Marcia Parsons

Education

BA, Grinnell College
K-12 Certification, Knox College
MA, Dance, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
MA, Dance/Movement Therapy, Columbia College of Chicago

Biography

Marcia Parsons learned to improvise and choreograph from Hanya Holm, Steve Paxton, Anna Halprin, Beverly Blossom, Nancy Stark Smith, and Bob Dunn. Marcia has ventured into performance and storytelling with Laura Simms and Ruth Zaporah. Marcia is a program visionary who has led in formulating the BA, BFA., MFA., and K-12 certification programs in UWM Dance, which she directed for 16 years. Marcia's creative research has been supported by grants from the UWM Graduate School and the Bader Foundation. Marcia's current research engages teachers in movement phrases that activate and integrate the learner's brain to take in new information from the full academic spectrum, and to express/reflect what has been learned through movement. Marcia was the choreographer/movement coach for the highly acclaimed Play of Daniel, which was professionally produced at St. John's Cathedral in Milwaukee for many years. Marcia's concert works (over 40 of them) frequently leap out of her Irish gene pool. Marcia invented the Dance Program's Dances-To-Go concept, which encourages the making and performance of dances in non-traditional sites on and off campus. Marcia serves on the Boards of Directors of the School of the Milwaukee Ballet Company and of Danceworks.