GWEN HUNTER RITCHIE

 

Originally from South Florida, I am a contemporary dance artist specializing in performance, improvisation, contact improvisation, and interdisciplinary collaboration. After dancing professionally for over twenty years and directing a repertory dance company in Pittsburgh LABCO Dance, I recently completed an M.F.A. in Dance and Somatics at the University of Colorado Boulder. I am interested in contact improvisation and instant composition in my choreographic work and thrive on working collaboratively with artists of other disciplines. Currently, I teach a somatic approach to contact improvisation with MFA Contemporary Theater program at Naropa University. I also practice and teach Pilates from my home studio in Boulder and teach dance for children with autism and developmental disabilities at The Joshua School in Boulder. 

 

I believe that movement has the power to heal, transform, and elicit change within both our bodies and communities.I aim, as an artist to not only exhibit the strength but also the vulnerabilities of the human condition. I enjoy working with both dancers and non-dancers in finding the most efficient way of moving and connecting to oneself and others. My recent research in developmental movement and contact improvisation as a vehicle of communication between disabled and abled bodies has influenced my choreographic process and continues to serve as a medium to tap into unlikely physical and emotional connections within myself and others.

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