Tonya Lockyer

Adjunct Instructor

Movement Analysis

tlockyer@cornish.edu

Tonya is a dance artist and educator focused on the borderlands of performance, embodiment and social justice.  She began her career with Contemporary Dancers Canada before dancing in New York, Boston and Seattle performing the work of Donald Byrd, Merce Cunningham, Twyla Tharp, Charles Moulton, Mark Haim, Wade Madsen and others. She was also Principal Dancer/Rehearsal Director for Paula Josa-Jones. In 1999 she founded VIA, a performance company dedicated to interdisciplinary collaboration and inter-cultural exchange. VIA toured internationally receiving awards from Arts International, The Canada Council, The Nureyev Foundation, Seattle Arts Commission and multiple residencies at The Banff Centre for The Arts. Since 2005, VIA has become a laboratory for Tonya’s performance research.

She has been awarded more than thirty-five commissions by companies, festivals and universities in the US and abroad. In 2008, her evening-length solo “Consumed” was commissioned by On The Boards for their main season, and awarded residencies by ACT Theater and American Dance Festival. Tonya teaches modern technique, improvisation, composition, movement analysis and the contemporary history of dance, live art and choreographic culture. She has been appointed Visiting Artist at Mimar Sinan University Istanbul, Brigham Young University, The University of Calgary and The University of Maryland Baltimore County; and she has served on the faculties of The Bates Dance Festival, the University of Washington, The American Dance Festival, The International Festival of Dance Russia, Strictly Seattle, and The Seattle Festival of Dance and Improvisation. Her writing on performance is published in Contact Quarterly and the book Vu Du Corps: Lisa Nelson Mouvement et Perception.Tonya holds an MFA from the University of Washington and is a Certified Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst.  Visit: tonyalockyer.com