Studio Stories: Reminiscing on Twin Cities Dance with Penny Freeh Season 3 Episode 39

Dancer, choreographer, educator, and writer Penelope Freeh
dismantles antiquated modes of how ballet is taught, languaged,
applied in research terms, and expressed physically,
intellectually, performatively, and at the gut level. Through her
practice of expanding the terms and exploding the tropes of
ballet, she aims to meaningfully connect with a diversity of
dancers, collaborators, colleagues, students, and audiences.


Freeh is a two-time McKnight Fellow for Choreographers,
McKnight Fellow for Dancers, and Sage awardee for Outstanding
Performer. Her work is in the repertoires of Alternative Motion
Project, Gem City Ballet, James Sewell Ballet, Minnesota Ballet,
Minnesota Dance Theatre, and Zenon Dance Company among others.
Residencies include the Maggie Allesee National Center for
Choreography and the Camargo Foundation in Cassis,
France. 


International work includes collaboratively building new work
at New York University – Abu Dhabi with Brooklyn-based Theater
Mitu. She has performed and taught in Russa as part of the
LinkVostok Dance Festival. Her work was performed in France,
Germany, Belgium, and the Czech Republic as part of a Blue Lake
Fine Arts Camp Ballet Ensemble tour that she co-directed.


Freeh frequently collaborates with composer Jocelyn Hagen.
Their chamber dance opera Test Pilot won a Sage
Award for Outstanding Design and toured the state in 2016.


Penelope danced for James Sewell Ballet for seventeen years,
serving as Artistic Associate from 2007-11. She is faculty at the
University of Minnesota, St. Paul Ballet, St. Paul Conservatory
for Performing Artists, TU Dance, and Zenon. She holds a Dance
MFA from Hollins University.