Laura Neese is a dance artist and educator from New York City.  Described as “ethereally romantic” by The Dance Enthusiast, she is a long time company member of Bessie-nominated Darrah Carr Dance and has performed works by artists including Carr, Melissa West, Sean Curran, Maho Ogawa, & Chia Ying Kao among others. Performing credits range from Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, to the Today Show, school gymnasiums, city parks, and piles of road salt. She co-directed NYC-based Kitchen Sink Collective from 2012-2016, and currently produces her own work through Laura Neese|Dance Projects.

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Neese’s current choreographic research draws from her studies of the body in movement, and on the dissection table, to engage body as subject and matter, exploring structure, function, expression, and the water and fibrous animal stuff that make us all.

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Neese’s choreography and interdisciplinary collaborations have been presented in venues including the Ailey Citigroup Theatre, LUMEN Festival, DUMBO Dance Festival, COOL NY Dance Festival, Triskelion Arts, Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, The Secret Theatre, Green Space, Dance New Amsterdam, Snug Harbor, Brooklyn Museum, Singletary Center, and more. She has presented her creative and teaching methodologies at the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science, Dance Science and Somatics Educators Conference, Contemplative Practices in Higher Education Conference, and American College Dance Association.

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Neese currently resides in Lexington, KY where she is on faculty at the University of Kentucky Dept. of Theatre and Dance, where she teaches across the Dance curriculum, leads the Audio Description for Dance Initiative , and facilitates the Berlin Dance Education Abroad Program. Neese holds an MFA from the Ohio State University, BFA and BA from SUNY Buffalo, & Pilates Certification from Kinected. Teaching credits include University of Kentucky, Hofstra University, the Ohio State University, Kinected, Irish Arts Center, and K-12 and community settings throughout New York City.

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