ARTIST STATEMENT
I often ask myself how I can be a fuller, more expressive artist. I believe the answer is within the act of creation and collaboration in discussion, experimentation, and research into the historical, societal, and conceptual ramifications of the body. I believe that the physicality of dance can be matched on emotional, and intellectual levels in order to yield work that expands beyond its own aesthetic ego and is impactful to society.
This ethos is directly informed by my work as a collaborator, and co-director of the dance collective BODYSONNET. BODYSONNET, is a group of dance makers who create site-specific works in residency style models inspired by communities where dance is not readily available.
Review for Post:ballet's feature film Lyra
"Eurydice wears the most traditionally feminine costume (despite the boots) yet, becoming ever more fierce and ragged in her defiance of her fate, Moscelyne ParkeHarrison seems to throw herself about with the most abandon of anyone; her final failure to break free of the clutch of Atropos is a devastating shock."
- 48hills (Independent San Francisco news + culture)
MOSCELYNE PARKEHARRISON is a graduate of The Juilliard School (’19) where she received the Joseph W. Polisi Award for Artist as Citizen. Moscelyne pursued additional training at Hubbard Street Pro (’20) and Walnut Hill School for the Arts (’15) and summer workshops including b12, Banff Centre for the Arts, and Jacob’s Pillow. She currently resides in the Bay Area where she is Associate Artistic Director, Resident Choreographer, and company dancer at Post:ballet, and director of BODYSONNET.
During her education she had the pleasure of performing new works by Helen Simoneau, Katarzyna Skarpetowska, Roy Assaf, Hannes Langolf, Ryan Mason, Iztok Kovac and Stefanie Batten Bland, as well as the repertoire of José Limón, Ihsan Rustem, Nacho Duato, Martha Graham, Bill T Jones, Crystal Pite, and solos by Robert Dekkers and Johannes Wieland.
Moscelyne’s choreographic works have been performed at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater, Alice Tully Hall, the Hudson Guild Theater, The Studebaker Theater (Chicago), the Foundry West Stockbridge and Triskelion Arts. She has received support from the Anthony Quinn Foundation Fellowship, Berkshire Taconic Foundation, Metropolis Ensemble, and a commission from Post:ballet for her choreographies.
Moscelyne is a current dance faculty member at Berkeley Ballet Theater and Berkshire Pulse. She has taught workshops at HAVEN, UC Davis, and the Lines Trainee Program. She teaches Modern Dance Technique (informed by Graham, Cunningham, and Limon), Contemporary Technique, Improvisation Workshops, Choreographic Skills, Ballet Technique and Contemporary Ballet. She has volunteered for Dance for Parkinson's Disease. Moscelyne also develops programs and leads accessible movement classes and lecture demonstrations, including the series 'Art in the Moment' which featured a multidisciplinary group of performers and toured to hospitals, psychiatric and pediatric facilities in the Greater Manhattan Area. She is a consultant at Collegiate Arts Prep.
Moscelyne dances professionally on the East and West Coast with Post:ballet, David Michalek, Francesca Harper, Liz Gerring, and Helen Simoneau. She is director of NEFA and MassCulturalCouncil award winning dance collective BODYSONNET. The collective has created and premiered nine site specific works in the Berkshires, Hudson Valley, New York City, and Northwest Arkansas and premiered three dance films since launching in 2020.
Moscelyne is currently Resident Choreographer and a company dancer at Post:ballet.