 1999-2010
UNC-Chapel Hill, Harvard Design School, Earthdance, Bard College, Boston Center for the Arts, New Arts Center, Mass Audubon Society, Boston Univ, commissioned choreographer or guest artist, 2005-2019
ICA-Boston, American Repertory Theater, Concord Academy, Boston Symphony Hall, WGBH Art Close Up, Brian O’Donovan, guest performer, 2004-2018
Franklin School for Performing Arts; Mass Movement; Acad. Dance Expressions: dance teacher, 2002-2007
Mediplex of East Boston, recreational therapist, 1994-1996

Degrees & Training in Dance

Celebrating 50 years of continuous dance training and practice in 2024
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Master of Fine Arts degree in Performing Arts-Dance, 2009-2011
Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology, extensive dance and visual art studies, 1989-1993
Extensive dance and movement training in a wide variety of styles, techniques, & methodologies: classical ballet, modern dance (release, Humphrey-Limon, Graham, Horton-Dunham, Cunningham, Forsythe Technologies, Gaga), jazz dance (Simonson, Giordano), hip hop dance, Haitian folkloric, Brazilian Maracatu, contact improvisation, square dance calling, percussive dance, somatics (LMA (Laban Movement Analysis), Pilates mat and reformer, Iyengar yoga, Alexander Technique, Bartenieff Fundamentals, Dowd Sequencing), Bharatnatyam, Flamenco, and more.
Prominent Dance Teachers: Anna Halprin, Lynn Simonson, Bill Evans, Diane Arvanites Noya, Tommy Neblett, Marcus Schulkind, Mark Morris, Doug Varone, Jonathan Wolken, Sara Rudner, Claire Porter, Bebe Miller, Reggie Wilson, etc.
Screendance or Dance on Camera, with Ellen Bromberg, Mitchell Rose, 2009, 2023

Visual Art Training

Prominent Fine Art Teachers / Advisors: Zhanna Cantor, Mary Edna Fraser, John Murray, Loren Doucette, Robert Spiegelman
New Art Center, Newton, MA, painting and ceramics classes, 2016-2022
Eliot School, Jamaica Plain, MA, painting and textiles art classes, 2013-2016
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, WI, screendance (video editing, camera work), Ellen Bromberg, 2009
Boston and Cambridge Centers for Adult Ed, watercolor classes, 1998-2009
Harvard-Radcliffe Ceramic Studio, Allston, MA, ceramics classes, 1996-2002
Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, design, ceramics, drawing, 1989-1993

Writing & Communications

Grub Street, creative writing and screenwriting classes, 2015-2022
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, WI, dance criticism (Elizabeth Zimmer), 2010
Harvard Extension & School of Education, education and communication courses, 1996-2000