Joanna Haigood

Artist Committee Member

Joanna (she/her) is a distinguished choreographer and site-responsive artist who, since 1979, has created work that uses natural, architectural, and cultural environments as catalysts for movement, narrative, and community engagement. Her stages have ranged from grain terminals and clock towers to the pope’s palace, military forts, and a mile of South Bronx streets, and her work has been commissioned by institutions including Dancing in the Streets, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Walker Arts Center, SF Exploratorium Museum, National Black Arts Festival, and Festival d’Avignon. Haigood’s many honors include the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Cal/Alpert Award in Dance, a USA Fellowship, a New York Bessie Award, the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, the San Francisco Arts Commission’s Artistic Legacy Award, the California Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship, and most recently, the Dance Magazine Lifetime Achievement Award. A committed mentor and educator, she has guided emerging artists internationally at the National École des Arts du Cirque in France, Trinity Laban Conservatoire in England, Spelman College, Stanford University’s Institute for Diversity in the Arts, San Francisco Circus Center, and at Zaccho Studio, where she continues to inspire new generations of creators.