The Department of Dance will welcome choreographer and dance educator Crystal Frazier to SMTD for a guest artist residency Monday, January 27 through Saturday, February 1. Frazier will participate in various Dance events, including master classes, and will be the professional guest artist for the First Year Touring Company (FYTC) this season.
The FYTC is an important performance repertory experience for all undergraduate dance majors in the second semester of their initial year in the Dance Department. The company begins weekly rehearsals directly following the holiday break, and they learn dance works by an invited professional guest artist, SMTD dance faculty, and selected graduate and undergraduate choreographers. The company will be on tour in April, performing at an elementary school, high school, assisted living facility, the U-M Hospital, and more.
Frazier is a native of New Jersey and holds an AD in dance from The University of the Arts and an MFA in choreography from Jacksonville University. She is a freelance choreographer and dance educator and is currently an assistant professor at Point Park University and director for Dancers Inc Competition and Convention.
Frazier is a former senior member with the world-renowned, Rennie Harris Puremovement (RHPM). She has performed and taught nationally and internationally, including the Middle East and Central Asia with RHPM. She is also the former co-Founder of Montazh, an all-female hip-hop dance company based in Philadelphia, where in 2006 she received an Art and Change Grant from the Leeway Foundation for “Ladies of Hip Hop.”
Frazier’s industry performance credits include the VH-1 Fashion Awards with Macy Gray and George Clinton, BET Awards with Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, Italy Tour with Kathy Sledge, and many more. She was the featured dancer and choreographer for Grammy Award-winning artist, Jill Scott’s Big Beautiful Tour. On film, she made an appearance in the movie Beloved. She recently was a part of a Japan tour for Dance International Workshop Program teaching fundamentals of hip-hop street dance in Nagoya, Osaka, Fukuoka, and Tokyo.
Frazier’s choreography has been featured nationally and internationally for Rennie Harris RHAW, Cruzan Dance, St. Croix, University of the Arts in Taiwan, Encore Danses En Tourneau in Canada, Hip Hop Extravaganza in Bermuda, Philadelphia 76ers Dance Team, Greene Works Project, Borealis Dance, and many more. Recently, she received the 2019 Linwood Dyer Prize for dance education from Dancers Inc Foundation.