Pamela S Pietro

Arts Professor

Headshot of Pamela 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 Chair and Arts Professor 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 also the Director of the Tisch Dance Summer Residency Festival 2014-2021, the Tisch Dance in Berlin Program, and Future Dancers and Dancemakers. Proudly, she was on the Bessie Awards Search Committee for 2019-2022. 

She earned the first-place award for academics and performance from the National Society of Arts and Letters. She 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 the ACM Multimedia Conference in Santa Barbara. Pamela also gave 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; American Dance Festival (17 years).

From 2004 to 2018, Pamela was an assistant to the pioneering Neuroanatomist Educator Irene Dowd 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 was rehearsal director for 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 Monica Bill Barnes, and Joanna Koetze in New York City. Most recently, Pamela premiered in the work The March, Big Dance Theater at the PAC Theater in New York City with choreographers Donna Uchizono, Tendayi Kuumba, and Annie B Parson. In 2025 The March will premiere at the Carolina Performing Arts Open Arts Space in Chapel Hill, NC.

She has international exposure throughout Asia and Europe for 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, and the JD Festival in Korea. Recently, her solo everything I thought I knew but… was produced by Ackerstadt Palast in Berlin (2023) alongside choreographer/performer Jasmine Hearn. Her new solo in collaboration with Luis Lara Malvacias is being produced by Ackerstadt Palast in Berlin (2024) entitled la la la la. 

She has performed her solo work with a group of women choreographers, scholars, and educators called “SOLAS.” The tour traveled to Sweden, Tampa, Sarasota, Texas, Michigan, New York City, and Boston. Most recently, she has collaborated with Bessie Award-winning artists Jasmine Hearn and Jeanine Durning.

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

Working independently she has taught at: 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.