Allison Shir
ADJUNCTSAdjunct - Dance
Dance
Email: ashir@westminsteru.edu
About
Allison Shir is a dance artist originally from the East Coast and currently based
in Salt Lake City, Utah. Her choreographic research investigates the physical and
emotional complexities and paradoxes of "states of in-betweens" and processes of transformation.
Presently, Allison is an adjunct professor with the Dance Department at Westminster
College. She has also taught in other numerous settings including the State Ballet
School of Berlin (Berlin, Germany), Amsterdam Dance Center (Amsterdam, Holland), Studio
B (Tel Aviv, Israel), the Regional Alternative Dance Festival (Kalamazoo, Michigan),
ArchesSports (Chengdu, China), SaltDanceFest (SLC), the American College Dance Association
Conference, the Ririe-Woodbury Pre-Professional Move-It Summer Intensive, the University
of Utah, and with Minding Motion for Graceful Aging (SLC).
From 2008 - 2013, Allison lived in Holland and Israel where she co-founded, performed,
and created for both the interdisciplinary performance group CorpComposition (Amsterdam/Den
Haag) and the Ouroboros Dance Collective (Tel Aviv). She also was a performing member
with the Israeli-based Aluminum Show on domestic and international tours. Allison
relocated to Salt Lake City in 2013 to pursue her MFA in Modern Dance from the University
of Utah. During this time she had the privilege of dancing in pieces by Andrea Miller,
Lesley Telford, and Stephen Koester, among others. She has also danced and made work
with Tumbleweeds Dance Theatre and DanceBand BandDance, and has been a performing
member with Dance Balletti and AndArtists. She continues to create new work and perform
in freelance projects as an independent artist. Her choreography has been shown in
Holland, Germany, Cyprus, Israel, Japan, and the US.
Allison holds an MFA from the University of Utah (2016) and BFA from Florida State
University (2008) She is also a Stott certified Pilates instructor (2008), and is
currently pursuing her Gyrotonic® teaching certification (to be completed in the summer
of 2020).
