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Updated 7/27/2023

Katja Kolcio

  • C

    CT

Institution/Business Type: Artist / Creative (Individual)

Drawing on a background in politics, international relations and sciences, dance scholar Katja Kolcio specializes in the role of physical engagement and creativity in education, research and social politics. Dancing to know, to think, to express ideas and to prioritize thoughts embodies “A unique approach toward dance which is accessible and based on the idea that we think and create through our physical engagement in the world,” she explains in the Wesleyan video Politics in Art and the Power of the Body.

As an example, Kolcio describes team-teaching a dance/science class here: “Anytime you are learning or teaching or thinking you are making creative choices. Often we don’t realize that. In this class, and in dance, that becomes an explicit part of the process….you are making choices about how to think, how to prioritize, how to arrange ….it played into how we thought about the science.”

Since 2014 Kolcio has focused on the necessity of creative physical practices in fostering social change, and has worked in Ukraine with civic activists, and those affected by the current war including soldiers, veterans and displaced families. Kolcio's writes about her current work in somatics, art and social change in Ukraine in Somatics and Political Change: The Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine (2016 Contact Quarterly) and in Ukraine, A Utopian Mindset (2014 Huffington Post). 

Kolcio is also author of the book Moveable Pillars (2010 Wesleyan University Press) and Faking It: The Necessary Blind Spots of Understanding (2009 Cultural Studies/Critical Methodologies).

Katja Kolcio is Associate Professor of Dance, and core faculty member of the College of the Environment at Wesleyan University. She holds a Ph.D. in Somatics from The Ohio State University and Masters degrees in Dance and Political Science.

Kolcio’s publications include Movable Pillars: Organizing Dance (2010, Wesleyan University Press), which traces the development of dance as scholarly inquiry over the course of the 20th century; Somatics and Political Change: The Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine (forthcoming 2016 Contact Quarterly); Moving Self, Moving Earth: Studying the Environment and Ecology Through Movement and Dance (2010, Accelerated Motion, electronic edition, Wesleyan University Press); Faking It: The Necessary Blind Spots of Understanding (2009, Cultural Studies/Critical Methodologies), A Somatic Engagement of Technology (2005, International Journal for Performance Art and Digital Media); Branching Out: Oral Histories of the Founding of Six National Dance Organizations (2000, American Dance Guild, nominated for the De La Torre Bueno Prize); and book reviews in e-misferica, Dance Research Journal and the New England Theater Journal.

Kolcio creates choreographic events to engender social and political impact. Katja has received choreographic fellowships from the New York State Council of the Arts and Meet the Composer. Choreography has been presented at Judson Church, The Katherine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center - Artists for World Peace Festival, New York University Black Box Theater, St. Marks Church, The Ukrainian Museum of New York, The Bridge for Dance, La Mama Experimental Theatre, the Ukrainian Institute of America, various community gardens throughout NYC, the Honchar Museum (Kyiv, Ukraine), Kyiv Mohyla Academy (Kyiv, Ukraine), Wesleyan, Duke, Antioch, Ohio State, Wittenberg, SUNY Brockport and other colleges around the United States.

 

 

 

Find Me

Katja Kolcio
Job Title: Dancer, Associate Professor at Wesleyan University
Phone: 917-549-3334
Address:
46 Brookline Ave
Haddam, CT 06441

Social Media:

About

Overview

Institution/Business Type:

Artist / Creative (Individual)

Legal Status:

Commercial / For profit - Sole proprietorship

Overview

Institution/Business Type:

Artist / Creative (Individual)

Legal Status:

Commercial / For profit - Sole proprietorship

Disciplines

Primary Discipline:

Dance - Modern / Contemporary

Additional Disciplines:

  • Multi-Disciplinary

Activities and Services

Activities and Services:

  • Arts Criticism / Journalism
  • Arts for Social Change / Creative Activism
  • Community Arts
  • Consulting - Organizational Capacity
  • Creation of a Work of Art (Including Commissions)
  • Curriculum Development
  • Performance / Concert / Reading
  • Professional Development / Training
  • Public Art Projects (In Free, Public Spaces)
  • Residency - Community
  • Residency - Other
  • Workshops / Demonstrations / Master Class
Seasons Active: spring, summer, fall, winter
Events Per Year: 4

Communities

Populations Engaged:

  • Elders
  • Families
  • General Public
  • Immigrant Populations
  • Nonprofits
  • Veteran/Active Duty Military Personnel

Geographic Reach:

  • National
  • International

Affiliations and Accomplishments

Professional Associations

Professional Associations:

  • Dance Studies Association
  • Shevchenko Scientific Association
  • National Dance Education Organization

Professional Associations

Professional Associations:

  • Dance Studies Association
  • Shevchenko Scientific Association
  • National Dance Education Organization

Awards

Awards:

  • New England Dance Fund Grantee/Alum Network
  • Meet the Composer
  • New York State Arts Council Community Grant

Special Designations

Special Designations:

  • NEFA Grant Recipient