Alumna Morgan Walker Choreographs and Performs New Work in Mark DeGarmo Virtual International Arts Festival

Kent State University School of Theatre and Dance alumna Morgan Walker, a 2018 B.F.A. in Dance Performance graduate and full-time company member of The Dancing Wheels Company, is a featured choreographer and performer in the 2021 Mark DeGarmo Virtual International Arts Festival (VIA) on March 16 - 18, 2021. Walker's new work, "inside Outsider," will be presented Tuesday, March 16, 2021 at 7:00 p.m.

Facilitated by dancer, choreographer, writer, researcher, and Founder, Executive & Artistic Director of MDD, Dr. Mark DeGarmo, the VIA Festival features 19 performing artists from 5 countries over the course of the three evening event. Founded in October 2020, MDD’s seasonal Virtual International Arts (VIA) Festival creates a space for artists, scholars, and audiences to share, respond, and reflect beyond traditional, commercial performance spaces that often exclude people and limit access. 

To purchase a ticket via donation, please visit : https://www.eventbrite.com/e/141165410543

Morgan Walker's piece, "inside Outsider," was developed over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic – a time when performance art has suffered significant losses. Walker's work seeks to elevate the voices of artists by making opportunities to create and perform together. "inside Outsider" is inspired by the complexities of the impact on mental health due to sheltering in place, social distancing, and isolation. A collaboration between Walker and the piece's 5 other performers – Matt Bowman, Cody Krause, Celina Naima Speck, Sara Lawrence-Sucato, and Marissa Thomas – "inside Outsider" is Walker's creation of a moment: a moment to move, create, and connect.  

In addition to being featured in the VIA Festival, Walker's "inside Outsider" will be featured at Contemporary Dance Choreography Festival in Orlando, FL, and the Trifecta Dance Festival in Chicago, IL.

For more information, visit Morgan Walker's social media channels – Morgan Walker Choreography – at the links below:

Morgan Walker Choreography on Facebook

Morgan Walker Choreography on Instagram

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About Morgan Walker

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Morgan Walker, currently a full-time company member with The Dancing Wheels Company, is an Ohio native performing artist, choreographer, and dance instructor. She graduated with honors from Kent State University with a BFA in Dance Performance in 2018. Post-graduation she moved to New York City to extensively train on scholarship at The Ailey School in contemporary dance, floor work, improvisation, and Horton Technique. Morgan trained at The Ailey School from 2018-2019 while concurrently performing on tour with Cardell Dance Theater where she worked with choreographer Silvana Cardell. She later joined The Dancing Wheels Company as a main company dancer in July of 2019. Additional training has included lucrative summers at The Ailey School, José Limón Dance Intensive, Jon Lehrer Dance Intensive, Openflr International Dance Exchange, dance labs with Tiffany Mills and Nichole Canuso, The Dancing Wheels Company summer intensive, and professional and collegiate residency’s with choreographers such as Ray Mercer, Gregory King, Ronald K. Brown, Silvana Cardell, Catherine Meredith, Stephanie Martinez, Shumpei Nemoto and Jamal White. In 2018, she performed “Aftermath”, choreographed by Catherine Meredith, at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. for the American College Dance Association National Festival, and performed as the lead soloist in the premiering contemporary work “Shook!” choreographed by Ray Mercer in NYC. Morgan’s performing has reached throughout the US, Italy, Dominican Republic, and China.

Prior to moving to New York, she was a full-time member of the Kent Dance Ensemble at Kent State University. Training nationally and internationally with the company, she performed lead roles in works such as Stephanie Martinez’s “Rekonstruktion” in 2016, Gregory King’s “Strange Invisible Perfume” in 2017, and Ronald K. Brown’s “Gatekeepers” in 2018. Throughout her studies at Kent State, Morgan experimented with the medium of dance performance art in site-specific spaces. She created the works “De-Fault” in 2016, “Oxygen” in 2017, and “SCUM” in 2018. “De-Fault” and “Oxygen” were both selected by Kent State University dance division faculty to present at the American College Dance Festival regional conferences in 2017 and 2018. Her time at Kent State also included co-directing Faculty Dance Concert: Dance ’17 Mosaic in 2017, Student Dance Festival Concert: Il-um-in-ate from 2016-2017, and BFA Dance Concert: Roots to Wings from 2017-2018.

Morgan’s most recently presented work, "In-Flux", was created on The Dancing Wheels Company and presented at the Museum of Contemporary art in Cleveland, OH in 2019. She was also commissioned by Kent State University to choreograph work for the BFA 2020 Senior Dance Concert. Morgan has received many performer and choreographic awards including the Kent Dance Ensemble Guest Artist Award, Emerging Artist Award, and the recipient of the Barcelona International Dance Exchange Scholarship at the Openflr International dance intensive in Florence, Italy. Morgan also holds a deep passion for teaching and choreographing dance for dance studios, colleges, community centers and after school programs. She has been awarded multiple choreographic awards for her work in the dance competition setting including her most recent works “Default” and “Face-to-Screen” receiving Overall Choreography Awards in 2018-2019. In 2019, Morgan began teaching company class for The Dancing Wheels Company and volunteers her time and talent to Dancing Wheels’ outreach program to facilitate outreach activities for youth and adults with and without disabilities. In 2019, Morgan certified in the Dancing Wheels Teacher Certification for teaching the Dancing Wheels’ method of physically integrated dance. Currently, Morgan is creating a new contemporary work on dance artists in the Cleveland area to present this Spring and training in aerial skills for performance and certification.

Photo Credit: Liz Cooper – LC Images, The Ballet Experiment