Co-Artistic Directors Julia Wilkinson Manley and Chris Harris have extensive experience directing both adult productions and student performance companies.
Choreographer, visual artist, dancer, pedagogue, and movement and body nerd. Fascinated with how we understand art, dance, motion, and the psychology of performance and training. Focuses on self-knowledge, questioning, and exploration as a central tenet of learning.
Chris Harris
Co-Artistic Director
Chris Harris has been choreographing and dancing in Denver for over three decades. She is a choreographer, artistic director, visual artist, dancer, pedagogue, and teacher with interests in math, science, data visualization, and has a fascination with how we understand art, dance, motion, and the psychology of performance. Chris holds a BFA in Dance and Choreography from the University of Colorado, Boulder and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College.
Continually returning to Colorado during her training, she has been part of the Colorado dance scene for over 30 years. While working at various dance studios she was on faculty, program advisor for Modern, Jazz, Contemporary and Composition programs, and project manager/director for many teen and adult performances. She has loved the role of festival creative director, choreographed for local theaters and dance companies, been a guest lecturer at The Arts Institute of Colorado and CSU, and been adjunct faculty at and choreographed for the University of Denver and the University of Colorado.
Previously she was artist in residence for the Denver School of the Arts for 17 years, Co-Director of the Boulder Jazz Dance Workshop, and Assistant Artistic Director of Interweave Dance Theatre. In 2005, she founded and became Artistic Director/Choreographer for Louder Than Words Dancetheater & the Colorado Youth Dance Theater. Both projects performed until 2018 in Denver. After completing graduate school in 2019, Chris has been privileged to share her multi-disciplinary artworks and lectures with so many amazing students on the Front Range.
Colorado Movement Lab brings Chris’ love for dance, Colorado, and exploration full circle. She plans to continually ask all the complicated and wonderful questions about creativity, health, grounding in self, and performativity that have guided her love of dance as an art form for all of her life.
Julia Wilkinson Manley
Co-Artistic Director
Julia earned her BFA in ballet pedagogy from the University of Oklahoma, where she trained under the directorship of Mary Margaret Holt. In 2009, she served on the committee to rewrite the Colorado Academic Standards for Dance for the Colorado Department of Education and completed the Community Arts Education Leadership Institute (CAELI) under the mentorship of John McCann in 2015. Julia was honored in 2023 as a Legend of Dance by the Dance Archive at the University of Denver.
After her career as a professional dancer with Ballet Ireland, David Taylor Dance Theater, and Ballet Nouveau Colorado, Julia Wilkinson Manley became the School Director for Broomfield-based Ballet Nouveau Colorado from 2003-2013. In 2013 she founded a new non-profit organization, Colorado Conservatory of Dance (CCD), becoming CEO and Artistic Director. As a leader of CCD for 10 years, she developed community education programming for over 60,000 individuals, a nationally-respected syllabus for dance training, and produced and choreographed over 25 ballets.
Many of Julia’s students have gone on to enjoy professional careers with dance companies such as Atlanta Ballet, Ballett Zürich, Colorado Ballet, Eugene Ballet, Houston Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Oklahoma City Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theater, Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Wonderbound, and Verb Ballets. Similarly, many of her students have developed illustrious careers as brain surgeons, architects, scientists, teachers, engineers, visual artists, writers, physical therapists, and more – all with the love for dance bolstering their success. Julia is committed to using her experiences with injury and body dysmorphia to positively impact the way dance can and should be taught. Julia is passionate about providing an environment for learning where dancers can feel vulnerable and authentic. Colorado Movement Lab is a place where dance technique is taught kinesthetically and without judgment, and the community is emboldened with curiosity, artistic sensibility, and tolerance.
Ballet pedagogue, history nerd, and healthy body image advocate. Passionate about anatomy, kinesiology, and injury risk management. Adamant that dance can be taught in a body-safe, healthy environment where vulnerability and authenticity are core values.
NPDT Board Members
Alexis Ball
Chair
Morgan Sicklick
Secretary
Debbie Kunz
Treasurer