Allison Beaty, M.F.A.

Allison Beaty is a dance artist and educator based in Austin, TX. She holds an MFA in Dance (Choreography) from the University of North Carolina Greensboro and a BA in Dance with Highest Honors from Texas Tech University. Allison has performed, taught, and choreographed professionally throughout Texas and North Carolina. She was a performing company member and choreographer with Flatlands Dance Theatre, where she also served as the founding Company Council President. In addition, she has performed in various works by renowned choreographers such as Renay Aumiller, B.J. Sullivan, Janet Lilly, Ali Duffy, Brooklyn Draper, Amanda Jackson, Trent D. Williams, Sarah Wildes Arnett, and Nicole Wesley, among many others. Allison has taught at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, the University of Central Missouri, and Austin Community College. Her teaching and choreographic style is greatly informed by release techniques (most notably Safety Release Technique), somatic practice, and her love for psychology, anatomy, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Allison is also immersed in creative and scholarly research at the intersection of artmaking, pedagogical practice, and scientific inquiry. Her choreographic work focuses on interdisciplinary collaboration with other art mediums in the exploration of scientific phenomena from the disciplines of psychology and cognitive neuroscience. Her choreography has been presented at the Wicklow ScreenDance Laboratory (Ireland), the Jacksonville Dance Film Festival (Florida), the International ScreenDance Festival (Iowa; Mexico), the 16th Annual Modern Dance Festival at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (Texas), the American College Dance Association Southcentral Conference (Texas), and FilmFest by Rogue Dancer, among numerous other concerts and festivals. In addition, Allison’s research on collaborative choreographic practices and shared ownership in dance is published in Research in Dance Education, and her research has been presented at the 2019 and 2021 NDEO National Conferences. She remains committed to this research trajectory, seeking to redefine traditional hierarchical power structures and foster a sense of community and shared ownership in her choreographic work and teaching. Alongside her creative and pedagogical practice, Allison is also engaged in quantitative research in psychology examining memory mechanisms for dance expertise. www.allisonnicolebeaty.com