Teacher Bio
Loren Groenendaal (they/she) is a professional dancer, choreographer, and educator based in Philadelphia, working with her own company, Vervet Dance. As a teacher, she has taught all ages, focusing on creative movement and Contemporary Modern Dance for children, teens, and adults. She holds a BA in Dance and Visual Arts from Oberlin College, an MFA in Dance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and is a Certified Movement Analyst (CMA) in Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) and Bartenieff Fundamentals (BF), which she earned from the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies (LIMS) in 2010. She is currently an adjunct professor at Rowan University. She has been adjunct or guest faculty at Arcadia University, DeSales University, Juniata College, Muhlenberg College, Temple University, Towson University, University of the Arts, and University of Pennsylvania. In addition to her freelance offerings through Loren Teaches Movement, currently located at Cardell Dance Studio, she is on faculty with the Arts League and Koresh Dance, teaching creative dance and interdisciplinary visual arts to children. When she is teaching students, young or old, professional or recreational, she delights in encouraging her students with playful rigor to open new options in their movement and find wonder with their dancing. When teaching technique and Bartenieff Fundamentals or coaching through the lens of Laban Movement Analysis, her goal is to help individuals find more ease, expression, and understanding through movement. She finds dance to be a wonderful catalyst for increasing her values of freedom, creativity, collaboration, and community. She has been improvising her entire dancing life and currently performs contemporary modern, contact improvisation, improvisation, and classical Balinese dance. She is a key organizer and teacher for the Philadelphia Contact Improvisation community and for Compositional Improvisation as Dissolving Doors. She is a founding member, current resident artist, and board member of Mascher Space Cooperative. As the Artistic Director of Vervet Dance, she produces much of her creative work, both tightly choreographed works and semi-composed improvisation.
A two page resume relevant to Loren's work with children is available here.
An artist bio with full curriculum vitae of Loren's creative work, training, and teaching with all ages is available here.
