Shannon Gillen / Artistic Director, Choreographer:

Shannon Gillen, Artistic Director of Shannon Gillen + Guests graduated from The Juilliard School in 2003 where she received her BFA and was later awarded a full fellowship to attend Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, where she earned her Masters in Dance 2013. Within those ten years she became an established independent choreographer with a passionate fan base and sold out performances at prestigious national and international venues. In a 2013 Brooklyn Magazine article that named her as one of city's top twenty artists, Gillen was championed for her 'emotionally compelling' work that 'transcends the things it references and achieves a sort of platonic ideal of intelligent and elevated movement'. This past year Gillen was invited to join the Johannes Wieland Company at the Staatstheater Kassel, Germany as a full time company member. She has since danced in 56 international performances and was singled out in the press for being 'in top form, a feat of strength' (HNA, German News).

A prolific creator, Gillen has choreographed 14 new works since 2010 that have received national and international recognition, including commissions at Treffpunkt-Rotebuehlplatz in Stuttgart, Springboard Danse Montreal Festival, DTW, The Joyce Theater, Dance New Amsterdam, HERE Arts Center, with Movement Research at Judson Church, Tangente Theater with the Montreal Fringe Festival, PULSE Art Fair as part of Art Basel in Miami, the Joyce SoHo season and as a finalist in the The AWARD Show!, with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Sitelines Series as part of NYC's River to River Festival, Bryant Park Presents Dance Series, Festival Oltre Passo in Italy, The Juilliard School, and Jacob’s Pillow, among others.

While working in Germany this past year, Gillen’s creations burst onto the scene with her solo COLD BRIGHT SHE receiving 3rd Prize in Dance at the International Solo-Tanz Competition in Stuttgart along with upcoming commissions at the Mainfranken Theater Würzburg and the TIF Theater in Kassel. She was also recently selected as a THINK BIG choreographer with the Staatsoper in Hannover, Germany and will be in residence this August to create a new piece that will premiere at the TANZ Theater International Festival in September 2014. She was also commissioned this fall to create new works for NYU’s Second Avenue Dance Company and the Purchase Dance Company at SUNY.

Gillen is also dedicated to the advancement of dance education and is a leading contemporary dance teacher with a tremendous following of dancers in both the professional and higher education arenas. She holds faculty teaching positions at Peridance Capezio Center and Dance New Amsterdam (Gibney Dance), and is a regular guest teaching artist at The Juilliard School, The Hartt School, and New York University Tisch School of the Arts. She is also on faculty at the Movement Invention Project at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, an annual program dedicated to developing the improvisational and creative skills of tomorrow’s contemporary dancers. This summer she has been invited to teach and create original works for programs run by BODYTRAFFIC in Los Angeles and Project Launch in San Francisco.