Bio
ALYSSA MOTTER
is an interdisciplinary dancemaker and scholar whose work examines how ideas from various fields take shape in the body, facilitating dialogue and collective meaning-making through movement. Her artistic practice emphasizes collaboration and creates experiences that extend beyond performance, engaging audiences through kinesthetic, sensory, and social interaction.
Motter's choreographic works have been presented at venues and festivals such as the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Links Hall, Millennium Park, the Chicago Cultural Center, and various academic institutions. As a performer, she has worked with choreographers including Kyle Abraham, Jasmine Hearn, and Nejla Yatkin. Beyond performance and choreography, she has held roles in arts management at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival and Carnegie Mellon University and has contributed as a cultural critic and writer for Newcity Chicago.
Motter is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Instruction at Northwestern University, where she teaches courses in dance composition, improvisation, autoethnographic dancemaking, and interdisciplinary seminars. She holds an M.F.A. from the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee and a B.F.A. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on community-building and education through the arts, identity exploration through embodied methodologies, and the integration of movement into science education.
Through her choreography, research, and teaching, Motter frames the body as both a subject of inquiry and a site for knowledge creation and exchange within broader cultural and scholarly contexts.