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- office phone: 562.985.4290
- office: DC-F102
Sharon Kinney
Dancer/Choreographer/ Teacher/Videographer
Sharon Kinney has enjoyed an exciting career in dance as
a choreographer, performer, teacher and dance videographer. After graduating
from the Ohio State University Dance Department she moved to New York City
and lived there for 20 years. Ms. Kinney’s professional dance credits
in NYC include the Paul Taylor Dance Company as an original member and she
has danced with the companies of Twyla Tharp, Dan Wagoner and Yuriko among
others. She is currently a member of the dance faculty of California State
University at Long Beach where she teaches all levels of Modern Dance Technique,
Composition, Repertory and Dance for the Camera classes. She began choreographing
her own solo and group works in 1977 and has choreographed over 40 dances
for the proscenium stage and film. Her choreographic movie credits include
“Popeye” and Leap of Faith. She was Twyla Tharp’s assistant
on I’ll do Anything starring Nick Nolte. Ms Kinney’s choreographic
works for the CSULB dancers include At the Edge and Flashpoint and in 2005
she restaged Paul Taylor’s signature work Aureole for the very talented
dancers at CSULB.
While living in New York, in addition to her performing and choreographing,
she taught at Julliard, New York University, Pratt University and has
taught internationally in Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and South America, as
well as the prestigious American Dance Festival for 11 summers. In 1982
she left NYC to teach in the Department of Dance and Choreography at Virginia
Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, where she was an Associate
Professor for 15 years and continued to perform and choreograph.
In 1997 she relocated to Los Angeles and pursued her MFA at UCLA in the World Arts and Cultures Department and received her degree in 2000, in Choreography for Dance and the Camera. While at UCLA she was selected to participate in the 1998 UCLA Dance/Media Fellowship Project funded by NIPAD and received a grant from NIPAD to make a 45-minute documentary of the original dance performance in NYC called “From the Horse’s Mouth” which was directed by Jamie Cunningham and Tina Croll. The documentary has been screened at The Wexner Center, Jacob’s Pillow, the American Dance Festival, The Kitchen in NYC, New York University, Sarah Lawrence, Virginia Commonwealth University, Gunston Arts Center in Arlington Virginia, and various venues in Los Angeles. She also travels with the documentary, conducts discussions about dance documentation and the making of a dance documentary, most recently in Fort Worth Texas at The Museum of Modern Art. This last year she served on the board of the Dance Camera West in Los Angeles.
Ms. Kinney continues to perform and choreograph as well as direct new projects for Video. In January 2001 she performed Paul Taylor’s famous solo Epic at Town Hall in the Richard Move production Martha @ Mother. In 2004, she performed Dancing to Music choreographed by Victoria Marks in the Spring Faculty Concert. In addition to her teaching responsibilities at CSULB she teaches master classes at the Paul Taylor Studio and the ADF New York Winter Intensive.
