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Colleen Hooper, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
Coordinator of Dance Education

Contact Information

Pictured is Colleen Hooper. Photo | Randall Coleman

Education

  • Ph.D., Dance, Temple University
  • M.F.A., Dance, Temple University
  • B.A., English and Dance, The George Washington University

Courses Taught

  • History of Dance I, II
  • Somatic Preparation for Technique
  • Dance Improvisation

Background

Colleen Hooper researches how dance connects to economic and cultural transformations in the 20th and 21st centuries.

She received a 2018 New York Public Library Short-Term Fellowship to support her book project Dance from Labor to Service (1935-1982). Her writing has been published in Dance Research Journal, Feminist Modernist Studies, the International Journal of Screendance, Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies and Dance: Current Selected Research. She serves on the editorial board of the peer-reviewed journal Money on the Left, and she was a member of the Society of Dance History Scholars (SDHS) Board of Directors from 2013-16.

Her choreography has been presented in a variety of site-specific and traditional stage venues since 2002. New York venues include Dance Theater Workshop's Fresh Tracks series (now New York Live Arts), Danspace Project Out of Space, Dixon Place, BRIC Studio, DanceNow/NYC Festival, BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Joyce SoHo and Dance New Amsterdam.

In the Philadelphia region, her work has been featured in the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, the Painted Bride Art Center's Independence Foundation Gallery for the Visual Arts and Haverford College.

She received choreographic residencies from Atlantic Center for the Arts (2018), Danceworks (2013), TOPAZ ARTS (2010), Dance Theater Workshop (2007) and Dancenow/NYC SILO (2004).

As a performer, Hooper has danced for Red Dive, George Russell, Katherine Kiefer Stark/The Naked Stark, Beau Hancock and Merían Soto. She also received her comprehensive Pilates certification from Drexel University and served as a graduate student representative to the Society of Dance History Scholars Board of Directors from 2013-16.

Professional Memberships

  • Dance Studies Association
  • Association for Theatre in Higher Education
  • Mid-America Theater Conference

Selected Publications

  • "Edith Segal in Detroit: On Stage and On the Picket Line," Feminist Modernist Studies, 4:3, 2021.
  • "Ballerinas on the Dole: Dance and the U.S. Comprehensive Employment Training Act (CETA), 1974-1982," Dance Research Journal, December 2017.
  • "Krumping, Choreography and Close-Ups: A Deleuzian Critique of So You Think You Can Dance," co-authored by Sherril Dodds and Colleen Hooper, The International Journal of Screendance, Fall 2014, Vol. 4.

Artistic Works: Choreography

  • Horizon Line (showcase piece premiere), International Summer Dance, Point Park University, 2017.
  • The Beast, (showcase piece premiere), Point Park Connections, Point Park University, 2017. 
  • National Water Dance Project, Race Street Pier, Philadelphia, Pa., 2014.
  • Let's Keep in Touch, FringeArts Festival, Philadelphia, Pa., 2013; Danceworks Theater Art to Art Program, Milwaukee, Wis., 2013.
  • Moving Past and Through, Haverford College, Haverford, Pa., 2012.
  • Poured Space, The Outlet Dance Project, Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, N.J., 2011.
  • Revolving Spaces, Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Bardascino Park, Philadelphia, Pa., 2011.

Research Interests

  • Dance Studies
  • Arts Policy
  • Site Specific Performance
  • Community-Based Performance

Selected Presentations

  • "CETA: The Forgotten Federally-Funded Artists," a three-part webinar series on New Deal art legacies, October 2024.
  • "Political Economies of Dance," Accumulation: A Conference on Dance History and the Social Sciences," Columbia University, New York, NY, 2023.
  • "Dance Work/Dance Jobs," Association for Theatre in Higher Education Conference, Detroit, Mich., 2022.
  • "Edith Segal in Detroit: On Stage and On the Picket Line," Dance Studies Association Conference, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J., 2021.
  • "The Comprehensive Employment Training Act (CETA): Choreographic Excess and the Dance Commons," Dance Studies Association Conference, Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., 2019.
  • “Among a Constellation of Arts Resources: The Comprehensive Employment Training Act,” Arts Patronage in Modern America Conference, University of Oxford, England, 2019.
  • “In Her Own Words: Blondell Cummings and Chicken Soup’s Scriptive Things,” Collegium for African Diaspora Dance, Duke University, Durham, NC, 2018.
  • "Dance in/as 'Fake News:' Notes from the Policy Front," Dance Studies Association Conference, Columbus, Oh., 2017.
  • "Dance as Public Service During the Comprehensive Employment Training Act," Ph.D. forum, Dance Now: Work With(out) Boundaries, Studies in Performing Arts and Media, Ghent University, Belgium, 2017.
  • "Dancer as Federal Government Worker: Merian Soto and New York City's CETA Artists' Project," Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE), Chicago, Ill., 2016.
  • "Dance and Labor in the U.S. Comprehensive Employment Training Act 1974-1982," Society of Dance History Scholars and Congress on Research in Dance joint conference, Athens, Greece, 2015.
  • "We Are a Nation of Workers:' Dance and the Comprehensive Employment Training Act 1974-1982," Society of Dance History Scholars and Congress on Research in Dance joint conference, Iowa City, Iowa, 2014.
  • "Martha Bowers at Home and Abroad: A Case of Community-Based Performance and Transnational Movement," Society of Dance History Scholars and Congress on Research in Dance, 2013.
  • "So What Are We Learning Here? Examples of Pedagogy in a Dance Talent Show," Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Conference, 2013.
  • "Dance and Community Art," Dance/USA Conference, 2012.

Grants and Awards

  • New York Public Library Short-Term Fellowship, 2018
  • Graduate School Senior Doctoral Fellowship, CHAT (Center for Humanities at Temple University), 2015
  • Mellon Foundation Summer Seminar, "Dance Studies in/and the Humanities," Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., 2015
  • Temple University Edrie Ferdun Award for Scholarly Achievement, 2013
  • Temple University Rose Vernick Award for Artistic Transformation, 2011
  • BAXten (Brooklyn Arts Exchange) Honorary Award for Service as the Press and Marketing Manager, 2006

In the News

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