Shannon Hummel
Artist in Residence (2005-2007)

Shannon Hummel is a choreographer, arts educator and Founding Artistic Director of Cora Dance. Driven to create access to the arts for all people, she opened the Cora Dance Studio in Red Hook, Brooklyn in 2009 as a home for her professional company and their education programs. The space strives to create exceptional dance experiences while addressing the impediments that restrict many people from the art-form. Equal parts professional choreographer and community artist, Hummel’s work has been seen as much in church basements, public parks and community spaces as on some of the country’s finest stages. She was recently honored by the New York Dance & Performance Awards – “The Bessies” – as a 2020 Nominee for her Service to the Field of Dance. She has been repeatedly critically acclaimed by Style Magazine, Village Voice, Richmond Times Dispatch, and The New York Times where she has been a Top 10 Critics Pick for Dance and had her “finely wrought dances” called “poignant, funny, vivid and true, remarkably assured and perceptive” and most recently “a rare gem.” 

While her choreography has been presented in over 30 NYC venues (including the 92nd Street Y, BAM, BAX, Brooklyn Museum of Art, DTW, Danspace Project, La MaMa, LMCC, among others), Hummel is also known for creating accessible grassroots performances in off-the-beaten-path places in KY, NY, NJ, OK, VA, VT and WV. She has been an educational advisor, mentor or faculty member for hundreds of institutions including her alma mater James Madison University; enjoyed significant residencies in support of her choreography from Vermont Performance Lab, BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange among others; and taught and lectured widely at American Dance Festival, ACDFA, NYLA, Rutgers, William & Mary, Marlboro College, Virginia Commonwealth University, Washington & Lee, among others. She is proud mama to a 14-year old son named Henry.

WEBSITE: https://coradance.org/