Angie Hauser

Angie Hauser is a BESSIE award-winning performer, choreographer, and director with training in modern and postmodern dance, ballet, and contact improvisation. Angie Hauser’s research focuses on the creation and performance of dances for the stage, and it is grounded in the interrogation and practice of movement, improvisation, and collaboration. Known as a bold performer who mixes set choreography and improvisation with personal history, she is described by The New Yorker as “a tremendous performer … who brings everything she has ever known about dance to the stage in a moment.”

Hauser is a long-time collaborator with the celebrated Bebe Miller Company. As a principal collaborator, she has contributed to the repertory as a dancer, performer, writer, and choreographic collaborator since 2000. Her work with the company is featured on TWO: an online score for Motion Bank/The Forsythe Company, and in two e-books How Dancing is Built: The Making of In A Rhythm and Dance Fort: A History.  Recently, as part of the DanceMotion USA program, Hauser traveled to Peru and Colombia with Bebe Miller Company to share creative work and thinking with local communities, fostering dialogue around the human condition and exploring the subtext that our bodies reveal.

Hauser has created performances with dance artist and Smtih College Associate Professor, Chris Aiken since 2003. The two are 2020 Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellows for Choreography. During their recent sabbatical the two toured their work extensively abroad, including projects in Hong Kong, Taipei, Japan, Germany, and Paris. Other recent choreographic projects include collaborations with dance artists Jennifer Nugent, Darrell Jones, Alex Springer + Xan Burley, and musicians Mike Vargas, Jesse Manno, Tigger Benford, and Andre Gribou. Before coming to Smith, Hauser danced with the companies of Elizabeth Streb, Liz Lerman, and Poppo Shiriashi, and taught on the faculty at Cornell University, Denison University, and Columbia College.  

In addition to her creative research, Hauser has strong interests in the areas of liberal arts education and the application of movement, design-thinking methodologies, and collaboration to creative problem solving in many domains. Hauser teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on choreography and creative process. She also teaches contemporary dance technique, dance improvisation, repertory and performance, and an upper level theory and practice course on the work of Merce Cunningham and his collaborators. In 2021, Hauser and Aiken created a new course “Movement, Ecology, and Performance,” which combines their dance research with the study of land, water, and Indigenous stories. 

At Smith, Hauser was integral in the visioning and implementation of the Design Thinking Initiative pilot program and continues to serve on the advisory board. She also serves on the board for the Sherred Center for Teaching and Learning and is a member of faculty of the Five College Dance Department.

Selected Online Publications

Bebe Miller Company. Dance Fort: A History. Ohio State University, 2015. iBooks.

Bebe Miller Company. How Dancing is Built: The Making of In A Rhythm. Pressbooks, 2018.

Motion Bank. TWO: an online score. 2013. Produced by The Ohio State University’s Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design in collaboration with Motion Bank, a Forsythe Company project.

Selected Choreography and Performance

In a Rhythm (2017). Bebe Miller Company: Michelle Boulé, Christal Brown, Sarah Gamblin, Angie Hauser, Darrell Jones, Bronwen MacArthur, Bebe Miller, Trebien Pollard. Presented by New York Live Arts, New York, NY; Wexner Center for the Performing Arts, Columbus, OH; On The Boards, Seattle, Washington; Dance Motion USA: Peru, Colombia.

Ephemeral Streams (2019). Part of “Judson Church: The Work is Never Done” exhibit.  Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY.

What We Need is Here (2019). Chris Aiken and Angie Hauser. Presented by iDance Taiwan and Ku and Dancers. Songyan Creative Lab East Tobacco Factory, Taipei, Taiwan.

What Do We Need? (2019). Chris Aiken and Angie Hauser. Presented by iDance Hong Kong and YSpace. Kwai Tsing Theater, Hong Kong.

On Being Together (2019).  Chris Aiken and Angie Hauser with Guru Sarjai and Alexander Litniskii. Presented by Moldova Dance Festival and United States Department of State. National Theatre Eugene Ionesco, Chisnau, Moldova.

The Profession of Poetry (2016). Created and performed by Chris Aiken and Angie Hauser with Jesse Manno. Presented by Bates Dance Festival, Lewiston, ME.

Memory of the Future (2016). Created by Chris Aiken and Angie Hauser. Performed by Chris Aiken, Angie Hauser, Jennifer Nugent, Bebe Miller, Bronwen MacArthur, Andrew Harwood, Peter Jones, Mike Vargas. Presented by Smith College, Northampton, MA.

A History (2012). Bebe Miller Company: Bebe Miller, Angie Hauser, Darrell Jones, Talvin Wilks. Presented by Bates Dance Festival, Lewiston, ME, Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, New York Live Arts, New York, NY, REDCAT, Los Angeles, CA, Northrup Center for the Arts, Minneapolis, MN, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Urbana, IL, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA, Wexner Center for the Performing Arts, Columbus, OH, The Frankfurt Lab, Frankfurt, Germany.