Katherine Kiefer Stark, MFA
- Adjunct Professor
Affiliated Programs
Education
- MFA, Choreography (2009)
University of North Carolina, Greensboro (NC) - BA, Dance (2002)
Connecticut College (CT)
About Me
I am a dance artist and educator based in West Philadelphia, ancestral lands of the Lenape. I create dance projects collaboratively with The Naked Stark, am adjunct faculty at Widener University, and am a freelance dancer. I approach dance holistically, exploring movement as culturally informed, politically charged, and aesthetically particular. This philosophy is deeply informed by theories from the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond, Dr. Ann Dils, and Dr. Brenda Dixon Gottschild as well as the studio practices of BJ Sullivan and Jeremy Nelson. I love collaborating with dancers and organizers with visions for a more just and healthy world for us all.
As a white, cis-woman, middle-class, heterosexual, Jewish, married, mother-of-two, many of my identities are privileged. I have questions and hurts from the current societal oppressive structure(s). Modern dance is how I make sense of the world and the medium through which I process and share my experiences. My dance works emerge from my questions, concerns, and discomforts. The folks that I collaborate with join in the questioning, add new perspectives and challenges, and help shape the work. I am continually working towards a process that truly embodies my values and pushes forward the questions and concepts I am investigating.
I work with release-based movement techniques, partnering, and improvisation. I love embracing weight, being propelled through space, and moving with necessary effort. I am mesmerized by how this approach to physicality is dependent on the physical and intellectual processing of individual dancers, creating unison that is never unison. And I am exploring humanness, identity, and drama inside of these postmodern movement aesthetics.
My dance works do not offer answers; I grapple with structures, patterns, and conflicts and I pose possibilities for change. I believe the way to finding answers is through emergent strategy (thank you adrienne maree brown!) and radical imagination primarily led by folks who are the most marginalized today and historically. I want my work to engage our incredible metaphorical minds, to inspire, to nurture our imaginations, to give hope. I want my dances to open us up towards those radical imaginings, new visions, and collective work that will ultimately move us forward together
Publications
- Stark, Katheirne Kiefer (2009). Connecting with Dance: Merging Theory and Practice. Journal of Dance Education, Vol. 9, 61-68.
Professional Affiliations & Memberships
Philadelphia Dance
Awards
- 3-year general operating grant for The Naked Stark, Philadelphia Cultural Fund (2020-2022 & 2017-2019)
- Presentation of The Importance of Normal, Capital Fringe Festival (2016)
- Presentation of Looking for Judy, American College Dance Festival Northeast Conference (2015)
- Rocky Award, peer to peer award for outstanding achievement in greater Philadelphia community (2012)