History
I was born in Houston, TX and began acting on the stage in the 1st grade with a starring role as the alien in ROUNDUP ON THE MOON. I successfully competed in jr high dramatics and still have my collection of dusty old trophies. In high school, I studied drama with Tom and G'ann Boyd - a fabulous teaching team. It was G'ann who first dragged me into a dance studio and plied me with plies. Tom introduced me to improvisation only we called it brainstorming. At Middlebury College, I continued my studies as an actor and a director, but somehow got sucked into the dance dept as well. There, under the tutelage of Tarin Chaplin (The Intimate Act of Choreography), Andrea Olsen (Body Stories) and a dynamic performer/choreographer named Peter Schmitz, I learned to love dance. I understood that I had found a medium in which I could express my physicality and my theatricality fully and at the same time. That I had found the right medium was confirmed for me when in 1985 I won the ACDFA Best Performer award for the region of New England. I was a national runner up and received a scholarship to the American Dance Festival.	Lois Greenfield, photographer

After being graduated magna cum laude, phi beta kappa and with highest departmental honors, I trained further in the 5 colleges area near Northampton, MA.  I worked on ballet skills with Hannah Wiley, studied with Jim Coleman and performed choreography for Susan Waltner and Spider Kedelsky. I studied with and performed for Bill Evans and continued a long association with The American Dance Festival. During this time, I also performed with Dance Gallery and Partners Dance Company. Less than a year out of Middlebury, I auditioned and got a job with Zero Moving Dance company in Philadelphia. It was very exciting to be dancing every day and earning my living by practicing my art. The fantastic opportunity to study and perform with Karen Bamonte and Helmutt Gottschild was something I could never have imagined. Helmutt was the last best disciple of Mary Wigman before she died. His exacting and profound direction gave me a window on the roots of modern dance and forced me to grow as an interpretive artist. Karen Bamonte has the intimidating ability to make all other performers in her vicinity disappear. I struggled and grew as a peformer as I was determined to match her energy and passion. I learned much from Karen about presence and how to command an audience's attention. I worked with Karen and Helmutt for three years eventually becoming one the very few performers besides Karen and Helmutt himself to work as a soloist. During my time in Philadelphia, I made several new works of my own to favorable reviews. I capitalized on my pilates training and started the first and (for many years) the only Pilates Studio in the city. I taught classes everyday after rehearsals and eventually had a manager and three other teachers also working part time. Now you can hardly swing a well-aligned cat in Philadelphia without hitting a pilates teacher or studio, but back in the late eighties we were as obscure as the internet or cell phones. In 1989, I had the itch to see what else I could do and decided that I should look around for other dance companies. My favorite dance company, Pilobolus was hiring and I was determined to be at that audition. I could not have been more surprised and elated to have been chosen to join. Another surprise was soon to follow. I had applied to the Pew Charitable trust for a very sought after choreographic grant to be in residence at ADF. It was my first time applying. I had no expectations of actually being awarded this grant. For a brief heady period, I had the directors of Pilobolus and The American Dance Festival fighting over me. In the end I was forced to choose between the two opportunities. I chose Pilobolus and haven't regretted the choice. I forwent an opportunity as a choreographer and began a long and challenging journey as a collaborative choreographer. Since 1989, I have performed extensively in twenty or more different countries around the world. I've garnered great reviews abroad as well as in NYC. I learned Italian and Spanish and had a wonderful time. I've performed with Momix as a guest artist a few times and have collaborated on more than a dozen works with Pilobolus. I've continued as time has allowed to do my own work as well. I started teaching early on in my career with the Pils and have continued to expand my skills. I discovered I had a talent for communicating with students and a great enjoyment of passing on the things that I have learned. For the last five years, I have been a master teaching artist for Pilobolus as well as for the state of Connecticut. I wrote the script and helped create the current Pilobolus one hour lecture/demonstration. This show was designed to go into schools with little or no technical support and introduce young people to modern dance and in particular Pilobolus. It has become extremely successful and is now performed by three or more different teams and is booked all over the United States. Thousands and thousands of students have enthusiastically received the show. I have personally performed the show for more than 20,000 kids in the last few years. I have also had the opportunity to teach hundreds of classes for students ranging from elementary school to university level, professionals and non-dancers as well. I have been lucky and challenged to work with diverse populations from inner city schools to the disabled to Native Americans growing up on reservation. I continue to learn from my students. They inspire me to hone my skills even as I am writing study guides, developing new exercises and curriculums. I look forward to working with your students.