Joan Meggitt

Perspiration
Director of Education & Community Engagement, GroundWorks DanceTheater; instructor, InMotion dance for Parkinson’s classes; adjunct faculty in dance, Cleveland State University; former founding Director, Antaeus Dance; former Associate Professor and Dance Division Coordinator, Kent State University

Inspiration
Brian (husband), Arvo Pärt, Rumi, cats, morning walks 365, new recipes & old favorites, loose leaf tea, stinky cheese, hard salami, Pittsburghese, Hocking Hills, CLE MetroParks, Paris, Montreal, Oxford

Biography
Joan Meggitt (she/her) is a Cleveland-based dance artist, educator, and scholar.  Her educational work spans four decades, during which time she has provided instruction in a wide array of classes, addressing both theory and practice and working with people of all ages. Meggitt is the lead instructor of the Yes, I Can Move! dance program at InMotion, a regional health, wellness, and resource center for people with Parkinson’s. She has led classes for individuals with a range of disabilities for Verlezza Dance, University Hospitals, the Cleveland Clinic, and Tour de Fox, a program of the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Meggitt teaches in the Department of Theater and Dance at Cleveland State University.  She is also engaged in a number of projects exploring the history of dance in Cleveland through writing, choreography, and performance. Meggitt was an Associate Professor of dance at Kent State University, where she taught for fifteen years and most recently served as the Dance Division Coordinator. She was the founding director and principal choreographer of Antaeus Dance, a professional modern dance company in Cleveland, OH (2001–2017), and she directed the annual Allegheny Summer Dance Intensive (1999 to 2015). Meggitt has been a guest artist and lecturer in modern dance at colleges and universities throughout the United States and in Europe. Her choreography has been commissioned and performed by professional companies, individual artists, and university ensembles nationally and abroad.  Meggitt began studying dance at Allegheny College (BA, Economics) with Jan Hyatt and James Reedy. She earned her MFA in Dance from Case Western Reserve University under the instruction of Kathryn Karipides and Kelly Holt. Meggitt’s work at large has been and continues to be informed by numerous other dance artists, educators, scholars, students, and community members.