Gregory CatellierProfessor of Practice

MFA, dance with concentration in lighting design and production, The Ohio State University

Gregory Catellier is a dancer, choreographer, lighting designer, and teacher. After dancing for various choreographers and companies in Phoenix and New York, he received his Master of Fine Arts degree from The Ohio State University where he concentrated on dance lighting design and production. Catellier is active in the Atlanta dance scene as both a choreographer for his company, Catellier Dance Projects!, and as a lighting designer. Catellier Dance Projects! has created several collaborative evening-length works that explore broad themes to reveal the personal and political.

His choreography has been selected for American College Dance Festival gala concert, the Modern Atlanta Dance Festival, the Florida Dance Festival, and the Bates Dance Festival. The award-winning dance films he has created with Seattle based media artist Jeff Curtis have been screened internationally. Catellier is the resident dance lighting designer for Emory University and previously for the Bates Dance Festival (2009-2018). He regularly designs lighting for companies and festivals in Atlanta. At Emory, he teaches modern dance technique, choreography, lighting design for dance, principles of design, improvisation and contact improvisation.

Ideally, practice and theory meet in the courses I teach. Learning to move the body also means learning about how the body moves. One moves most efficiently if one understands the anatomy and mechanics of the body. Learning lighting design for dance means learning design principles, how to recognize choreographic tools and conquer technical challenges, but putting those skills to practice crystalizes the knowledge and prepares the student for practical application later.

I believe that an effective liberal arts education demands that students consider a subject from many perspectives and that is what I strive for in my classes. I further believe that the most effective teachers are also students. I continue to investigate, experience, and study dance in order to be the best teacher possible.

I continue to be primarily interested in dance making. I engage in dance making research through three different avenues: as a lighting designer, as a choreographer for stage, and as a choreographer for dance films. I have come to these modes of creative research quite organically and I move from one to another with ease. The choreographic work I create, under the moniker of Catellier Dance Projects!, is highly collaborative. I work with dancers I trust to create works that engage many performance modalities.

Hallmarks of my choreography include: an obsession with space, humor as a means to deliver information, musicality, and a desire to create community with the audience. The dance works for the screen that I have created with Seattle based artist Jeff Curtis paradoxically allow an intimacy that live stage works do not. My lighting design research allows me to engage with other artists and their processes. I learn a tremendous amount about choreography and performance through my work as a designer.

Please see below for video samples of my work.