 Clogging | Ellie Grace was born into a deep musical tradition and began her life-long love affair with dance at the ripe old age of five when she slipped on her first pair of tiny clogging shoes. She is a powerhouse on the dance floor and a compelling instrumentalist, choreographer, writer, and singer who specializes in percussive dance and roots-based Americana. Ellie has spent her life performing professionally across North America and Europe, first as a young member of her family band and now as a solo artist and a member of multiple collaborative dance companies and bands. Ellie has devoted herself to the art of teaching, continually refining her practices in order to make the art forms that she loves truly accessible to others. In addition to her time on dance faculty at Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and the University of North Carolina, Ellie has directed schools of music and dance in Missouri and North Carolina and had the honor of being a master teacher at camps and festivals across the continent for over twenty years. In the culmination a lifetime of performing and teaching, Ellie received an MFA in Dance Performance and Choreography from Smith College in May of 2015. Ellie approaches music and dance with a joyful spirit, a driving rhythm in her step, and an undying commitment to using the performing arts as a conduit for human connection and building community. |