Cynthia Gutierrez-Garner

Cynthia Gutierrez-Garner is a teaching specialist and creative practitioner in the areas of both contemporary modern dance and American concert jazz technique. Her choreographic and pedagogical processes have been influenced by the exposure to and training by important dance artists such as Danny Buraczeski, Cathy Young, Daniel Shapiro and Joanie Smith, Doug Varone, Bebe Miller and Scott Rink. Gutierrez-Garner received her B.F.A. Summa Cum Laude at the University of Minnesota, and her M.F.A. as an Advanced Opportunity Fellow at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts. From 1998–2001, she served as the Choreographer in Residence for the Minnesota Dance Theater, under the direction of Lise Houlton. She is a four-time winner of the Arizona Choreography Competition’s Professional Division. Original works by Gutierrez-Garner have been commissioned by numerous colleges and universities across the U.S., and by regional repertory companies including the Zenon Dance Company and Dulce Dance Company. Her work, which has been produced in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Arizona, New York, Washington D.C. and Oregon, has seen support from organizations such as the Jerome Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, the Walker Art Center, and the Arizona Commission on the Arts. She has taught on the dance faculties of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and Gustavus Adolphus College, among others, as well as the prestigious Bates Dance Festival in Lewiston, Maine. She currently serves on the faculty of Western Oregon University.