Casey Avaunt
Casey Avaunt is an award winning artist who works between the U.S. and Asia. She is committed to responsible cross-cultural exchanges and innovative choreographic partnerships that span domestically and internationally.
Casey's choreography has been performed at a number of venues throughout the U.S. and Asia including the Sheung Wan Civic Center (Hong Kong), The Joyce Theater (New York City), the National Experimental Theater (Taipei, Taiwan), Meridian Gallery (San Francisco), and the 21st Major Network Cities Asia Festival (Bangkok, Thailand). Her work has been sponsored by Taiwan's National Culture and Arts Foundation; the Department of Cultural Affairs and The Ministry of Cultural Affairs in Taiwan; the Chin-Lin Foundation for Culture and Arts; the Colorado Dance Theater; and The Culver Center of the Arts ARTSblock Foundation.
From 2006 to 2012, Casey was a performer, choreographer, and co-director with the government-sponsored 8213 Physical Dance Theater, based in Taipei, Taiwan. The company worked with multiple musicians, theater directors, and traditional Chinese performers to create experimental, intercultural dance works. 8213 Physical Dance Theater was nominated for Taiwan's 2006 Taishin Arts Award for best choreography of the year and was invited for an artist residency at Cité internationale des Arts in Paris, France. The company performed in multiple venues including Micadanses (Paris, France), Taiwan National Experimental Theater, and Festival d'Avignon OFF (France).
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In 2014, Casey choreographed for and performed in the Columbia Records produced music video Paris, by Magic Man, which received official selection at the Los Angeles International film Festival and the San Francisco Dance Film Festival in 2014. In 2016, she co-choreographed for On the Line, a mixed-media collaborative project supported by the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA), directed by artist/ anthropologist Susan Ossman in Riverside, California. Casey’s recent work has been performed at the Dance Bridges Festival in Kolkata, India (2019), Untitled Space in Shanghai, China (2019), the Boston Contemporary Dance Festival (2020), and for Flatlands Dance Theatre (2021).
Casey has been the recipient of a Colgate Arts Council Grant, a Princeton in Beijing scholarship, a Taipei Artist Village residency, a Pike's Peak Arts Award, two Broadway Theater League Awards, and three Maxwell H. Gluck Foundation Fellowships in the Arts.
Casey graduated from Taipei National University of the Arts with a master's degree in Choreography and is currently an Assistant Professor of dance at Elon University in North Carolina.