Julie’s enduring interest in collaboration and what it means to work together in creative process has long inspired her work. Her dissertation, Dance Making: The Work and Working of Collaboration (2017), is an exploration of themes emergent from observations with three dance organizations along with Julie’s own experiences. Connecting to theories of Relational Being, power and personal/cultural dynamics, and somatic practices, Julie is interested in communication and relationship cultivation in group creative processes.
Julie has taught at many colleges and universities including Antelope Valley College, Georgia College and State University, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Elon University, Peace College, and other dance and theatre programs. Additionally, she has taught workshops, given papers, and presented performances at conferences including World Dance Alliance, Congress on Research in Dance, National Dance Educators Organization, American College Dance Association, Association for Theatre in Higher Education, and Alexander Technique International. In addition to conferences, Julie has shown work at festivals and invitational dance events all over the country. She has danced and shown work with Hidden Entropy Movement Project, SpectorDance, Crossover Movement Arts, The Wanda Project, and many independent choreographers.
Julie holds a PhD in Dance Theory and Practice from Texas Woman’s University and an MA in Dance and a Related Area of Study from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She also holds a teaching certification in the Alexander Technique from Chesapeake Bay Alexander Studies.
Julie trained and taught with Birmingham Ballet in Birmingham, Alabama and then went on to compete as a Rising Star in American Rhythm ballroom competitions before going to graduate school. Julie regularly appears as summer faculty with Academy of Dance Arts in Knoxville, Tennessee where she grew up dancing.