Claire Hancock
Claire Hancock is a choreographer, dancer, and actor whose work focuses on the intersection of abstract forms and narratives. Many of her original works tell old stories in new ways through conventional and unconventional venues, immersive audience experiences, and on film/new media.
She holds a Master of Arts degree in European Dance Theatre from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London, England, and earned both a Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts degree in dance from the University of Arizona. Her dance education is underpinned by the somatics education she received through the Joseph and Clara Pilates’ “Body Contrology” system, via the lineage of Ron Fletcher. She has been a Nationally Certified Pilates Teacher and Qualified Fletcher Pilates® teacher since 2010.
Claire danced professionally with ODC/San Francisco and River North Dance Company in Chicago, and for a decade with her own company Artifact Dance Project in Tucson, AZ. Additional featured solo performances include those with Broadway veterans Ben Vereen and Liz Callaway.
Hancock has been a guest teacher and choreographer for organizations including the Limón Institute, Broadway Theatre Project, San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, the University of Arizona School of Dance, Arizona Opera, Tucson Symphony Orchestra, True Concord: Voices and Orchestra, Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra, Passion Project Opera, The Rogue Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, and Broadway in Tucson. Before making her return to Pima Community College, she served as Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance and Director of the Helen McGehee Visiting Artist Program in Dance at Randolph College in Lynchburg, Virginia.
Claire has been rehearsal assistant for Ben Stevenson’s Three Preludes and End of Time, as well as George Balanchine’s Serenade and The Four Temperaments, reporting to Leslie Peck and Elyse Borne, repetiteurs for the Balanchine Trust. She is also repetiteur for several of the late choreographer David Berkey’s works including his signature piece, Sentinel, which she has staged for Vassar College in New York, the New Mexico Dance Institute, and the University of Arizona School of Dance.
In 2009, Hancock co-founded and directed Artifact Dance Project in Tucson, AZ with colleague Ashley Bowman, a professional dance company dedicated to dance, live music, and film. The company cultivated over 50 collaborations, premiered over 100 new works, and had two successful tours of Asia. The project opened Artifact Dance Project Studios in Tucson’s warehouse district, which housed the company and provided a full curriculum of dance classes for the community as well as an annual international summer workshop for dance and music collaboration.
Recently Hancock has been developing and creating work with composer Vincent Calianno for a new company, Two Trains, which focuses on producing works for new media and the stage. Projects include L’ASTRONOME, an opera in nine parts, which is currently in progress.
