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.
As a graduate student, Chell began interweaving technology with dance through investigations of a disembodied versus embodied choreographic processes. Her investigations led her to work with Merce Cunningham's DanceForms, virtual technology, and motion capture while studying the effects of technology on cognitive development. In 2012 she was invited to be an Artist in Residence at AZALA and ZAWP in La Sierra and Bilbao, Spain where she experimented dances inspired by virtual and corporeal travel. Her performed research involved site specific dance video footage created with the GoPro camera and edited in Final Cut Pro that was then manipulated in live performance using the Microsoft Kinect, Isadora and Delicode.
Chell spent 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.
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.
As a graduate student, Chell began interweaving technology with dance through investigations of a disembodied versus embodied choreographic processes. Her investigations led her to work with Merce Cunningham's DanceForms, virtual technology, and motion capture while studying the effects of technology on cognitive development. In 2012 she was invited to be an Artist in Residence at AZALA and ZAWP in La Sierra and Bilbao, Spain where she experimented dances inspired by virtual and corporeal travel. Her performed research involved site specific dance video footage created with the GoPro camera and edited in Final Cut Pro that was then manipulated in live performance using the Microsoft Kinect, Isadora and Delicode.
Chell spent 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.
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.
