About

Grace Gallagher is an educator, choreographer, dancer, and community-builder whose creative research and engaged scholarship center inclusivity, access, social responsibility, and the power of community within dance education and performance. She is an Assistant Professor of Dance at Colorado State University, Artistic Director of gracegallagherdance, and founder and director of CATALYST, a career-focused contemporary dance workshop connecting emerging artists with professional training, mentorship, and the Colorado dance community.

Across her teaching and creative practice, Grace investigates how dance can foster dialogue, empathy, agency, and meaningful participation. Her pedagogical work emphasizes equitable and responsive learning environments, while her choreography engages social and environmental issues through collaborative, relationship-driven processes. 

Grace has taught Modern, Pedagogy, Repertory, Community Engagement, Dance History, Dances of he African Diaspora, and a series of Dance Ed. courses. Before joining Colorado State University, she taught at Arizona State University and Front Range Community College. She has also served as a guest teaching artist and choreographer at universities, schools, studios, workshops, and national conventions throughout the United States. Additionally, she has worked with two different non-profits that utilize dance as advocacy and empowerment. 

Her choreographic body of work includes five original evening-length productions: There Is No Planet B, Re Late, Juxtaposition, 40 Love Letters, and CONSequence. Works such as There Is No Planet B and The Ostrich Effect examine environmental responsibility, avoidance, accountability, and collective action. Her choreography has been presented at the Detroit Dance City Festival, New Century Dance Project Choreography Festival, Beta Dance Festival, Breaking Ground Dance Festival’s 10 Tiny Dances, Versatility Dance Festival, and American College Dance Association conferences.

Grace’s dance films have been selected for the Austin Dance Film Festival and Charlotte International Dance Film Festival, where her work received Best Short Film. Her recent honors include Colorado State University’s Emerging Community Engagement Scholarship Award and The Sharon Prize Colorado in 2025.

Grace holds a BFA and MFA in Dance, a Graduate Certificate in Dance Teaching Artist Praxis, and PreK–12 Dance Teaching Certification from the Arizona Department of Education.