Alanna Morris

Undergraduate Adjunct - CLA

Email: amorris07@hamline.edu

Phone:

Alanna Morris is an award-winning solo artist whose means of creative expression include dance performance, choreography, education, and community building. Growing up in Brooklyn, Alanna graduated from Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts (aka "the Fame school") and holds a BFA in Dance from The Juilliard School. Morris moved to the Twin Cities in 2007 to join TU Dance and was a longtime member of the company until she left in 2017 to pursue a career as a solo artist. She continued her relationship with TU Dance as a teaching artist until 2020.

In addition to her work with TU Dance, Morris has performed, collaborated, and/or choreographed work with Ashwini Ramaswamy, Contempo Physical Dance, Liquid Music, the Walker Art Center, the Cowles Center for Dance, Children's Theatre Company, Penumbra Theatre, Patrick's Cabaret, Brooklyn Ballet School, Off-Leash Area, Minnesota Dance Theatre, the Lab Theatre, and Urban Bush Women.

Since leaving TU Dance, Morris has taught dance, choreography, and movement at Carleton College, Bard College, Circus Juventas, and the Cowles Center for Dance.

She received a prestigious McKnight Fellowship in Dance (2015), a McKnight Fellowship in Choreography (2021), and a fellowship from Springboard Danse Montréal (2022). Additionally, Morris has received grants for her creative work from the Minnesota Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, Headwaters Foundation for Justice, Nexus Community Partners, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council.

In 2018 Morris was included in Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch." Minneapolis' now-defunct alternative weekly City Pages selected her as a 2018 Artist of the Year, and in 2019, she was voted by their readers as the "Best Choreographer" in the Twin Cities.

Along with her work as a performing artist, Morris is the founder and artistic director of I A.M. Arts, a nonprofit providing performances and workshops for the public, classes for BIPOC healers, artist retreats for women creatives and entrepreneurs, and a mentorship/coaching program for BIPOC early-career dance artists. She is also the founder and CEO of Roots and Wings LLC, which provides arts and cultural program management for independent creatives and organizations.