Faculty Bio - Emily Berry

Emily Berry, Dance Program Coordinator (she/her/hers)

Professor Emily Berry wearing a black dress, crouched on the ground with one hand raised

Title: Associate Professor
Email: eberry@qcc.cuny.edu
Office: RFK 216


Emily Berry teaches Improvisation, Contact Improvisation, Choreography, Foundations of Dance Movement, Dance Workshop and all levels of Ballet and Modern Dance.

Berry began pursuing her own choreographic endeavors in 1995 and established B3W Performance Group (B3W) in 2006. Since then, B3W has been presented at Henry Street Settlement, Dance New Amsterdam, Dixon Place, BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, 92nd Street Y, Irondale Center as part of FLICFest, International Dance Festival NYC, DUMBO Dance Festival, Manhattan Movement Arts Center, and Cool New York Dance Festival, in addition to films in Maryland and Switzerland. Internationally Berry has performed in Mexico, Greece, Italy, Scotland, Japan, and Thailand. The Forgiveness Project took her around the world to 11 countries and 6 continents facilitating Community Workshops on the subject of Forgiveness. Tribeca Performing Arts Center presented the premiere of Forgiveness Part I: Forgiving the Personal in May 2016. Look out for Part II: Resisting Racism and Part III: Self-Forgiveness in the future. Eva Yaa Asantewaa (InfiniteBody) describes Berry’s work as “Memorable, intelligent, strong.” Clare Croft wrote that Berry’s work was “Violent but engaging”  in the Washington Post, and C. Maura Donahue (Culturbot) wrote that Berry’s work, Confined demonstrated, “Clear expression of idea in movement”. 

Awards/commissions include Dixon Place’s Mondo Cane Commission, an Ann Arbor Dance Works commission and Queens Arts Fund grants for Spin Art in 2014, and for Forgiveness:Resisting Racism in 2017 and 2019. Emily was an Artist Organization Fellow in the Field Leadership Fund 2015-17. B3W Performance Group has also received a New Music USA grant for Forgiveness Part II: Resisting Racism

As a performer, Berry has worked with danceTactics Performance Group/Keith Thompson, Boris Willis Moves, Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh & Company, Restless Native Dance/Tamieca McCloud, Lesole’s Dance Project (South African), and Ashe Moyubba/Alafia Afro-Cuban Folkloric Dance Ensemble. 

Berry is a Certified Movement Analyst, and has an MFA in Dance from George Mason University. She also holds Bachelor degrees in Dance Arts, as well as Women’s Studies and Political Science from the University of Michigan. 

She has taught at Oakland University, George Mason University, Coppin State University, Montgomery College, and Community College of Baltimore County. Master classes include American College Dance Association, Goucher College, College of William and Mary, University of Michigan, and many dance intensives.

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