Shannon Murphy
Artist Statement
I am a dance artist and educator that shares through practice, making, and performing. I create invitations for gathering to notice our complexity, differentiation, and resilience. These practices model possible ways of being through experiencing sensate, erotic, and imaginative explorations of one's own biology. My research is mirrored through improvisational methods that generate dance, co-narratives, myths, and tactile artifacts. I care deeply for collaboration and prefer to work in groups. I like to engage in long conversations as well as languageless haptic interactions where what is felt becomes a proposal for sharing what cannot always be seen.
Biography
Originally from Youngstown Ohio, Shannon Murphy (she/her) is a dance artist working at the intersection of performance and healing arts. She received her MFA in Dance from the University of the Arts in the summer of 2019. She has worked along Eric Franklin since 2007 and is Senior Faculty at Franklin Method Institute (Switzerland) training educators and specializing in Franklin Method for dancers. As an educator, she is committed to radical sustainability and develops curricula to reduce injury and support the resiliency of performers. Shannon became Assistant Professor of Dance and Movement in Theater at Temple University in the Fall of 2023. As an adjunct Assistant Professor, she was the Curricular Coordinator of Body Pathways at University of the Arts for 10 years. She has also taught at Bryn Mawr College, Princeton University, Stockton University, and Drexel University where she was the Assistant Director of Drexel Dance Ensemble.
Shannon mainly self produces dance works and has recently presented performances at the Cannonball Festival, FringeArts Festival, Penn Museum, The Painted Bride Art Center and Archedream for HumanKind. Her choreographies span contemporary performance, musical theater, and emergent improvisational scores. Shannon has performed for choreographers such as Charles Anderson, Nichole Canuso, Group Motion, Jaamil Kosoko, Scrap Performance Group and Annie Wilson, She along with her long-term collaborator and friend, Makini, co-directed idiosynCrazy productions from 2008-2018 The company produced performance work in which she collaborated, performed, and directed. idiosynCrazy served as a resource for public conversations around the integration of art into society, and the social responsibility of the artist.
Shannon has been awarded a Rocky Award through Dance USA Philadelphia for her choreography. She received a Makerspace Art and Technology Grant through Temple University to develop a new course exploring somatic research, storytelling, and technology in live performance and has received an Art for Social Change Grant from the Leeway Foundation. Shannon has been supported by numerous residencies, including New Edge, and New Edge Mix at the Community Education Center, Live Arts LAB (Now FringeArts), Mascher Space Co-Op, The Whole Shebang, Archedream for Humankind, University of the Arts (Artist in Residence), and is currently being supported by Subcircle.
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idiosynCrazy productions
From 2008 - 2018, I co-directed a dance theater company, idiosynCrazy productions alongside my long-term collaborator and friend, Makini. The organization was formerly designed to be the production house for our artistic, community, and education work. As Makini and I separated our performance work, idiosynCrazy became the container for community conversation salons that we hosted together addressing various implications of art within society. Our last conversation was around artist economies and you can take a look at that conversation here.
