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Ila Conoley

Choreographer - Dancer - Director

About the artist:

ILA CONOLEY bbegan her studies at the Alabama Dance Theatre, where she attended the South Eastern Regional Ballet Association yearly.  She earned her BA in Dance from the University of Colorado at Boulder and her MFA from Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, where she danced and studied the works of Gus Solomons Jr., Kevin Wynn, Doug Elkins, Deborah Jowitt, Ken Tosti, Terry O’Connor, Phyllis Lamhut, Jackie Villamil, James Martin, and Nicholas Leichter. In 2004 Ms. Conoley moved to Colorado Springs and has had a great influence on contemporary dance education and performance as the dynamic chair of the Pikes Peak Community College Dance Department (2006-2011), which in the last two years has seen enrollment more than double. Ms. Conoley has performed and choreographed with the Ormao Dance Company, Our Community Dance Company, and on the student dance company she directs, the High Altitude Dance Ensemble (HADE). She is the co-executive director and choreographer of 6 for 12 Productions with Christian Medovich, and directed and choreographed “Community Modern” at the Pikes Peak Center, an audience favorite featuring over 40 dancers and non-dancers ages 2-70 sponsored by the Pikes Peak Arts Council.  Her body of work includes award winning ballets “Drenched in White” 2007, “Encapsulate” 2009, "Nezabudka" 2009, “Four Women” 2010, “Chocolate” in collaboration with Posy Knight, and most recently "Saddled to his Dreams" 2011. Ms. Conoley has taught various courses and master classes at Colorado College’s Extraordinary Summer Dance Festival, Mesa State College, University of Wyoming at Laramie, and the American College Dance Festival. She is proud to be a board member of the Colorado Dance Alliance working to support dance throughout Colorado. Look for "Showdown on the Sunset Strip," coming July 30 -31, 2011. . .