Joanna Lees

Joanna Lees is a choreographer, producer, performer, filmmaker, and instructor based in Minneapolis, MN. Originally from the Washington, D.C. area, Joanna graduated cum laude with distinction in 2007 with a BFA in Dance and a minor in Business from The Ohio State University (Columbus, OH). At OSU, she was an Arts Scholar and the recipient of the Denman Undergraduate Research Forum Scholarship. Joanna studied with various artists including Bebe Miller, Susan Hadley, Karen Eliot Abigail Yager and Ming-Lung Yang. She performed Doug Varone’s Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) in collaboration with BalletMet Columbus.

Since moving to the Twin Cities in 2008, Joanna has performed in works with and by several local dance artists including Penelope Freeh, Blake Nellis, Taja Will, Darrius Strong, Heather Klopchin, Jennifer Glaws, Erin Drummond, Laura Holway, Jennifer Mack, Erinn Liebhard, Kelly Radermacher, and Kristin Howe. Joanna also showcased her own choreography independently before co-founding the Minneapolis dance company, Alternative Motion Project alongside Kristin Howe in 2011. She has served as Co-Artistic Director and Executive Director since AMP’s inception, creating performing opportunities for Minneapolis artists, educational outreach programs for public school students and audience engagement initiatives.

Joanna’s work has been presented by the College of DuPage (Glen Ellyn, IL), The Moving Collective (Louisville, KY) and at the Midwest Regional Alternative Dance Festival (Kalamazoo, MI). Joanna enjoys the collaborative process including with COD professor/composer Lee Kesselman and Chicago visual artist René Romero Schuler. She also premiered her first multi-media dance work entitled #binge (2016) in Minneapolis.

In 2020, Joanna earned her Masters of Fine Arts degree in Dance at The University of Utah (Salt Lake City). Whilst there, she served as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the School of Dance and received the L. Scott Marsh Mentorship Award & a University Teaching Assistantship. She performed works by Charles O. Anderson, Stephen Koester, Sara Pickett, Christine McMillan. She performed in work by Doug Varone in collaboration with Doug Varone and Dancers and was selected as a choreographer for Varone’s DEVICES mentorship program, showcasing her work, Spiral Into Control, in New York City in 2018. An excerpt of her MFA thesis, B E C O M I N G,  was selected to represent University of Utah in performance for the American College Dance Association Northwest Regional Conference at Gonzaga University.

BECOME // UN-BECOME // BECOME AGAIN  

Nothing is finite. Everything is connected. The universe is constantly moving and shifting whether seen or felt. I ride the momentum of continuous change like a roller coaster that slowly builds only to release into a force of energy that unremittingly twists, turns, rebounds, suspends, propels, shifts and falls before ultimately subsiding. Every action reacts to what has come before it. Connected by breath.  Humanity. Existence. I believe in art-making that explores humanity and I am impassioned in my belief that dance and movement is for everyone.

There is no one right way. Only possibility. Failure is a catalyst. And Perfection is a lie. Non-existent. A mirage in the desert. Always out of reach. Striving for it only makes way for disappointment and the devaluation of self. Instead, I aspire to evolve.

I believe in the potential inherent in individuality. I reject universality and celebrate difference in experience. Clarity, awareness, and confidence of a unique self gives way to an authentic movement experience.  The movement happens because it must. Confidence, not arrogance, is a clarity found in the known and unknown, and the openness and ability to adapt.

I believe in collaboration. Within process. Within dance. Within all art forms. Within life. Art builds and deepens communities through creativity and shared experience. Together, we are on a journey of collective and individual discovery. Together, we can experiment and serve a purpose greater than ourselves. Each work’s distinct identity is a reflection of the individual(s) who build it. As such, no process is the same and each requires a different approach so that authenticity, commitment, and investigation can be cultivated.

I believe in infinite journey of empowered curiosity. I respect people as human beings and I respect the wisdom that comes from their unique voices and experiences. As a sponge, I listen to and absorb different approaches, perspectives, and processes and let them inform my own understanding. There is value in the aspiration rooted in challenge and newness and yet there is value in leaning into one’s habits and investigating them thoroughly. There is nothing greater than giving into the full experience of being at one in the present moment.

I believe in the power of paradox and the multiplicity of self. I exist and hold space simultaneously in many states of beings. Traversing through the spectrum of conflicting ideas like organization and chaos, lightness and darkness, heroism and villainy. I create physical experiences rooted in Complexity. Rigor. Repetition. Rebellion. Agency. Exhaustion. Challenge. Raw emotionality. Identity.

I am continuously defining with no endpoints in sight; as soon as I arrive, I am already departing… continuously becoming and unbecoming…I become again.