Lisa Race

Lisa Race, Associate Professor of Dance, spent much of her career as a performer, teacher and choreographer in New York before joining the faculty at Connecticut College in 2007.

While in New York, Race was the artistic director of Race Dance. Her choreography was presented at Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project, Movement Research at the Judson Church, The Kitchen's Dance in Progress series, and the Sylvia and Danny Kaye Playhouse. She collaborated on duets with Ginger Gillespie, Tom Thayer, Sondra Loring, and David Dorfman. Her choreography has been seen in Connecticut, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Washington, and Wyoming. Internationally, Race has shown her work in Argentina, Denmark, France, Hong Kong and Russia. She has been a Movement Research Artist-in-Residence and was the recipient of a grant from the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism in 2009.

Race danced with David Dorfman Dance from 1989-2000, and was honored with a New York Dance and Performance Award (Bessie) in 1995 for her dancing with the company. She has also danced with Sara Pearson/Patrik Widrig, and Ronald K. Brown among others.

Race has taught and choreographed at many universities and festivals around the U.S. as well as creating works on D9 (Seattle), Labco (Pittsburgh), Atrek (St. Louis), Aaben Dans (Copenhagen) and Propel-Her (NYC). She has set works on independent artists Katie Stevenson, Adele Myers & Bronwen MacArthur, and Karl Rogers & Meghan Durham.

Race has been on faculty at festivals both at home and abroad, including multiple trips to the Bates Dance Festival in Lewiston, Maine, the American Dance Festival in Durham, NC and Impulstanz in Vienna. Workshop destinations have included Finland, Germany, England, Austria, Argentina, Greece, Hong Kong, Russia, Sweden, Copenhagen and France. Race also taught at Trinity College/Performing Arts at La Mama in New York City from 1997-2005 and at Wesleyan University in 2005. With colleague and collaborator Shawn Hove, Race has created two dance films. "Folded" has been screened at the Sans Souci Festival in Colorado, "Dance For Reel" at Emory University and the Light Moves Festival of Screendance in Limerick, Ireland.

In 2013, Race returned as a guest performer, along with son Samson Dorfman, with David Dorfman Dance at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival. She is currently creating a trio with Rachel Boggia, Kendra Portier and Annie Kloppenberg.

Visit the dance department website.

Majoring in Dance.