2.21 - Amy Smith of Headlong Dance Theatre (Philadelphia)

Amy Smith, Co-Director of Headlong Dance Theater (Philadelphia)
Headlong Dance Theater: Sharing the Work
February 21, 2012
at 12pm
Glorya Kaufman Dance Theater (room 200)

Amy Smith, a founding Co-Director of Headlong, will share some of the results of their artistic research over the past several years. She will talk about the role of the artist in our culture, and share images and video from Headlong’s recent works, especially those working with non-traditional sites
and involving audience/citizen bodies. For example: “CELL”, an experiential journey for one audience member at a time, guided by their cell phone; “Explanatorium”, a performance ritual in an abandoned church involving the entire audience; and “Red Rovers”, half performance, half Mars rover driver conference.

Amy Smith is a Co-Director of Headllong Dance Theater ,Philadelphia-based contemporary dance company. Since 1993, Headlong has created collaborative dance theater works and toured nationally.
Amy met her fellow Co-Directors Andrew Simonet and David Brick, in the Dance Department at
Wesleyan University. After college, she spent a year studying at the Center for New Dance
Development in Holland. Besides Headlong, Amy has performed in the work of Deborah Hay, Ishmael Houston Jones, and other choreographers. She has also performed extensively in theater and cabaret,
and she has won both a Barrymore (for 1812's Suburban Love Songs) and a Bessie (for Headlong's
“ST*R W*RS”). She recently played the role of Jane Fonda in Theater Exile’s production of That Pretty Pretty and choreographed an opera, The Cunning Little Vixen. She has taught and lectured at Rutgers, Drexel, Stephens College, and many other colleges and institutions. She worked for many years doing business management in the for-profit world, and she currently serves as Treasurer on the Dance/USA board of Trustees. In 2008, Headlong started the Headlong Performance Institute a fall semester performance training program for young artists in college (offering full credit) and post-bacs.