Ellen Gerdes

Dance education is a creative process.

My work as a teacher, scholar, and dancing/singing improviser asserts the relationship between bodies and the socio-cultural sphere, finding resistive potential in dance. I believe choreographing is theorizing and dance is available to all bodies. My scholarly writing focuses on dance in the Chinese diaspora, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the United States. I’m committed to decolonizing the academy with specific attention to curricular and pedagogical reform. I hold a BA in dance with high honors from Wesleyan University, an EdM in Dance from Temple University, and a PhD in Culture and Performance from UCLA. I also received a certificate in Urban Humanities from UCLA.

I have performed as a dancer and singer with choreographers and composers, Leah Stein, Germaine Ingram, Merian Soto, Loren Groenendaal, Gina Hoch-Stall, Jennifer Morley, Marion Ramirez, Jung Woong Kim, Ann Carlson, Maria Hassabi, Robert Een, and Gwyneth Shanks.

I have choreographed for K-12 schools, for Philadelphia performance venues (such as CEC, Performance Garage, Studio 34), and for interdisciplinary shows with singers in Los Angeles and Shanghai.

My scholarship has been presented widely at conferences, such as Dance Studies Association, Association for Asian Performance, and Sinophone Onstage, and published by Dance Chronicle, Journal of Dance Education, Lateral: A Journal of the Cultural Studies Association, Asian Theatre Journal, and the anthology, Contemporary Directions in Asian American Dance. I received the Emerging Scholars Award from the Association for Asian Performance and the Selma Jeanne Cohen Award from the Dance Studies Association.