Curriculum Vita
Chell Parkins' career as a dance educator, choreographer, performer and advocate has spanned over 25 years. She holds a Masters of Fine Arts degree in Dance from The University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelors of Arts degree in Dance and Acting from Washington University in St Louis. She has danced with MADCO in Missouri, Steamroller and Bibliodance in California, Forklift Dance Works in Texas, and alongside Jack Black in the film Bernie. She has collaborated with El Colegio del Cuerpo in Colombia and performed solo works at the Millennium Forum in Northern Ireland and at ZAWP and AZALA in Spain. Since 1995, her choreography has been featured at Dancers’ Footwork and Cell Space in California and in MOMFest, Frontera Fest, Dance Carousel, Coen’s New Works Festival, and Big Range Festival in Texas.
Chell went on to director dance and drill team at Manor High School in Manor, Texas where she taught students to use dance as a vehicle to overcome trauma and build positive communities. Students used technology in the classroom on a daily basis while exploring cultural identity and social issues through dance. While at the high school, Chell was a consultant and pilot teacher for Dance and Media Communications, a course in the Texas public schools that guides students through a process of creating transmedia dance works.
Chells' ongoing choreographic research project, Wanderlust, explores transmedia platforms for sharing virtual and corporeal travel dance experiences while incorporating motion capture technology to manipulate live video. In June 2017, she was invited to ZAWP, a creation space in Bilbao, Spain, to complete a 1 month residency that culminated in two full evening length performances of Wanderlust Dance VC at Garabia Theatre and 3 site specific performances outside of the Guggenheim in Bilbao. She was accompanied by and mentored three recent graduates, teaching site specific and technology integrated choreographic methods and contact improvisation while creating short dance film documentaries. As Chell continues to explore transmedia work she is increasingly fascinated with and disturbed by the ever evolving world of technology and social media and how they both limit and broaden access to dance in society.
Chell continues to write about her experiences in the public school using technology in collaboration with a feminist pedagogy underpinned by tenets of Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Her publications include “Dance Media Collaborations:Engaging At Risk Youth” in the June 2016 issue of Dance Education In Practice and “Dancing on the 50-Yard Line: A Feminist Perspective of Drill Team” on the Women In Dance website.
Chell is currently a full time lecturer in dance at Middle Tennessee State University where she teaches jazz, modern dance, movement for the actor, dance appreciation, theory and practice, creative dance and dance performance. She is also the Executive Director of the Tennessee Association of Dance.
Chell Parkins' career as a dance educator, choreographer, performer and advocate has spanned over 25 years. She holds a Masters of Fine Arts degree in Dance from The University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelors of Arts degree in Dance and Acting from Washington University in St Louis. She has danced with MADCO in Missouri, Steamroller and Bibliodance in California, Forklift Dance Works in Texas, and alongside Jack Black in the film Bernie. She has collaborated with El Colegio del Cuerpo in Colombia and performed solo works at the Millennium Forum in Northern Ireland and at ZAWP and AZALA in Spain. Since 1995, her choreography has been featured at Dancers’ Footwork and Cell Space in California and in MOMFest, Frontera Fest, Dance Carousel, Coen’s New Works Festival, and Big Range Festival in Texas.
Chell went on to director dance and drill team at Manor High School in Manor, Texas where she taught students to use dance as a vehicle to overcome trauma and build positive communities. Students used technology in the classroom on a daily basis while exploring cultural identity and social issues through dance. While at the high school, Chell was a consultant and pilot teacher for Dance and Media Communications, a course in the Texas public schools that guides students through a process of creating transmedia dance works.
Chells' ongoing choreographic research project, Wanderlust, explores transmedia platforms for sharing virtual and corporeal travel dance experiences while incorporating motion capture technology to manipulate live video. In June 2017, she was invited to ZAWP, a creation space in Bilbao, Spain, to complete a 1 month residency that culminated in two full evening length performances of Wanderlust Dance VC at Garabia Theatre and 3 site specific performances outside of the Guggenheim in Bilbao. She was accompanied by and mentored three recent graduates, teaching site specific and technology integrated choreographic methods and contact improvisation while creating short dance film documentaries. As Chell continues to explore transmedia work she is increasingly fascinated with and disturbed by the ever evolving world of technology and social media and how they both limit and broaden access to dance in society.
Chell continues to write about her experiences in the public school using technology in collaboration with a feminist pedagogy underpinned by tenets of Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Her publications include “Dance Media Collaborations:Engaging At Risk Youth” in the June 2016 issue of Dance Education In Practice and “Dancing on the 50-Yard Line: A Feminist Perspective of Drill Team” on the Women In Dance website.
Chell is currently a full time lecturer in dance at Middle Tennessee State University where she teaches jazz, modern dance, movement for the actor, dance appreciation, theory and practice, creative dance and dance performance. She is also the Executive Director of the Tennessee Association of Dance.
