Grisha Coleman is an artist working in and through choreography, performance, experiential technology, and sound composition. Her research explores tensions between our physiological, technological, and ecological systems; human movement, our machines, the places we inhabit. Her practice engages these explorations in interdisciplinary ways, centering presence and experience to counter conventional dichotomies of quantitative/qualitative thought.
Coleman was one of the inaugural recipients of the Doris Duke Foundation’s Performing Arts Technologies Lab Award and her work has been supported by Carnegie Mellon University’s STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, Creative Capital, the Jerome Foundation, MacDowell, the MAP Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, Pioneer Works, the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center, Stanford University’s Mohr Visiting Artist program, and the Surdna Foundation.
Before joining MIT, Coleman was a Professor of Movement, Computation, and Digital Media in the College of Arts, Media, and Design at Northeastern University, while maintaining affiliations with Arizona State University, where she was previously an associate professor in the School of Arts, Media, and Engineering.
She was previously a dancer with the acclaimed company Urban Bush Women and subsequently founded the music performance group Hot Mouth, which toured internationally and was nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience.
Coleman earned an MFA in music composition and integrated media from California Institute of the Arts.