​​​​​​​Amanda Exley Lower

About Amanda

Amanda received a BA from Duke University in Drama and Literature and an MFA in Dance Performance and Choreography from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Dance performance credits include the Jose Limon Dance Company, Clay Taliaferro, Shapiro & Smith, and Tere O'Connor with lead acting roles as Kaspar in Peter Handke's Kaspar and as Claire in Jean Genet's The Maids. In 2001, Lower founded and served as the Artistic Director of Duende Dance Theater whose work appeared at the Modern Atlanta Dance Festival, Atlanta's Conant Center for the Performing Arts, 7Stages, and the 14th Street Playhouse, the New York International Fringe Festival, Free Range Arts of NYC, and the Cleveland Public Theater. From 2008 to 2016 Lower and her family lived in Chicago.  She served as an Adjunct Professor of Dance at Northwestern University and as the Faculty Advisor for the New Movement Project, NU's student dance organization.  Also while in Chicago, Lower had the honor of serving as the Education Director, a teaching artist, and as the Artistic Director of Striding Lion Performance Group.  Lower's time as a lion was full of arts residencies with hundreds of children of all ages,  inspiring them all to work collaboratively and find their inner artist.  Lower worked with innovative choreographers, musicians, and film makers boldly crafting and performing dance theater in traditional and non traditional venues.  She is also very proud of serving as one of the curators for Peep Show: The Instant Choreography Series where two dance companies choreographed a world premiere work before the audiences eyes to a common musical composition.   Peep Show brilliantly broke down the walls between the makers of dance and the audience.