"Beth is intentionally engaged in a constant iterative practice of both creating for the stage and designing her daily life in equal measure. I’ve never met a more consistent and grounded human being who is simultaneously engaged in the arts field and within the science community, while also modeling that these worlds are indeed not worlds apart, but rather exist along a continuum of internal and external manifestations of thought, practice, perception and experience." - Amy Miller, GDC Director
Beth Graczyk is a Brooklyn-based dance artist and scientist who aims to spark creative dialogue through performance, teaching, and contemporary dance-based projects focusing on inclusion and celebration of LGBTQIA+ and disabled communities. Graczyk seeks innovation through rigorous collaborations with creative experts in different fields including science and technology to inspire a greater accessibility of ideas through time-based community engagements.
Biography
Beth Graczyk is a dance artist based in Brooklyn/Lenapehoking whose 18-year career as a choreographer and bench scientist has allowed her to cultivate a unique perspective that reaches actively into the forms of art and science to build work that creatively speaks in both languages. Graczyk seeks to work with populations whose experiences are often ignored including female-identified, diversely-abled, and LGBTQIA+ bodies. Since 2002, Graczyk has performed throughout the US and in Japan, Ecuador, France, China and India and in NYC has been presented by Gibney, La Mama, Jack, CPR, and Movement Research amongst others. In 2019, Graczyk began directing a new work in collaboration with Aaron Gabriel examining the experiences of LGBTQIA+ artists with disabilities that was workshopped at the Walker Arts Center and featured in Critical Correspondence. This project received a 2021 Minnesota Touring Arts Grant. She has a collaborative partnership with John Gutierrez (G^2), is a resident choreographer for NYC-based Pioneers Go East Collective, and is on Faculty for the Peridance Certification Program. Concurrently, Graczyk is an author on 10 science publications and received a 2020 Pilot Award from Rockefeller University with collaborator Guadalupe Astorga for research on visual perception in Autism. Graczyk co-directed the performance company Salt Horse in Seattle from 2008-2016 where they received funding from 4 Culture, Artist Trust, Washington State Arts Commission, NEA and commissions including City of Seattle, Northwest Film Forum and Cornish. @bethgraczyk
Beth Graczyk Productions, Inc is committed to anti-racism practices through self-education, community engagement, and sustaining connections and support with individuals and organizations engaging in the work.
Video & edit: Rooftop, Beth Graczyk