Enchanted about dance as a sustainable physical practice, Francesca Baron, mfa, ryt 200 delights to be in conversation with/in movement + dance-making alongside students, collaborators and communities. She enjoys working with various demographics and uses choreography as a vehicle of connection. In the last decade Francesca has produced original work that has been presented at academic institutions, festivals, self-produced shows, film festivals, art galleries and on dance companies, studios and competition stages. Notably her choreography has been selected to present at Jacob’s Pillow and Harvest Chicago Contemporary Dance Festival.
Her performance credits include dancing for companies Project 606, Trifecta Dance Collective, Leverage Dance Theater, Visceral Dance Chicago, Still Inspired, Stilgo Dance + Tech; and in works by Ohad Naharin, Lar Lubovitch, Bebe Miller + Angie Hauser, Jenna Riegel, Joy Davis, Christina Robson, Rebecca Lemme, Brian McGinnis, and Roderick George. Her on-going commitment to technical training and artistic research has prompted her to attend numerous intensives including: One Body One Career, b12 contemporary festival, The American Dance Festival, Movement Archery with Tom Weksler, Ferus Animi / Terra Nova, Relax to Erupt, FLOCKworks dance, and Vim Vigor.
Baron has held Lecturer in Dance positions at Smith College, Amherst College, Keene State College, Mt. Holyoke College and has been commissioned by Keene State College, Kenyon College, Lindenwood University, and College of Dupage to set original work. She has been an invited guest artist at College of Dupage and College of Wooster to share professional choreography.
She resides in Western Massachusetts where she is dance faculty at Community Access to the Arts (CATA) teaching dance to adults with disabilities. Baron’s current creative project i go you go we go invites colleagues and fellow dance practitioners into a 1-1 emergent, improvisational dance practice. This hour long studio-based research session is followed by a “cafe-date” where artists can digest and discuss the lab.
When not dancing, Francesca enjoys spending time rock climbing and being in green spaces.
Cover photo by Derek Fowles. “To Be Swept Up!” choreography by Bebe Miller + Angie Hauser
Francesca Baron 