Summer, Fall, 2024
- Dawn attended, taught and performed at the Dalcroze Society of America conference at Oberlin College in June.
- Dawn taught adults movement technique and created choreography to the music of Aaron Copland at the Dalcroze School of Music and Movement in Dallas, TX in July.
- Dawn taught a dance class on “complex meter” through Philly Dance Class Share, August and September
- Dawn’s choreography that she directed in February, 2024, called “An Ever-Changing Smile,” to the music of Bobby McFerrin, will be shown at the MAGMA showcase, on September 12, in Gloucester, MA
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Tint and Texture: Dances Made for the Moment
Saturday, February 24, 2024, 7:00 pm, MAGMA, 11 Pleasant Street, Gloucester, Admission: $15
For event information, click here. For our Press Release, click here.
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Locomotors in Brooklyn
October 27, 2023, 7:00 pm, at The Mark Morris Dance Center, 3 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217
Michael Joviala, Marty Ehrlich, music and Dawn Pratson, dance
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Loft Concert
October 14, 2023, 7:30 pm, in Old City, Philadelphia.
An evening of dance and music with dancer-musician duos Christina Gesualdi and Jesse Kudler and Locomotors (Dawn Pratson and Michael Joviala)
Reservations required as space is limited. For more event information, click here.
For our Press Release, click here.
Becoming More Yourself
May 2023, Dawn Pratson, Michael Joviala and Michele Herman in Conversation
“For about 2 years, Dawn Pratson (dance and choreography) and I (piano and composition) have been meeting every week through Zoom to improvise together. Dawn usually leads us both in a physical warm-up. Eventually I wander over to the piano and start to play…”
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The Philadelphia Matter
September 2020, The Philadelphia Matter—Dawn danced in this production which was a featured part of the 2020 Philadelphia Live Arts festival and made the New York Times’ Best Dance of 2020.
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Music
Dawn’s main instruments are flute and recorder, but she has been studying classical and jazz piano for many years. She also plays a bit of percussion, guitar, melodica and really loves to sing in choirs and small ensembles.
One of her most rewarding musical experiences was founding a women’s a cappella group, called ‘leven, which she directed for its first twelve years, in Gloucester, Mass.
In Philadelphia, Dawn has sung with Choral Arts Society, the Anna Crusis Women’s Choir, and the Temple University “Singing Owls” community choir, under the direction of Dr. Rollo Dilworth.
Most recently, since retiring from full-time teaching at a K-8 charter school in Philadelphia (“FACTS“), Dawn has embarked on playing chamber music with pianist Barbara Golden and violist Soo Kyong Kim, and has returned to taking flute lessons with Elivi Varga. In recent years she studied jazz piano with Peter Simpkins and classical piano (Taubman) with Jeff Nations.
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Dance
In the late ’70s, Dawn co-founded and performed with an improvisational dance troupe called “The All Star Moving Company,” in Hartford, Conn., which was based at Real Art Ways.
After moving to Cape Ann, Mass., Dawn studied and danced with Ina Hahn, a former dancer who worked with modern dance pioneer Doris Humphrey.
In the early ’90s Dawn co-founded “Dancers Courageous” Studio, in Gloucester, Mass., and began teaching modern dance, choreographing and performing with a local group of dancers, including Carl Thomsen, Janet Taisey-Craft, Kristen Ledson. She collaborated with Celeste Miller on several projects including “The Nurses Project.” Between the years 2000 and 2019 Dawn choreographed five evenings of her own works in collaboration with musicians and dancers.
She was a member of the children’s theater troupe “Music Alive” from 1998-2002
Since moving to Philadelphia in 2003 she has performed with Workshop for Potential Movement, Nicole Bindler, Leah Stein, Tara Rynders, Pamela Heatherington and Megan Bridge.
In March, 2018 Dawn became an artist-in-residence at Mascher Space Cooperative, in Philadelphia, and that June took a week-long workshop with Deborah Hay, entitled “a continuity of discontinuity or a way to practice dance…”
Also that year Dawn was invited to join “Dance Reading Online” — a group of nine dancers from around the continent of North America who meet online using videoconferencing to research material from dance books and articles. The group presented a project at the National Dance Education Organization annual conference held in San Diego, in October 2018, and had their first online performance in Philadelphia, in May 2019.
