BRENDAN DRAKE

(They/Them)

Phone: (413) 695-5185

Email: brendan.drake@gwu.edu  -  Website: www.brendandrakechoreography.com

 

EDUCATION

 

University of California, Los Angeles, CA

MFA Choreographic Inquiry, June 2023 

Studied with Ann Carlson, Miguel Gutierrez, Susan Foster, Dan Froot, Victoria Marks, David Rousseve, and Peter Sellars.

Special Research Projects with David Gere and Julie Tolentino 

Capstone Thesis: Heartbreak Feels Good in a Place Like This: Tracking Queer Intimacy in Contemporary Dance and Performance

Thesis Committee: Susan Foster, Miguel Gutierrez, and David Rousseve

 

University of Massachusetts, Amherst MA

BFA Dance, May 2009

Studied with Jim Coleman, Mark Davis, Paul Dennis, Terese Freedman, Adrienne Hawkins, Cathay Nicoli, Thomas Vacanti, and Wendy Woodson 

Performed repertory work by George Faison, Jose Limon, Randy James, and Doug Varone.

College Summer study with Chuck Davis, John Jasperse, Daniel Nagrin, David Parsons,  Risa Steinberg, Dan Wagoner, and Abdel Salam.

 

Kane School for Core Integration, New York, NY

Pilates Mat and Apparatus Certification, July 2016

Continuing Education Courses

Moving with Scoliosis Workshop with Kuan Chew and Kelly Kane (Winter 2024)

Recent Movement Research Summer Melt Workshops (2019, 2023) with Tere O’Connor, Neal Greenberg, Yvonne Meier, and Keith Hennessey

Autobiographical Writing with Magda San Milan (Summer 2020)

 

RECENT PRESENTED PERFORMANCE WORKS

 

2023          Ghost Porn

UCLA Glorya Kaufman Dance Theater. Los Angeles, CA

Fowler Museum. Los Angeles, CA

Movement Research at Judson Church. New York, NY 

2024           

 Brick Theater New Works Festival. Brooklyn, NY

2025

Kestrels. Brooklyn, NY

 

2022           Melancholia… Solo Version

UCLA Glorya Kaufman Hall. Los Angeles, CA

Jr High Gallery. Los Angeles, CA

 

2021           Retro Spectre

Chez Bushwick. Brooklyn, NY

The Brick Theater. Brooklyn, NY

Protomedia Past/Future Digital Performance Festival

2022

PAGEANT. Brooklyn, NY

 

2020            Spare Room

19 Acts of Covid-19 Bravery Digital Festival

2021

Dance Now NYC 25th Anniversary Digital Festival

 

2019           Community Exercises for Sanctuary Spaces  

Danspace Project. New York, NY

Dance Complex. Boston, MA

2020

Exponential Performance Festival. Chez Bushwick. Brooklyn, NY

Brick Theater. Brooklyn, NY

Movement Research at Judson Church. New York, NY (Canceled due to COVID-19)

Tisch School for the Arts. New York, NY(Canceled due to COVID-19)

 

2018            Insomniac

New York Live Arts Fresh Tracks Residency Showing. New York Live Arts. New York, NY

No Theme Performance Festival. Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center. Poughkeepsie, NY

Dixon Place. New York, NY

2019

Pioneers Go East Collective Crossroads Series at Judson Memorial Church. New York, NY

 

2017           This is Desire, Parts I, and II

Dance Now Festival 2017 at Joe’s Pub. New York, NY

2018

Brooklyn Studios For Dance. Brooklyn, NY

Dance Now Festival 2018 at Joe’s Pub. New York, NY

 

2017            Duet

Abrons Arts Center. New York, NY

 

2016            The Big Finish

Triskelion Arts. Brooklyn, NY

2017

Fresh Tracks Series. New York Live Arts. New York, NY 

La MaMa Experimental Theater. New York, NY

CRAWL Artist Series. Industry City Distillery. Brooklyn, NY

 

2015           Rope 

HERE. New York, NY

Gowanus Loft. Brooklyn, NY

2016

The Tank. New York, NY

The Wild Project Theater. New York, NY

 

2014             Mapping

Wild Project Theater. New York. NY

 

2013           Everything and 37 Gestures for Anna Pavlova

Skull Space. New Orleans, LA

440 Gallery. New York, NY

Triskelion Arts. Brooklyn, NY

2014

Dixon Place

 

CHOREOGRAPHIC COMMISSIONS AND SPECIAL PROJECTS

 

Theatrical Work

2025 The George Washington University/Corcoran School of the Arts and Design. Washington, DC

Ceremonials. Choreographer

2024 School For Contemporary Dance and Thought/Hatchery Performance Group. Northampton, MA

Exhausting Love. Choreographer

2021 Smiling Hogshead Ranch. Queens, NY

Cory and Smins Love Conquers the Earth. Choreographer (Director: Charles Quittner)

2015 University of Massachusetts. Amherst, MA

Duke Ellington's “Nutcracker.” Choreographer 

Fashion and Commercial Work

2024 Untitled (Sleaze). Photographer Ian Lewandowski. Movement Director and Performer

2018 The Water Dancer by Justin Von Oldershausen. Movement Director 

2018 Vogue Turkey. Movement Director for March 2018 Cover shoot (Photographer: Liz Collins)

2014, 2016 Elle Magazine. Movement Director for Editorial Spreads (Photographer: Liz Collins)

2015 Mirella. Movement Coach for Winter and Summer video campaigns (Director: Ryan McGinley)

2015 Dazed Magazine. Movement Coach for Lorde (Photographer: Ryan McGinley)

2015 Another Magazine. Movement Direction for Fall print issue and video feature (Director: Collier Schorr)

2015 Kate Spade. Choreographer for “Walking on Air” Perfume Campaign (Director: Ryan McGinley)

2015 Porter Magazine. Movement Coach for Cate Blanchett (Photographer: Ryan McGinley)

2014 Adidas. Choreographer for “Equality = Love” Campaign (Director: Ryan McGinley)

2014 Hermes. Choreographer for Haute Bijouterie Collection (Director: Roe Etheridge)

Curation

2020 19 Acts of COVID-19 Bravery Digital Performance Series

 

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

 

The George Washington University. Washington, DC

Intermediate Post-Modern Dance, Instructor, Undergraduate Level, Fall 2024

• Let the Introductory technique course for 1st year Dance Majors and Minors. 

• Integrated Improvisational score building as a regular class practice

• Advised 1st-year students on their progress and future study plans

Dance Composition, Undergraduate Level, Fall 2024

• Developed an Original Syllabus based on helping students hone in on individual processes and methodologies

• Assigned additional viewings each week to supplement and support the concepts covered in class

• Advised students on generating materials that support their creative work, including artist statements and CVs 

Writing in Discipline/Dance History, Undergraduate Level, Fall 2024

• Solely facilitated an upper-level undergraduate course in Dance history for 35 students with no Teaching Assistant.

• Expanded upon existing departmental Dance History curriculum to frame course through a more decolonial and inclusive lens

• Assigned an array of weekly readings and viewings to help students further understand the topics covered each week

• Met with students during regular office hours to help support their writing skills and advise them on their ongoing dance research. 

Queer Aesthetics in Dance and Performance, Upper-Level Undergraduate/Graduate, Spring 2025

• Developed an entirely new course at GWU centered on understanding and questioning queer identity in choreography and performance art

• Assigned weekly readings in queer theory and Dance and Performance studies in tandem with a vast catalog of Dance and Performance viewings.

• Co-Creating with students a digital zine centered on the intersection of Choreography and Queer Theory

Improvisation, Upper-Level Undergraduate, Spring 2025

• Developed a new syllabus for the GWU Dance Programs Improvisation course (a required class for Dance Majors) centered on creative impulse, rigor, and experimentation

• Assigned weekly readings and viewings that supported in-class exercises

• Met with students individually to help mentor their improvisational practice, both inside and out of the classroom

Advanced Modern Dance, Upper-Level Undergraduate, Spring 2025

• Led Advanced-Level Dance Technique course rooted in Postmodern dance practices, with influences of Jazz dance, Limon and Cunningham techniques, and various somatic practices.

• Met monthly with students to discuss their professional goals as dancers

 

University of California. Los Angeles, CA

Beginning Modern Dance, Instructor, Undergraduate Level, Winter 2023

• Developed an original syllabus and instructed classes based on Postmodern Dance methods.

• Assigned supplemental readings and viewings each week to help further understanding of and challenge the origins of Modern and Contemporary dance.

Global Perspectives on Dance, Teaching Assistant, Undergraduate Level, Fall 2022

• Assisted professor in grading introductory dance theory assignments including critical analysis papers, reflection essays, and weekly online forum submissions.

• Led weekly discussion section with students wherein assignments and lectures were discussed, workshopped, and critiqued.

• Prepared and delivered guest classes on various dance theory topics including choreographic score-building and queer aesthetics in contemporary dance.

• Met with students during weekly office hours to assist them with their learning, advise, and help them prepare for summer dance intensives and future opportunities.

Taking Action: Arts Practice and Community Service, Instructor, Undergraduate Level, Spring 2022 and 2023

• Formulated an original syllabus and instructed classes on arts intervention-based sex education.

• Directed, choreographed, and facilitated undergraduate students' creation of an original theater piece centered on consent, LGBTQIA issues, and STI treatment and stigma.

• Over 20 live forum theater-based performances were facilitated for LA County High School students throughout spring 2022.

• Met with students during weekly office hours to assist them as they developed original performance material.

• Collaborated with the UCLA Art and Global Health Center and Prison Education Program to develop an original sex education informational film for teenagers living in juvenile detention centers. 

Performing Sexual Health: UCLA Sex Squad, Teaching Assistant, Undergraduate Level, Winter 2022 and 2023

• Assisted professor in grading weekly assignments on a variety of issues surrounding safe sex and queer issues.

• Assisted students in devising and workshopping original theatrical material. 

• Prepared and delivered guest classes on consent, pronoun etiquette, and safe anal sex.

• Met with students during weekly office hours to assist them with coursework or to provide them with more challenging material for those with a higher understanding of creating original theater.

Skewl

Process class facilitator and creative consultant, May 2020- June 2024

 

Fort Pilates

Pilates Mat and Apparatus, Senior Instructor, September 2017 - August 2024

 

SoundMovement Pilates and Gyrotonic

Pilates Mat And Apparatus, Senior Instructor, November 2015 - September 2019

 

Brooklyn Studios for Dance

Contemporary Dance Forms and Methods, Instructor, Fall 2016 - Spring 2018

• Led weekly classes in Contemporary Dance, Improvisation, and Body Conditioning.

 

AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS

 

2025 Emergency Grant Recipient, Foundation for Contemporary Arts

2024 Monira Foundation Fellowship

2022 Clifton Webb Scholarship of the Arts Award

2022 Forti Foundation Endowed Scholarship Award for Excellence in Dance Improvisation

2022 Jean Irwin Dance Scholarship

2022 Elaine Krown Klein Fine Arts Scholarship

2021 UCLA Graduate Division Fellowship

2021 Chez Bushwick Artist in Residence

2020 Brooklyn Arts Fund Recipient, Brooklyn Arts Council.

2019  Emergency Grant Recipient, Foundation for Contemporary Arts.

2019 Fall Artist in Residence, The Floor on Atlantic.

2019 Silo Barn Artist in Residence, Dance Now Boston.

2018 Dance Now Challenge Winner and Grant Recipient

2017-2018 Fresh Tracks Fellow. New York Live Arts (Formerly Dance Theater workshop)

2017-2018 Artist in Residence, Brooklyn Studios for Dance

2016 Tank Fellow, The Tank NYC

2015 CUNY Dance Initiative Resident Artist, Baruch College Performing Arts Center

 

SELECTED PRESENTATIONS, LECTURES, AND MASTER CLASSES

 

June 2025 George Washington University, Washington, DC.

Dance Studies Association International Conference 

Presenting a lecture/performance on Queer Respectability Politics in Dance Academia as part of the DSA 2025 International conference.

 

January 2024 University of California, Los Angeles

Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance

Led a workshop for undergraduate students on devising an education intervention-based performance 

 

November 2023 University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Department of Music and Dance

Led Workshop on improvisation with senior Dance Majors 

 

May 2023 University of California, Los Angeles

Department of LGBTQ Studies

Heartbreak Feels Good in a Place Like This:  Analyzing Power Dynamics in Queer Social Spaces

Presentation and panel discussion as part of the 2023 Queer Graduate Conference

 

April 2023 University of California, Los Angeles

Department of Design Media Arts

Led Workshop on body language, posture, and creating an effective and dynamic job talk for MFA candidates in the Design Media Arts Department

 

April 2023 New York Film Academy 

Series of Workshops with Students, Faculty, and Staff on creating dynamic sexual health education for undergraduate students. 

 

January-February 2023 Los Angeles Unified School District and UCLA Center for Art and Global Health

Project U

Co-created and led a series of workshops for LA County high school students on devising performance works that address issues of sexual health, identity, and consent.

 

May 2022  University of California, Los Angeles

Department of World Arts and Cultures

 “Demon Twinks, Gay Ghosts and Growing Libidos: Tracking Queer Temporality in Contemporary Dance and Performance.”

Lecture/performance as part of the  “Chew On This” Graduate Research Series

 

April 2022 University of California, Los Angeles

Department of LGBTQ Studies

“Queer Time through Choreography and Sound Design” Invited talk delivered to undergraduate and graduate Queer Sonics and Soundscapes Seminar.

 

March 2022 University of California, Los Angeles

Prison Education Program

Led Movement, and Improvisation Workshop as part of the UCLA PEP Prison Educators Orientation.

 

Summer-Fall 2021 Dancing Queerly Festival/Free Skewl

“Scoring Anxiety.” Invited virtual master classes in collaboration with the Dancing Queerly Festival in Boston, MA.

 

April 2021 Columbia University 

Department of Music 

“Music and Dance Collaboration” Invited talk delivered to undergraduate and graduate music composition seminars.

 

October-November 2023 Skewl

“Reading the Room: Scoring Power Dynamics” Workshop on Choreographic Score building

 

November 2020 University of Massachusetts

Department of Music and Dance

“Dancing Beyond College” Invited virtual guest lecture delivered to senior dance majors.

 

April 2020 Ball State University

Department of Dance

“Freelancing as a Choreographer” Invited virtual talk delivered to undergraduates. 

 

January 2020 Muhlenberg College. Allentown, PA

Department of Theater and Dance

Contemporary Dance Master class for undergraduates.

 

January 2020 DeSales University. Center Valley, PA

Department of Dance

Contemporary Dance Master class for undergraduates. 

 

April 2017 University of Massachusetts. Amherst, MA

Department of Music and Dance

Improvisation Workshop for undergraduate dance majors.

 

SELECTED REVIEWS AND MEDIA

 

Theo Armstrong. “Ghost Porn, By Brendan Drake.” Brooklyn Rail. March 2025

Miya Shaffer. “Ghost Porn, By Brendan Drake.” Culturebot. February 13th, 2025

Londs Rueter. “Working Through a Problem That I Make: A Conversation Between Nic Chilvers and Brendan Drake.” Movement Research/Critical Correspondence. October 11th, 2023

Ryan Andrews. Why Are You Like This? “ ‘The Queer with the Dangly Earring’ with Brendan Drake.” Released July 2021. Podcast.

Courtney Escoyne. “6 of Our Favorite Digital Dance Projects to Come Out of Quarantine.” Dance Magazine. August 6th, 2020

Trina Manino. “An Invitation into the Process of Making Dance: Draftwork at Danspace featuring Brendan Drake and Marion Spencer.” Dance Enthusiast. April 11th, 2019

Trina Mannino. Impressions: Brendan Drake’s ‘This is Desire’ at Brooklyn Studios for Dance.” Dance Enthusiast. March 24th, 2018

Kate Ladenheim. “Perceptions: Brendan Drake’s ‘ROPE’.” Conectom by Leimay. September 29th, 2015

 

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE AND AFFILIATIONS

 

2024 Dance Studies Association

Member

 

2024 George Washington University Corcoran School of Arts and Design

Student Choreography Concert Adjudicator/Advisor

Advisor for Callie Cahampoux’s Fashion and Form Senior Thesis Project, Corcoran School of the Arts and Design NEXT Festival

Advisor for Haley Ferguson’s The Need to Feel Desired: Reclaiming Erotic Dance Senior Thesis Project

Advisor for Sadie Tuckers Navigating the Stage of Exhaustion: Navigating Burnout in Professional and College Dancers and its Impact on Performance and Well-Being Senior Thesis Project

 

2023-2024 Skewl

Artistic Advisor

 

2021-2023 UCLA Graduate Student Organization

Graduate Student Officer

 

2020-2023 UCLA Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance 

Graduate Liason for ladder faculty meetings

Department Union Steward

Graduate Representative for new faculty hiring

 

2019-2021 DanceNow NYC 

Artist Advisory Board Member

 

2017-2019 Brooklyn Studios for Dance

Board Member

 

2016-2017 Dance NYC

Junior Committee member