Manor High School Dance Program

Director: Chell Parkins

 

Chell Parkins received her M.F.A. in Dance from the University of Texas at Austin in 2012. Her graduate research was in disembodied versus embodied choreographic processes, experimenting with using Final Cut Pro and Merce Cunningham’s Dance Forms Software to create video material and then using the Microsoft Kinect, Isadora and Delicode to manipulate the video in live performance. Her research lead her to study the effects of technology on cognitive development.

Since 1995, her choreography has been featured at Dancers’ Footwork and Cell Space in California and in MOMFest, Frontera Fest, Dance Carousel, Coen’s New Works Festival, and Big Range Festival in Texas. In December of 2010, Chell travelled with UT students and faculty to Cartagena, Colombia to work as assistant director with Alvaro Restrepo's El Colegio Del Cuerpo. Recently she has performed solo works at the Millennium Forum in Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland, at AZALA in La Sierra, Spain and at ZAWP Garabia in Bilbao, Spain. She has been a member of MADCO, Steamroller, Ruby Rico's, Bibliodance, and Forklift Dance Works and founded San Francisco based Brigid’s Daisy. 

Parkins began her career teaching in the performing arts in New Orleans in 1990. She has taught all levels and ages of dance. She is the current Director of Dance, Pom and Drill Team at Manor High School in Manor, Texas where students learn to use dance as a vehicle to overcome trauma and build positive communities. She recently won awards at MA and Crowd Pleasers Competitions for her hip hop and kick choreography and was nominated to be a member of UNESCO’s International Dance Council.