Anya Cloud

MFA in Dance Theatre, UC San Diego; BA in Dance and BA in Liberal Studies, University of Montana; Feldenkrais Method® Certification Training Program, Feldenkrais Institute of San Diego with Elizabeth Beringer.

I am a dancer, maker, teacher, activist, and collaborator. I believe in dancing with the body I have as the person I am in order to cultivate radical aliveness. Originally from Alaska, I work nationally and internationally within the contexts of Contact Improvisation, improvisation, experimental contemporary dance, and social somatics/Feldenkrais®. Through queer, feminist, and anti-racist perspectives my research centers on activating new/old ecologies of moving, making, being, and relating in intersectional ways. Current research interests include deprioritizing in order to allow the conditions to reveal the priority, wildness, making/being a mess, and gentleness. 

Recent projects include being a Global Practice Sharing Artist in Budapest, Hungary through Movement Research, teaching the intensive at the first Guatemala Contact Improvisation Festival and performing my evening length solo The Gentleness Project: Beast Mode at the Palacio Nacional in Guatemala City, Guatemala, performing Echo at DOCK 11 in Berlin, Germany with Sara Shelton Mann, and co-directing an intergenerational dance film with Rebecca Salzer which premiered at Screen Dance Festival Stockholm Sweden, among other endeavors.  

My work has been presented by La Mama (NY), Movement Research at the Judson Church (NY), RED CAT (CA), Pieter Performance Space (CA), Highways Performance Space (CA), and ArtPower! (CA), as well as through numerous festivals, universities and non-traditional spaces including Iceland Contact Improvisation Festival, (Iceland), Seattle Festival of Dance Improvisation (WA), Tanzquartier (Austria), International Annual Montreal Jam and Workshop, (Canada), and Lion’s Jaw Dance Festival (MA) among others.  

Collaborating with and/or performing for Sara Shelton Mann, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Nancy Stark Smith, Karen Schaffman, Eric Geiger, Kristianne Salcines, Justin Morrison, Leslie Seiters, Rebecca Salzer, Jesse Zaritt, and Nhu Nguyen among others continues to be a vital aspect of my work in the world.  

Before joining the Department of Theatre & Dance at CU Boulder, I had the honor of teaching for nine years in Dance Studies at California State University San Marcos. In San Diego, alongside Karen Schaffman and Eric Geiger, I co-directed the non-profit experimental dance presenting organization PADL West for five years. I am committed to supporting and producing social justice oriented experimental dance wherever I live. Through all facets of my work I practice radical independence and responsible citizenship. I believe that we are the material of the work.

Photo Credit: David Gonsier