Alanna Morris-Van Tassel

she/her

Brooklyn native and Saint Paul-based artist excavating cultural retention and fragmentation within their Caribbean diasporic identity.  Morris-Van Tassel was a performer with TU Dance from 2007-2017, featured in works by Kyle Abraham, Gioconda Barbuto, Camille A. Brown, Ronald K. Brown, Greggory Dolbashian, Katrin Hall, Francesca Harper, Dwight Rhoden, and Uri Sands.  In 2020 she served as the company's Artistic Associate and is a founding Teaching Artist at The School at TU Dance Center since 2011. In 2018 they were named Dance Magazine’s 25 to Watch! and is currently an Artistic Advisor to Springboard Danse Montreal.  Morris-Van Tassel was named Minneapolis City Pages’ Artist of the Year in 2019 and Best Choreographer for their solo, “Yam, Potatoe an Fish!”  Alanna is the Artistic Director of AMVTP, founded in 2017 to produce dance, education and community-building initiatives.  She is a 2015 McKnight Dance Fellow, a graduate of The Juilliard School and LaGuardia High School for Music & Art and Performing Arts.  Morris-Van Tassel's choreography has been commissioned by Minnesota Dance Theatre, Penumbra Theatre, Children's Theatre Co.; and the Dance Department at Carleton College. They are currently developing a collaborative solo performance art project, Black Light_mysteries and manifestations of the creative life force, which explores the nobility of black-ness, the divinity of the feminine energy, and the harnessing of the sensual expression.  The first public presentation is March 12, 2021 virtually through The Cowles Center for Dance in Minneapolis alongside work by Penny Freeh.  The full-evening premiere features performances by 10 celebrated Black dancers, poets, and musicians from the Twin Cities at The Great Northern Festival in January 2022.  This Spring Morris-Van Tassel joins the faculty at Bard College as a Guest Teaching Artist through Gibney Dance. 

www.alannamvt.com