A Bay Area (CA) based artist, I am fascinated by the intersection of perception, movement, sentience, cultural behavior, and aesthetics. Growing up in the rugged coastal town of Santa Cruz, CA, I developed an immense love for nature, learning, and travel at a young age, which I actively apply to my creative work.
With years of dance training under my belt, I gained my BA in Philosophy from UC Berkeley (with a Theater/Dance minor). During my final year of college, I began training at The Meisner Technique Studio in San Francisco, completing the two year acting program. Since graduating, I have worked as a dancer, actor, choreographer, and filmmaker in various capacities (view my resume for more details).
I am currently the Artistic Director of Montage Contemporary Company, as well as a company dancer with ArcTangent Dance Company, and operate as a freelance choreographer and filmmaker. In 2020, I had the honor of being selected as one of five Project Tier choreographers from across the country for Regional Dance America's NCI. With experience in curation, arts administration, and leadership, I've served as Performing Arts Manager at the Oshman Family JCC, Director of Experience at Starcity, and Co-Curator of TEDxPaloAlto.
In 2020, I began working on my first documentary film, Telephone, co-directed and co-produced with Krishna Washburn. Telephone brings awareness to the important art form of audio description for dance which allows blind and visually impaired people to be included full in the joy of artistic expression. Telephone debuted at New York University in December of 2022 and has since been screened across the country, including at Mill Valley Film Festival, Carnegie Mellon University, San Francisco Dance Film Festival, New Museum Los Gatos, Rutgers University, and more. Read the recent New York Times article featuring Telephonehere.
For more information, or to book a screening, please visit Telephone's website.
I am in the early stages of my upcoming documentary The Kid in Blue - stay tuned for more details, coming soon!
Photo Credit (images 1, 3, 5, 6) 7: Lauren Hoskins, courtesy of ArcTangent Dance Image Description 1: Headshot of Heather (female, long brown hair, green eyes) looking at the camera, hands softly at one side of waist. Image 2: Black and white image of Toby MacNutt, sitting on heels, hands interlaced over chest, looking to the side in a plant filled dance studio, crutches on floor. Film festival laurels are overlaid – San Francisco Dance Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival and Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema (all Official Selection, 2023), and ReelAbilities Film Festival Columbus. Image 3: Action shot of Heather with a deep bend in her knees, arms reaching. Image 4: A behind the scenes photo of a documentary film shoot. A camera is shown in the foreground capturing a solo female interviewee sitting in a chair with a plant next to her against a white farm style wall. Lighting equipment is also shown in the photograph. Image 5: Action shot of Heather jumping, wearing a black one piece, legs extended in front of her as she looks down over a bent elbow Image 6: Headshot of Heather (female, long brown hair, green eyes and freckles) facing the side, looking at camera, one arm by her head. Image 7: Heather is in a deep side lunge with her extended foot flexed. Her arms are bent at the elbows as she looks to the side.