For Kids
Originally from Central Nebraska, Amber Hongsermeier is a neurodivergent and interdisciplinary movement artist, choreographer, dance researcher, educator, facilitator, producer, and dance filmmaker. She received her BA in Dance with a history minor from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, where she was awarded the Porter Award for Creativity in Dance. She earned her MFA in Dance from Rutgers University, with her thesis focused on finding embodiment by exploring archetypes in astrology and tarot through vitalism. Additionally, she completed her 200-hour yoga teacher training with Lila Flow Yoga.
Her varied educational and performance background consists of commercial (theatrical jazz and tap), concert (ballet, contemporary, and modern), and vernacular dance forms (hip hop and various social dance styles), which gives a nuanced understanding of aesthetics and the high-brow and low-brow narratives built around these forms. She has performed works by Kayvon Pourazar, Blanca Huertas-Agnew, Jody Sperling, Pavel Zustiak, and Jessica Bostock. Her work for stage and film is presented under her project-based dance company, Amber Hongsermeier/Dancers, and has been shown in Nebraska, Iowa, Washington, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Japan. She regularly attends dance conferences, giving presentations or experimental workshops on somatics and neurodiversity-affirming practices for dance education and the choreographic process.
From a young age, she became fascinated with studying religion, mythology, indigeneity, and topics of spirituality, especially pertaining to her Celtic and Germanic ancestral background. In her undergraduate and graduate school pursuits, she has developed an expansive knowledge base of history, cultural anthropology, psychology, sociology, religious studies, and somatics that foundational situates her scholarly and creative research of the body, spirituality, and movement. This has allowed her to help contextualize various lineages of esoteric and movement traditions from a place of embodied knowledge by understanding their ability to heal the mind, body, and spirit.
Currently, she resides in South Jersey/Philadelphia (soon to be Spokane, WA), where she works as a full-time dance professional and part-time multi-disciplined creatrix with an emphasis on ritual craft arts and tarot readings. She is committed to high standards in her creations and emphasizes an accurate historical and cultural lens when instructing, choreographing, or embodying in performance.
