Bonnie Brooks

Associate Professor
Email: bbrooks@colum.edu
Phone: (312) 369-8350

Bonnie Brooks is a dance writer, dance educator, and arts advocate with an extensive background in dance administration and production. She studied English in her undergraduate work at Wheaton College (IL) and at George Mason University, where she received a Master of Arts degree and served as a research fellow at the Research Center for the Federal Theater Project. Prior to joining the faculty at Columbia, she was a visiting assistant professor in the graduate program of the World Arts & Cultures Department at UCLA, where she taught contemporary dance issues and practice. From 1990-1998, she was President and Executive Director of Dance/USA, the country's principal service organization for dance. While at Dance/USA, she oversaw numerous initiatives including the National Task Force on Dance Education and the development of numerous regranting programs including the American Dance Touring Initiative and the California-based Irvine Fellowships in Dance. During the 1980's, she was executive director at the Minnesota Dance Alliance (1985-88), managing director of NY-based David Gordon/Pick Up Co.(1982-85), and worked as a program specialist at the National Endowment for the Arts (1979-82). In addition to chairing the Dance Center, Bonnie teaches Introduction to Dance Studies, Contemporary Trends in Dance, Cross Cultural Perspectives in Dance, Western Dance History, and Artists and Audiences. She co-curates the Dance Center's presenting season with executive director Phil Reynolds, and serves as the Dance Center's primary audience dramaturg by presenting audience lectures, writing program notes, and moderating public talks with visiting artists. She sustains an active role in the regional and national dance community, and was a board member of the Music and Dance Theater of Chicago from 2000-2005. With colleagues from Links Hall and Chicago's Museum of Contemporary Art, she was a co-founder of the Chicago Dancemakers Forum. She has published articles and commentary in Dance Magazine (New York) and Dance Now (London), and is currently working on a history of the “arts wars” of the 1990s.