Amanda Whitworth: On Dancing, Education and Eating Chicken with Kurt Vonnegut

COURTESY PHOTO/AMANDA WHITWORTH

Amanda Whitworth is a dancer and PSU faculty member, originally from Detroit, Michigan. She started dancing in high school and went on to get a BFA in dance from NYU. She also has a Master’s of Education in integrated arts from PSU. In addition to dancing, Whitworth likes to cook. Her favorite movies are “Shawshank Redemption” and “Shine”.

“At PSU I direct the dance program, and I’m involved in departmental projects,” said Whitworth. “I’m working with some of my colleagues in music and theater to create a dance and technology show for the fall of 2016, where music, storytelling, projection mapping, and digital projections all come together with dance.”

Whitworth also creates her own original choreography for students at PSU, through the course “Contemporary Dance Assemble” open to the entire university.

“I have my own professional dance company called Tributary Dance,” said Whitworth. “I still perform on my own. I make works in physical theater.”

“I’m also the president of the New Hampshire Dance Alliance, a nonprofit organization that promotes dance through advocacy and networking and education in NH. It is a grassroots thing that is getting off the ground right now,” said Whitworth.

Whitworth has many roles at PSU. “I’m the director of dance. I do all the administration, curriculum planning and managing of the division. Dance is a part of the larger music, theater, and dance department.”

“I also teach classes in the dance division and GenEd program. I’m teaching dance technique and dance theory based courses, and I teach a GenEd course called Hip Hop Performance and Culture. I produce four shows each academic year.”

Whitworth said she loves all styles of dance, but her personal favorite is ballet. In her professional career, she’s been a modern or contemporary dancer. “I enjoy teaching both of those styles the most, and I love any style”.

There are some challenges with teaching dance. “At PSU, we have a very diverse student body of dancers and they are all at different levels and have different needs,” she said.

“It can be very tricky to modify both class and choreography for all those levels. As I get older its harder to keep your body in the kind of shape it needs to be in to maintain a high level of teaching.”

When asked about her most memorable dancing moment, Whitworth talked about one of her first jobs in college. “I was hired as just an extra in this sight specific piece of choreography. A very well known choreographer was making a movement version of ‘Midsummers Night Dream’ in a real garden that was being endowed by a very wealthy philanthropist in the Hamptons.”

“I got to go up and learn the choreography and dance in a garden. I also got to have dinner with the producers and makers of the musical ‘Rent’.”

“I got to have dinner at their house with all these really famous people, and I ate chicken with Christie Brinkley and Kurt Vonnegut. That was my most memorable dancing moment.”