wendy perron

Dance Artist

Wendy Perron, author of Through the Eyes of a Dancer, had a 30-year career as a dancer/choreographer. She danced with Trisha Brown in the 1970s and choreographed more than 40 works for her own company. From 1976 to 1983 she collaborated with Susan Rethorst on several choreographic projects. She has taught at Bennington, Princeton, Rutgers, the Five Colleges, and CalArts, and has been guest lecturer around the country. As associate director of Jacob’s Pillow in the early 1990s, she developed and co-directed an intensive in international improvisation. From 2004 to 2013 she was editor in chief of Dance Magazine, and has also written for The New York Times, The Village Voice, Contact Quarterly, vanityfair.com, and Tanz. She continues to serve Dance Magazine as editor at large. She also teaches a graduate seminar at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and is part of an intermittent improvisation group led by Stephanie Skura. She is currently working on a book on Grand Union, the improvisation group of the 1970s. The Making Room session in Columbus in October 2016 gave Wendy a chance to dance with Susan again, after a hiatus of a mere three decades, and to get a brief taste of dancing Bebe’s choreography.