Artistic Statement 

In a time where society has become hyper-polarized, I bring people together through movement, storytelling, and touch. With agency and care at the foundation of my creative practice, I plant seeds of empathy that I hope to propagate through stage performances, site-specific works, and performance art installations.

 

My artistic approach draws from the body as a record of experiences and sentiments to uncover stories of the past, and dream of future possibilities. Expanding the language of dance, I embrace speech, visual art, and digital media to create strange yet familiar worlds. In these worlds, I challenge expectations of traditional dance performance by breaking the fourth wall, and prioritizing authenticity over aesthetic. This is necessary in supporting the intent of my work: to heal, to answer questions, to ask questions, to connect, and to call-to-action. We have the capacity to produce collective change, and I believe the body, as a source of power and control, is the genesis for what our future will be.

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 Bio  

Kelsey Lee (she/they) is a dancer, choreographer, contact improviser and teacher. She is the founder and artistic director of Dance Playhouse, a professional contemporary dance company based in Grand Haven, MI. In addition to teaching dance, she is also a registered yoga teacher (RYT-200). Her choreography has been presented at festivals and art galleries throughout the Midwest and Virginia, including Midwest RAD Fest, Milwaukee Fringe Festival, Cleveland Dance Festival, PrideFest Milwaukee, and the McGuffey Art Center. She began dancing at 8 years old at the Dance Factory in Delavan, Wisconsin where she studied ballet in the Cecchetti Method, modern, and jazz. She has a BFA in Contemporary Dance & Choreography with a double major in Psychology from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. There, she received two undergraduate research fellowships for somatic research under the mentorship of Maria Gillespie, and was the recipient of several dance scholarships, including the Ed Burgess Legacy Scholarship. After graduation, she completed a Meisner technique training program at The Acting Studio in NYC, New York. She is a company member with Currents Dance Theatre, and has danced professionally with Hixon Dance, Hyperlocal MKE, Columbus Modern Dance Company, Quasimondo Milwaukee Physical Theatre, Gina Laurenzi Dance Project, and Peter Stathas Dance, to name a few. 

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