Wendy Shifrin

Dance and Women’s Studies

Division: Arts and Aesthetics

Appointment: 1984

Education:
BA University of Michigan,
MA, New York University

Areas of Interest:
Dance Aesthetics, Teaching of Dance, Choreography, Improvisation, role of the arts in society, visual arts, creative writing.

Positions:
Member of Nancy Meehan Dance Company, 1972-1986, and Berkshire New Dance Collective, l984-l988.
Taught at Nancy Meehan Dance Company School, New School for Social Research

Publications:
"Beautiful Bodies in Dance" published in Phoebe.
Choreography for Pittsfield Public TV video "The Stigma and the Empowerment" which received funding from the Department of Mental Health

Professional Activities:
She has choreographed original work for performances in Massachusetts, New York, and Michigan, and she has studied dance technique, improvisation, body awareness, and composition with Nancy Meehan, Andre Bernard, Bonnie Cohen, Robert Dunn, Margie Beals, Erick Hawkins, and others. 

Performs/choreographs two pieces each year in Simon's Rock Dance Concert.
Performed as part of the Twyla Tharp l00s piece at Jacob's Pillow, summer 2000.
She created choreography for “The Stigma and the Empowerment,” a video documentary produced for Pittsfield’s public television station and funded in part by the Department of Mental Health.
In 2007 she was commissioned to choreograph “Totentanz,” a choral work with dancers and computer-generated animation.
She recently studied at the Laban Institute in London, at the American Dance Festival, Duke University, and with Simone Forti and Sara Pearson in New York.