Amelia Reeber

Amelia Reeber is a choreographer and performer. She received a BA in dance from the University of Washington in 2000. Her solo work has been presented in Seattle at On the Boards, Velocity’s MainSpace Theatre, Freehold Theater, and Chamber Theater, and in Portland, Oregon at PICA’s TBA Festival. She has danced for and/or collaborated with Corrie Befort, Sheri Cohen, KT Niehoff, Katie Duck, and Deborah Hay, among others.

Amelia has received an Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs City Artist Grant, a 4Culture grant, an Artist Trust GAP Award, among others. Currently Amelia is working on a film version of Frank Hayes with Cascadia Film Collective (Seattle), as well as a collaborative project, Mountain, directed by Deborah Hay (TX), that will be presented a various venues in Western Washington including On the Boards in Spring 2007.

As part of her Fellowship’s Meet the Artist requirements, Amelia held an event at Northwest Center for the Retarded in Seattle. Having worked previously with developmentally disabled populations and having been inspired by the work and the people she met through it, she decided to conduct her Meet the Artist event there since the population has limited exposure to some art forms. After a brief discussion, she performed a structured improvisational dance, accompanied by improvised and recorded music and vocals by musician Angelina Baldoz. The varied dynamic of the performance repeated itself, encouraging different points of entry and providing varied lenses to see movement. Less than a heartbeat after the end, a man yelled, “WE THOUGHT YOU GUYS WERE GREAT!” Reeber received gratitude from the eight staff and 40 clients present. Many clients had questions: “Are you staying all day?” “Can we see you later?” “Where do you dance?” “That was fun/great/thank you thank you” “Where do you live?”  Many hugs and handshakes were offered, and Amelia sensed that the staff wanted to talk longer than time allowed.