"with deep explorations in movement, sound, and design, spencer creates keenly nuanced work."
-New York Dance & Performance ('Bessie') Awards 2023
-New York Dance & Performance ('Bessie') Awards 2023
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marion spencer (she/her/hers) is an interdisciplinary dance artist based in Brooklyn, NY since 2014. Weaving movement, sound & installation, she creates solo and ensemble performances built from feminine, feminist and interdisciplinary practices. Her creative research engages scientific, artistic and academic texts, images and objects- interrogating these materials through embodied research. marion utilizes her training in experimental postmodern dance, choral singing and installation, placing these mediums in conversation with her personal heritage as the child of Mesoamerican Archaeologists from Venezuela and Panama. This lineage shapes her creative interests in excavating extinction, adaptation and futurity by centering the kind of feminist knowledge and intuitive wisdom that comes only from thinking through the body.
marion is a 2023 New York Dance & Performance (‘Bessie’) Awards Nominee for Outstanding Breakout Choreographer. Her work has been presented in New York City by La Mama Experimental Theatre, Roulette Intermedium, Center for Performance Research, Danspace Project, Gibney, New Dance Alliance, Movement Research at Judson Church, Triskelion Arts, and more. She has been an Artist in Residence at MacDowell, The American Dance Festival, The Chocolate Factory Theater, The Field Center, Gibney, Amherst College and Mana Contemporary, among others. As a performer, marion has had the pleasure of collaborating with Joanna Kotze, Laurie Berg, BAND|portier, Laura Peterson, Larissa Velez-Jackson, Michelle Boulé, Tyler Rai and as a guest performer with David Dorfman Dance and the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. She has been on faculty at Rutgers University, Sarah Lawrence College, Movement Research, Gibney, Dancewave and more. marion also teaches Pilates and is a Craniosacral Therapist. She holds an MFA in Dance: Interdisciplinary Research from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (2025), and a BA with Honors in Geography from Vassar College (2009). |
choreographic reel:
artist statement:
Weaving movement, sound & installation, I create solo and ensemble performances built from feminine, feminist and interdisciplinary practice. My research engages scientific, artistic and academic texts, images and objects- interrogating these materials through embodied research. I utilize my training in experimental postmodern dance, choral singing and installation, placing these mediums in conversation with my heritage as the child of Mesoamerican Archaeologists from Venezuela and Panama. This lineage shapes my creative interests in excavating extinction, adaptation and futurity through centering the kind of feminist knowledge and intuitive wisdom that comes only from thinking through the body.
my work is understanding where i came from
my work is asking how we transform this world together, one rehearsal at a time
my work is listening from the back of the eyes and to the marrow inside my bones
my work is constructing utopias amidst our current dystopia
my work is unlearning
my work is building relationships that will endure the revolution
cover photo by Whitney Browne of h o r i z o n presented by NYU Tisch Dance (May 2025) | portrait photo by Anna Maynard