Charles O. Anderson

Charles O. Anderson, a native of Richmond, Virginia, is artistic director of Charles O. Anderson Dance Projects (formerly known as dance theatre X). He is choreographer, performer and head of the dance program at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his MFA in Dance from Temple University 2002. Prior to moving to Austin in 2011, Anderson was based in Philadelphia, PA where he gained national recognition for his choreographic work and funding support from such foundations and organizations as The National Performance Network, The Pew Foundation for Arts and Heritage, The Independence Foundation, The Puffin Foundation, and The Philadelphia Cultural Fund. As a specialist in contemporary African Diasporic dance, Anderson’s choreography has been presented throughout the U.S. as well as internationally.

Among his achievements in afro-contemporary choreography and dance theatre, Anderson was selected as one of “The 25 Artists to Watch” by Dance Magazine and is a Pew Fellowship in the Arts recipient. His latest work as an Austin-based choreographer was presented at the Austin Fusebox Festival and at New York Live Arts as part of the Live Ideas, James Baldwin, This Time! Festival. Anderson is deeply committed to arts and education as sites for enacting social justice, his choreographic work with undergraduate students has twice been nationally showcased at the Kennedy Center through the American College Dance Festival Association and he has also been twice recognized for outstanding achievement in experimental dance theatre by the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. As an artist-educator and an advocate for diversity in the field of dance has made Anderson a highly sought after speaker and adjudicator for the American College Dance Association. His newly found project based company, Charles O. Anderson Dance Projects is comprised entirely of former students of the last five years with whom he has taught intensively both in the studio and the lecture hall. He approaches choreography as metaphor for kinetic storytelling. The goal of kinetic storytelling is testimony, the declaration of truth integral to the African-American oral and literary tradition, going back to the slave narrative and folk practices. Anderson also serves on the faculty of American Dance Festival’s summer dance intensive program and serves as president of the Council of Dance Administrators (CODA).

www.charlesoanderson.me