Meet the Writers: Ellen Gerdes

Ellen Gerdes

What are you most excited to cover through TD?  
Anyone who has sat next to me at a show knows that I get jazzed talking about cultural politics/representation in choreography.

How has TD affected your other dance-related work?  
It makes me re-think the difficult task I set for my students.  It isn’t easy to succinctly and articulately describe a dance event.  I think a lot about how to make writing about dance more fun for them.

Which part is challenging, scary, difficult? 

I’m worried people will see me only as a writer and will forget about me as a performer.

How/when did you learn to type?
I am self-taught, so I don’t use the home keys (and rarely my right middle finger).  It works just fine!

If I never see another …. again, it will be too soon.

…another dance with purposeful bad singing…unless it is Eleanor Bauer!

What would your parents say about your work in the arts? 

“Ellen is busy navigating her free-lance artist’s lifestyle with a color-coded schedule she sends to us via email.  She is brave and talented.  A lot of her shows look like Wesleyan dance concerts.”

If you were to write a dance love-letter, it would be to:
Bebe Miller.

Finish this sentence “Good writing…” 
…makes me jealous.

Finish this sentence “Good dance…”

…stays with me.

Share this article

Ellen Gerdes

Ellen Gerdes teaches in the dance departments at Temple University and Swarthmore College. She holds an EdM in dance from Temple and a PhD in Culture and Performance from UCLA. She is a singer, dancer, and mother. She is a former staff writer with thINKingDANCE.

PARTNER CONTENT

Keep Reading

Dances from the Churn

Ankita

Bodies across generations resist being silenced.

A black-and-white photo of two dancers in a brick-walled room. One, masc-presenting, has long curly hair and peeks out at the ceiling, mouth slightly open in expressive thought, one hand bent to touch their forehead, shielding half of their face. The other hand rests against the center of their body. A second dancer stands to their left, mirroring this pose with face tilted all the way to the sky and taut arms.
Photo: Thomas Kay

Possibilities Within Pain

Ankita

Maybe…pain can make one whole.

A white person with curly hair, a beard, and piercing blue eyes shows half of zir face, covering the rest with a red dome shaped hat. Pain au chocolat is stuffed in zir mouth, and zir clothes are bifurcated, much like zir face––half outfitted in red and gold, and the other half in black.
Photo: Janoah Bailin

Search

More results...

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
Writers
Filter by Categories
.
Book Reviews
Interviews
News
Reviews
thINKpieces
Write Back Atchas