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Irene Dowd
Dancer / Choreographer
Irene Dowd has a B.A. in philosophy from Vassar College, studied anatomy and neuroanatomy at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical School,
and neurosciences at Teachers College, Columbia University.
She studied with and assisted Dr. Lulu E. Sweigard at the Juilliard School from 1968 though 1974.
Irene performed under the direction of Anna Sokolow and Jose Limon at the Juilliard School, and has choreographed extensively for her own company and others.
She has been strongly influenced by her study of dance with a number of choreographers, especially Merce Cunningham, Lucas Hoving, Antony Tudor, and Viola Farber.
Since 1970 she has taught dance, composition, functional and kinaesthetic anatomy, and neuro-muscular re-education at such institutions as Teachers College,
Columbia University, Wesleyan University, Simon Fraser University, the Juilliard School, Queens College, Brooklyn College, the American Dance Festival, the Naropa Institute, the American Center for the Alexander Technique,
the Dance Notation Bureau, the Laban/Bartenieff Institute for Movement Studies, and the National Ballet School of Canada.
From 1984 to 1986 Irene was co-principle investigator in a study on “Effects of Neuromuscular Retraining on Mobility of the Elderly” with Judith A. Smith, PhD., R.N., as principle investigator,funded by the Center for Nursing Research at the University of Pennsylvania.
She has been a regular consultant to dancers in such dance companies as the White Oaks Project the National Ballet of Canada, and the Merce Cunningham Company.
Her words and drawings have appeared in journals including Eddy , Dance Scope , Contact Quarterly , Dance Research Journal of CORD , Pour La Danse , La Danza , Dance Magazine , Choreography and Dance and books including Schmerz und Sports (Pain in Sports: Interdisciplinary Paintherapy in Sportsmedicine), the International Dance Encyclopedia.
She is the author of Taking Root to Fly (1981, 1990, 1995), now in the fourth printing of the third edition.
Currently she is on the dance faculty at The Juilliard School and the National Ballet School of Canada.
She has maintained a private practice in neuro-muscular training and kinaesthetic anatomy for over thirty years. She choreographs.