Amanda L. Laabs

Education

• MFA, Dance, Texas Woman’s University
• BFA, Contemporary Dance Performance and Choreography with a minor in somatics, UW-Madison

Biography

Amanda L. Laabs is a mover, artist, dance researcher, and art-maker. Laabs received a Masters Fine Arts in Dance from Texas Woman’s University (TWU) where she taught Wellness Through Movement and Composition as a Graduate Teaching Assistant. While at TWU Laabs was awarded the Darrel Cleveland Excellence in Choreography Award and the Graduate Student of the Year Award. Laabs graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Contemporary Dance Performance and Choreography and a minor in Somatics. Laabs received a research fellowship at UWM under the mentorship of Professor Maria Gillespie, which developed into an evening-length work, Between Constructions of Desire. Laabs presented this research at UWM’s 11th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium. Laabs has presented choreographic works at Texas Woman's University, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Wisconsin Dance Council, Danceworks DanceLab: Get It Out There, the American College Dance Association (ACDA), and the Somatic Movement Arts Festival in California and has been reviewed in the L.A. Dance Chronicle. Laabs was a company member with Wild Space Dance Company, a guest artist with Warped Dance Company and a collaborating artist with Hyperlocal MKE. 

Laabs performed works by Simone Ferro, Maria Gillespie, Dani Kuepper, Mair Culbreth, Esther Baker-Tarpaga, and Holly Johnston (Ledges and Bones).

In addition, Laabs currently teaches at Dynamite Dance Studio and Lake Shore Dance where she held the title of Education Head at Lake Shore Dance for 3 years. Laabs has also worked at Warped Studios as a dance instructor, DanceWorks as a dance teaching artist, East Side Pilates as a yoga and pilates instructor, and Ozaukee High School as a yoga instructor. Laabs holds many certifications including Breathwork, Meditation and Mindfulness, Energy Psychology and Holistic Healing, Sports Massage, Anatomy and Physiology, REIKI Master, RYT-200, and is one of the first practitioners of Responsive Bodywork, founded by Holly Johnston. 

Laabs’ research explores how the body holds, communicates, and transforms emotion through movement. Drawing from somatic practices, improvisation, reflection, and embodied knowledge, she investigates the relationship between emotional experience and physical expression. Her work uses choreography as a space for self-discovery, connection, and emotional processing, inviting the body to become both a source of knowledge and a language of its own.