First Name
Hannah

Last Name
Seidel

Title
Associate Professor of Dance

Email
[email protected]

Office Phone
616-331-3487

Office Location
1605 HCPA

Biography
Hannah Seidel, Associate Professor of Dance at Grand Valley State University (GVSU), grew up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. She is a mover, educator, and maker whose research exists at the intersection of play, improvisation, and the therapeutic aspects of movement. Prior to returning to Michigan, her professional dance career in New York City specialized in contemporary modern and contact improvisation practices. Performance credits include David Appel, Erica Essner Performance Co-op, Mariah Maloney, Tiffany Mills, and Gibney Dance with whom she also offered movement workshops to survivors of domestic violence and their families for six years. In New York, Hannah’s choreography has been presented in venues including two commissioned Society for New Music concerts, SUNY Brockport, Dixon Place, Dance Days of Buffalo, and Chris Ferris & Dancers concerts at Green Space and City Center Studios. Regionally her work has been seen at Meijer Gardens, RAD Fest, Going Dutch, Grand Rapids Ballet Summer Festivals, St. Cecelia Music Center, the Marlene Boll Theatre, the Block Theatre, Wayland Union High School, and ArtPrize opening ceremonies. Hannah particularly enjoys the shared process and perspectives of collaboration. Utopia, presented at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, brought together Professor Bill Ryan’s New Music Ensemble and members of the GVSU Dance Company to perform music and choreography inspired and surrounded by the work of sculptor Jaime Plena. Submerge, a piece on water awareness with a Great-Lakes focus, was created along with GVSU Music, Theatre, and Annis Water Resources Institute faculty colleagues; select musicians from the Detroit Symphony Orchestra; professional composers; and a combination of New York-based dance artists and GVSU dance students. The final evening-length interdisciplinary work was presented in Muskegon and Grand Rapids, with excerpts shown for the Society for Freshwater Science and Dance Studies Association national conferences. Hannah graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy, received her BA from Pomona College and MFA from SUNY Brockport, and completed the 92NY’s three-year Alternate Route Dance/Movement Therapy training program. She has previously served as Lecturer at Purchase College and summer intensive teacher at New York University’s Tisch School for the Arts and Interlochen Center for the Arts. Her work is published in Research in Dance Education and Journal of Dance Education. She has been honored to receive two National Dance Education Organization President’s Awards and GVSU’s Pew Teaching Excellence Award. Hannah served on the Advisory Council of the National Dance Education Organization for three years and has been on the Board of Directors for the Michigan Dance Council for several years, including a term as Chair beginning in 2026.