An Improvised Life

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Dancing My Way Back

I launched my artistic life, at age nine or so, with a teacher who danced with Anna Pavlova. Over the next 35 years, I performed, taught, wrote, and talked about dance -  including as director of American Dance Festival’s (ADF) International Critics Conferences, and dance critic for the News & Observer for about 30 years. After a 25-year hiatus, I returned to dance in 2016, at age 71, with Murmurs, a solo generously created for me by Doug Varone. With my poetry as source material, it was originally made for the live performance for Things My Mother Would Have Told Me If…,with my daughter Leah Sobsey  for a 2016 Carrack Modern Art juried installation. Li Chiao Ping Dance then invited me to perform Murmurs, and to tour with the company in Landed. 

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          I've been dancing and performing ever since,

 

2023: Mark Haim's This Land is Your Land at ADF . The film version of Murmurs, in collaboration with Raquel Salvatella de Prada and Shirin Maleki – originally made for the  installation whose eyes i have with my children Leah Sobsey and Adam Sobsey, was juried into the American Dance Festival Movies By Movers Film Festival and Dance Camera Istanbul.

 

A luminous moment in my life was the process of working and performing with Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE for his 2018 Scripps/American Dance Festival award for lifetime achievement in dance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here in Durham, NC, I feel fortunate to study with Gerri Houlihan, to whom the 2023 American Dance Festival's 90th season is dedicated. In 2018, I became a founding member of Big Red Dance Project-Durham, a multi-generational company that grew out of her Community Dance class at American Dance Festival studios.

 

A few other highlights: Planned Parenthood/Glamour national campaign My Body Is My Own, and collaborations with composer/musician Jim Henderson including Double-Crossed: How to Sit Like a Lady. 

 

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Journalism. Radio. Politics. Leadership​

Some highlights include founding host of The State of Things on North Carolina Public Radio, co-creator and host of the award-winning radio series Do No Harm, producer - Eiko & Koma documentary - Arts in the Hospital, and creator Talk About Dance!, a series of public discussions with major choreographers and artists performing at ADF and other major producing organizations. 

 

Writing

Author,  States of Being: Leadership Coaching for Equitable Schools. My writing has appeared in numerous books, newspapers, and publications including the News & Observer, Things My Mother Would Have Told Me If…, a chapbook of poetry and prose, Brighter Leaves: A History of the Arts in the Bull City, and Dear Vaccine – an anthology co-edited by Naomi Shihab Nye.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm the founding director of the KIPP Leadership Coaching Program, and architect of States of Being, a leadership coaching model.

 

Awards and Fellowships

A few highlights: Appointed by the Durham City Council to the Cultural Advisory Board - 2024. 2022-23 Durham Arts Council Emerging Artists Grant, 2017 Bogliasco Fellow, 2019 Distinguished Writer - ArtAscent Art International Arts Magazine, 2019 Writer-in-Residence - Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities and Wildacres,  2002 & 2007 Gracie Award for women in media, 2002 Silver Reel Award, 2006 Duke University Diversity Award, 1991 Fellow – Institute of Political Leadership.

 

Education

National Louis University, Ed.D. – Educational Leadership. 2014

National Louis University, M.Ed. 2011

Goddard College, BA. 1985

 

Family

Most significant are my beloved children – writer and playwright Adam Sobsey. and Leah Sobsey - image-maker and Associate Professor of Photography, UNC-Greensboro. 

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It took a long time to find the right ears, heart, and brilliant mind in a partner. Artist Jim Lee and I have been listening to, sharing stories, and championing each other for the past 23 years or so, and reveling in our six grandchildren. Life is good and I am deeply grateful.

 

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