About Me & CV
Dance educator with 15 years of experience, capable of teaching anatomically aware contemporary/modern, and jazz dance technique classes, partnering, and choreographic skills in higher education or private studio settings. Can also lecture on the use of technology in intermedial dance works, methods of dance critique, and the administration and marketing of arts organizations.
Contact at: benny.simon@gmail.com
Benny Simon, MA, is an Assistant Professor of Instruction and Director of the Summer Dance Institute in the School of Dance at Ohio University. He received an MA in Dance Education from New York University and is currently a PhD candidate in Dance Studies at The Ohio State University where his research explores the intersection of dance and technology as a model for imagining sustainable futures.
Benny continues a decades-long teaching and choreographic practice and has held faculty and teaching artist positions at Dance Space Center, Dance New Amsterdam, BalletMet, Gibney Dance, The Mark Morris Dance Center, Peridance Capezio Center, The 92nd Street Y, Ecole de Danse de Québec, and at New York University and Brandeis University. His work has been presented at Syracuse University, The Davidson Theatre in Columbus, OH, the Upstart Festival at the Brooklyn Artists Exchange, Triskelion Arts, and most recently at Ohio University’s Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium. In addition to his teaching and artistic pursuits, Benny previously served on the board of Dance New Amsterdam and Alexandra Beller/Dances. He has held managerial positions as Senior Vice President of Technology at 360i and Director of Marketing at Gibney Dance. In 2018 he founded the Simon Family Scholarship, which subsidizes the cost of training for emerging dancers and created the DANCE ‘n TELL network. Most recently, Benny presented the paper, “Kissing Drones: Dance Composition in Dronified Spaces” at the Conference for Research on Choreographic Interfaces at Brown University.
In addition to his teaching and research pursuits, Benny serves on the board of OhioDance and previously served on the boards of Dance New Amsterdam and Alexandra Beller/Dances.