Taye Diggs and MaryLee Miller

Taye Diggs’s bio is coming soon.

MaryLee Miller has been teaching and choreographing modern dance for twenty-three years in the U.S. and abroad. She has been on the dance faculty at Rochester’s School of the Arts and The Garth Fagan Dance School for twenty-one years and has been an adjunct professor of dance at S.U.N.Y. College at Brockport. She holds a B.A. and an M.A. in dance from the State University of New York. Outside of her usual work schedule, she guest teaches at colleges, universities, studios and community programs in the U.S and England. She sits on the board of directors for dre.dance, a New York based contemporary dance company directed by Taye Diggs and Andrew Palermo (both School of the Arts alumni).

As a teacher MaryLee believes in the power of the arts. She believes that the habits of mind learned in the arts develop self-aware, creative, productive, globally thinking individuals who can work with diverse groups of people, problem solve creatively and conduct themselves with discipline and poise, even under stressful conditions.  She prefers working in an urban environment because of her strong connection to diverse populations. She feels she has something to offer urban children who often struggle under extreme social and economic conditions. Though she is certified in both Social Studies and Dance, she prefers helping students make sense of their world through the arts.

Ms. Miller believes in rigorous and disciplined training to produce maximum versatility. She believes that dancers need strong technical training, balanced with experience in a broad range of styles and the development of an individual artistic voice through the choreographic process. Her athletic style is based in Fagan technique and is infused with elements of ballet, Dunham, Horton, capoeira, and jazz. Many of Ms. Miller’s students go on to attend rigorous college dance programs, perform with professional companies, work on Broadway and in major motion pictures and television. Many others have gone on to form their own dance companies and choreograph and perform both nationally and internationally. 

Artistically, MaryLee focuses on addressing life through the ritual of experience.  Playing out the complexities of life through choreographic structures, allows her to face challenges and work out solutions in a place where words are insufficient.  Currently, she is most interested in working in multi -media format, incorporating motion-capture and moving image into her work with sound scores both live and recorded. In 2005 she received a SURNDA Foundation Arts Teachers Fellowship to create new work. 

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