Claire Hancock, artistic director & founding member
Steeped in the arts from the time she was an infant, Claire Hancock is the daughter of dancers. She received her BFA in dance from the University of Arizona, performing with the UA Dance Ensemble in Mexico, Japan, Scotland, the Netherlands and prominent U.S. venues including the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.. Additional featured performances include those with Broadway veterans Ben Vereen and Liz Callaway. Formative years of study include scholarships to the Houston Ballet Academy, Gus Giordano Dance Center, Mark Morris Dance Group, the Limon Institute, the LINES Ballet Pre-professional Program, and the Broadway Theatre Project. Miss Hancock has danced professionally with ODC/San Francisco and River North Dance Company in Chicago, and has been a guest teacher and choreographer for organizations such as the Limon Institute, the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance, Arizona Opera, UA Opera and UA Dance. She has served as rehearsal assistant for Ben Stevensons Three Preludes and End of Time, as well as Balanchines Serenade and The Four Temperaments, reporting to Leslie Peck and Elyse Borne, repetiteurs for the Balanchine Trust. Claire holds a Master of Arts degree in European Dance Theatre from the Laban Centre in London, England, earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in dance at the University of Arizona, and is currently a Qualified Fletcher Pilates® teacher at Body Works Pilates™ in Tucson, AZ. Claire is the co-founding artistic director of Art.If.Act Dance Project, a Tucson based performance group dedicated to the collaboration of dance, live music, and film. Now in its third season, ADP has produced concerts such as Dance in the RED dedicated to AIDS awareness for the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation, POE and Fairy Tales inspired by literature, and most notably The Great American Dance Tour a retrospective of American dance and music. This concert, featuring 28 dancers and 11 musicians, toured China for one month in the summer of 2011 and is invited to return next year for another 20-city tour.
