Ann Van Kuren is a dancer, choreographer, and teaching artist based in State College, PA. Her creative work is focused on telling stories of people, places, and events through movement and dance, enmeshed in a sound environment. Recent themes and interests include the Jazz Age, femininity, time and water as valuable resources, and relating romantic-era literature, as well as folk tales and poetry, through contemporary movement, and exploring their powerful message to our lives and times. Her choreography explores contemporary modern dance composition that recreates for the audience, the experience of those stories in a meaningful way.
Ann received a B.A. in Dance and Mathematics from Butler University and her master’s degree in Dance Performance and Choreography from Ohio State University. She was invited to perform in the Festival Dance of the World in Pec, Hungary, Tanz Theatre Festival in Bonn, Germany, and Movement Research Institute in New York City, and has danced professionally with New World Dance Theatre, Fleet Street Contemporary Dance Company of Louisville, Pennsylvania Dance Theatre in State College, and her own company, VanDance Inc., founded in 2001. She is the recipient of a Choreographer’s Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Ann serves as adjunct dance faculty at Penn State University and is a rostered artist with the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Visit her Facebook page, Ann Van Kuren/VanDance Inc.
