Pamela S Pietro

Pamela Pietro

Independent Artist and Educator has received a BFA/Dance from Florida State University and her MFA/Dance with a minor in Biomedical Ethics from the University of Washington. She is a Full Arts Professor and Chair at New York University Tisch School for the Arts, Department of Dance, where she received the prestigious David Payne-Carter Award for Teaching Excellence in 2012/2013. She was the Director of Tisch Dance Summer Residency Festival 2014-2021 and remains the Director of Tisch Dance in Berlin, MFA in Dance: Interdisciplinary Research and Future Dancers and Dancemakers. Proudly, she served on the Bessie Awards Search Committee from 2019-2021. 

She earned the first-place award for academics and performance from the National Society of Arts and Letters and was a gold medal winner at the Asiagraph Video/Choreography competition in Shanghai, China. She has presented original research at the Hawaiian Arts and Humanities Conference in Waikiki and at an ACM Multimedia Conference in Santa Barbara. Pamela has also presented a paper entitled, “The Collaboration of a Somatic Practice and Contemporary Technique Class” in conjunction with a two-day workshop at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. As an invited lecturer, Pamela presented a paper and 3 lectures at the EARCOS Teacher Conference in Bangkok, Thailand.

In collaboration with Professor Mimi Yin (ITP NYU Tisch) we have been granted a $15,000 NEA Grant and a $14,900 NYU Research Catalyst Prize to support An Intelligent Model of Choreography in 2 Dimensions. 

Nationally, she has been on faculty at Florida International University; New World School of the Arts; Hollins University ADF/MFA Program (10 years), New York University Tisch School for the Arts; and American Dance Festival (17 years).

Pamela has been an assistant to the pioneering Neuroanatomist Educator Irene Dowd from 2004-2018, in teaching Anatomy and Movement Workshops. She has continued Irene’s work, along with her own somatic research, in teaching workshops locally and internationally; Slippery Rock University in Pittsburgh, PA 2012, Ekoda University in Tokyo, Japan 2010, Xinxiang, China 2011 and 2012; and Malaysia at Aswara Dance Company 2015, as described below. She also has a Pilates/rehabilitative practice using her expansive knowledge of anatomy and neuromuscular patterning.

As a dancer, Pamela has performed professionally with Gerri Houlihan and Dancers; Anthony Morgan Dance Company, Michael Foley Dance; RaceDance; bopi’s black sheep/dances; and Jennifer Nugent. Pamela served as rehearsal director for both Houlihan and Dancers and the New World Dance Ensemble. She collaborated with choreographer Mark Haim on several projects at The Wooden Floor, in Santa Ana, California. She has performed with choreographers Monica Bill Barnes and  Joanna Koetze and in the new production THE MARCH with Donna Uchizono, Annie B Parsons, and Tendayi Kuumba to be premiered at the new Perelman Performing Arts Center at World Trade Center December 2023. 

She has international exposure throughout Asia and Europe for both her teaching and solo performance work. Her choreography has been presented both nationally and internationally - in New York by Dancespace Food For Thought, Dancespace Draftworks, Dance New Amsterdam, and Brooklyn Arts Exchange; Dancespace in Miami, Florida; Sarasota Contemporary Dance Company, Sarasota, Florida; Momentum Danza Company/Panama, Meredith College/Raleigh, North Carolina; dulcedanceco, The Ice House in Phoenix AZ, James Madison University; La Salle Academy/Singapore, ASWARA Dance in Malaysia, Dance RoundTable in Taipai, Taiwan, Fridays at Noon 92nd St Y, The New Beijing Dance Festival, the JD Festival in Korea and Triskelion in New York City under the auspices of Jasmine Hearn.

She has performed her solo work with a group of women choreographers on tour called SOLAS to Sweden, Tampa, Sarasota, Texas, Michigan, New York City, and Boston. Most recently, she has been collaborating with Bessie Award-winning artist Jasmine Hearn where we performed at Ackerstadt Palast in Berlin, Germany.

On the international scene, Pamela has taught for American Dance Festival’s linkage programs at the Guangdong Dance Company in Guangzhou, China, Dance Library Summer Conference in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Henan University in Henan, China (2 years).

Working independently she has taught:  Newtown High School for the Performing Arts in Sydney, Australia; Momentum Danza in Panama; LaSalle College of the Arts in Singapore; Tsekh Festival in Moscow, Russia; Ekoda de Dance at Nippon University in Tokyo, Japan, ASWARA, National Academy of Arts Culture and Heritage in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, touring through to local companies and certificate programs in Mumbai, India; Minzu University, Beijing Normal University and National Academy of Dance and Drama and The Taipei American School in Taiwan.

Courses

Contemporary Dance Practice, Improvisational Research, Pedagogical Inquiry

Education

B.F.A. Florida State University M.F.A. University of Washington