the choreographer

Choreographer and dancer Erica Essner has presented her work in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1987. Originally from New York, she studied Dance Composition at Bard College and received her B.A. in Art & Social Change from New College in San Francisco.

She has studied Dance/Performance at the graduate level at Mills College and has trained in dance with: the Merce Cunningham Foundation; NY Academy of Ballet; Alonzo King; Arturo Fernandez, Clark Center NY; Aaron Osborne; the New York School of Ballet; Margaret Jenkins; Ellie Klopp; Janice Garrett; and Joe Goode. She has been resident choreographer for San Francisco State University, participating in the American College Dance Festival in 1998 and San Jose State University.

She currently directs a low-cost Pilate's program for dancers at the Mark Morris Wellnes Center.

She "relies on her company's input in creating the dances, then she welds the pieces together into something crafted and unified . . . she is aware of both the delicacy of order and the tug of chaos." —Ann Murphy, Oakland Tribune