Staff

I was born in San Jose, California, 1982. I spent the first part of my life up and down the California coast, though now I have officially spent over half of my life living in Philadelphia, PA. After spending a significant part of my youth studying theater, I began training in dance while studying at Swarthmore College. At Swarthmore, I trained primarily in contemporary African dance and apprenticed with Kariamu & Company: Traditions in Philadelphia. Post-college, I continued my dance training in Temple University’s MFA program, mentored heavily by Merián Soto, with whom I still work artistically. My most significant training during and since has been with Rennie Harris, Anouk van Dijk, Irene Dowd, and through Philadanco’s training program.

As a performer, I currently work with Merián Soto and Leah Stein, in addition to my involvements with idiosynCrazy productions. I am also currently engaged with a collaborative multi-tiered performance practice with NYC-based dance artist Jesse Zaritt. Previously, I have danced with Marianela Boán, Tania Isaac, Charles. O. Anderson/Dance Theatre X, Keith Thompson, and Kate Watson-Wallace. My own choreographic work has been supported by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through Dance Advance, Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, Susan Hess Modern Dance Choreographers’ Project, the Community Education Center, Philadelphia Dance Projects, Dance New Amsterdam, and New York Live Arts. This work has often been performed in Philadelphia, and has also toured to Seattle, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, and New York. In 2008, I founded idiosynCrazy productions, and currently serve as one of its directors, with Shannon Murphy and Shavon Norris. In 2012, I received a Pew Fellowship in the Arts.

Contact Jumatatu Poe: jumatatu [at] idiosyncrazy [dot] com and visit his website.

Shannon Murphy is a dancer, choreographer and teaching artist. She has a BA from Point Park University in Pittsburgh and is one of the first Franklin Method Educators to graduate in the United States. Her choreography has been shown throughout Philadelphia, at various festivals in the United States and in Paris, France. She was 2010’s New Edge Resident in Dance and is currently a Live Arts Brewery fellow in Philadelphia. As a freelance dancer, she has danced with Dance Theater X, Group Motion Dance Company, Kosoko Performance Group, Nichole Canuso Dance Company, SCRAP Performance Group, and with choreographers Peggy Baker, Robert Battle, Wally Cardona, and Jumatatu Poe. Before moving to Philadelphia, she was on faculty at Pittsburgh Ballet Theater and Point Park University. Since 2007 she has been teaching young dancers at Koresh School of Dance, has been guest teaching at Drexel University, Swarthmore College, Temple University, Villanova University, and is currently a faculty member at Bryn Mawr College and University of the Arts. Shannon is also teaching artist for PARD and provides Franklin Method classes and private sessions to the local professional dance community.

Contact Shannon: shannon [at] idiosyncrazy [dot] com and visit her website.

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