When Kendra Portier was training as a professional dancer in New York City, she made a life-changing discovery: The classes she was most enjoying were with teachers who “were curious about what they were doing, and delighted in that curiosity,” she says. “And then they built ideas of movement around that.” “And then I was […]
As an artist in residence at the University of Maryland in College Park, Kendra Portier is in a unique position. After almost a decade of performing with David Dorfman Dance and three years earning her MFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, she’s using her two-year gig at UMD (through spring 2020) to “see […]
Nine dancers discuss life as independent teachers. Not every dance teacher imagines their name on the front door. Running a school can take time away from actually teaching, never mind the constraints of teaching in one place. Freelance teaching has always been an option for dancers—an elastic schedule can work well to complement their performance […]