Meet Andrea Knowlton | Dance & Technology Artist & Researcher

We had the good fortune of connecting with Andrea Knowlton and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Andrea, what role has risk played in your life or career?
Artmaking and risk taking are practically synonymous. A career in the arts is a risk; Your talents, no matter how impressive, aren’t mission critical. Unlike doctors or mechanics whose clients seek them out through need and desperation, an artist’s audience must come to them out of curiosity, interest, and desire. Our risk as artists is to offer inspiration and opportunity in a world that so often operates from a place of deficit.

As a dancemaker working at the intersection of embodiment and technology, my interdisciplinary art can be polarizing. Those in the world of dance sometimes glaze over when I discuss the body’s relationship to artificial intelligence, and those in the world of tech can be quick to dismiss the relevance of human movement to digital pursuits. I find myself walking a fine line in a very narrow lane. As I zoom out, I can see how this career path may seem like a tightrope walk, thin and precarious, yet there is also love and utter absorption in each step forward. To choose a life as an artist, you must be willing to walk that line.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I am an embodied artist. I create dance choreography and films using the human body. I conduct formal research through the study of movement and aesthetic choice making. I am interested in how dance and movement relate to other fields of study. Specifically, my work relates to technology. I create works for the stage that involve interactive digital elements such as wearable software, or live feed projections that offer an alternate reality. I research dance and artificial intelligence as supported by the National Science Foundation. I’m lucky to be trusted in sharing all these aspects of myself and my work as a teaching artist at Kennesaw State University’s Department of Dance.

I have worked in a university setting for 10 years, yet I still feel early in my career as a teaching artist. The more you know, the more you understand how much you don’t know. In this way, the field of dance is infinite; It is a field of vastness, with unexplored areas and unanswered questions. I am equal parts puzzled and grateful to be in a career where I may question the universe through the exploration of physical form. It is my hope to share this awe-inspired experience with audiences through my creative work, and with students through my teaching.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I love to check out the shows offered by Fly on a Wall, a fantastic movement and arts collaborative group that operates out of the Windmill Arts Center. Kennesaw State University brings in some world-class dance artists to our gorgeous Marietta Theater, and those rare tours are not to be missed. Your DeKalb Farmer’s Market would be my favorite spot to shop and prepare for an epic meal, but if I had to choose a restaurant instead, you could catch me having a glass of Malbec and some tapas at Barcelona Wine Bar. I love to take friends to Ember Hot Yoga, Stone Summit Climbing, or Acworth Beach to move our bodies.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’d love to shoutout my parents who never sat me down and had the “How are you actually going to make money with a degree in dance?” conversation. Not having a backup plan worked pretty well for me in the long run.

I would not be the artist I am today without the influence of my early mentors, including Ken Skrzesz who elevated dance to a sacred place when he taught it to us at Carver Center for Art & Technology.

Thanks to my peers at Marymount Manhattan College who were muses for my early choreographic work, especially Celia DeVoe. Shoutout to the experiment that is California Institute of the Arts where I learned a lot about rule-breaking and technology.

Lastly, thank you to my husband, Filmmaker, Philip Knowlton. We see the world through the same lens and always value and uplift the creativity in one another.

Instagram: @dance_aegis

Image Credits
Darnell Wilburn | Lauren Liz Photo | Clark Scott Andrea | Knowlton