Shannon Murphy

Bio: Shannon Murphy (she/her) is a dance artist/educator. She received her MFA in Dance from the University of the Arts and a BA in dance from Point Park University. She is faculty specializing in Franklin Method for dance at Franklin Method Institute, Switzerland, training educators internationally since 2019. As an educator, she is committed to radical sustainability and develops curricula to reduce injury and support the resiliency of performers. Shannon is an Assistant Professor at Temple University (Theater). As an adjunct professor, she has taught at Drexel University, was assistant director of the Drexel Dance Ensemble, Stockton University, and UArts, where she was the Curricular Head of Body Pathways for 10 years. Her work has recently been presented at the Cannonball Festival, Penn Museum, The Painted Bride Art Center, and asynchronous performance in the form of zines. Her choreographies span contemporary performance, musical theater,  and emergent improvisational scores. Shannon has performed for choreographers such as Charles Anderson, Nichole Canuso, Group Motion, Jaamil Kosoko, and Annie Wilson, and was co-director of idiosynCrazy productions alongside founder Jumatatu Poe. She has been awarded a Rocky Award through Dance USA Philadelphia for her choreography. Shannon has been supported by numerous residencies, including New Edge at the Community Education Center, Live Arts LAB, Mascher Space Co-Op, the Whole Shebang, Subcircle, Archedream for Humankind, and most recently, the University of the Arts.

What is the Franklin Method?
Franklin Method uses functional anatomy, imagery, and movement investigations to increase awareness of how our body feels, and moves.The practice allows participants to explore how their imagery and thoughts impact how they feel when they move. Often by aligning our image of ourselves with the design of a joint, we feel more balance, an increase in range of motion, and better organization. An FM dance class tends to include guided imagery, focuses on breath and tension release, and fine-tuning of how we perform dance vocabulary by learning the anatomy and practicing dance-specific conditioning. Think... work smarter, not harder!