The Department for the Performing Arts is pleased to announce its Fall 2025 Artist-in-Residence: Sonia Dawkins. Ms. Dawkins will host a series of master classes and rehearsals with the Geneseo Dance Ensemble from September 3 through September 7 at SUNY Geneseo, leading to the performance of an original contemporary work with the GDE at the spring concert. All rehearsals are free and open to the public.
Based in Seattle and New York, Ms. Dawkins is the founder and artistic director of SD/Prism Dance Theatre and was the first African-American female teacher at the Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle. During her 12 1/2 year tenure at the Ballet, she enhanced the modern dance program and served as choreographer. As a collaborative artist she has worked extensively as a choreographer for dance companies, plays, musicals, and operas, including Jacob's Pillow, Philadanco, and Seattle Opera. Ms. Dawkins choreography is deeply and socially engaged. As Ms. she describes, "My work is inspired by curiosity for the cultural facets of dance. I have a profound interest in capturing the artistic, social, and practical dimensions of the human experience."
She has also served as a choreographer at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre School and has been an Artist in Residence at University of North Carolina School of the Arts, University of Oklahoma, Cincinnati Ballet School, and the Jones-Haywood Dance School.
Ms. Dawkins' residency is generously supported by the Dance Studies Program, Orchesis, The Office of the Provost, the Office of Multicultural Affairs, and the Department for the Performing Arts.