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Dawn Springer’s choreography is hailed as “mesmerizing” (Spin Magazine), “surging and lush” (Philadelphia Inquirer), “subtle yet striking” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel), and as “beautiful composition” (Milwaukee Magazine).

She studied on scholarship at the North Carolina School of the Arts, where she trained under Melissa Hayden, Duncan Noble, Warren Conover, and Christine Spizzo in ballet. She also trained in Cunningham, Limón, Taylor and Graham techniques with Brenda Daniels, Steve Rooks, Jeff Slayton, Karla Wolfangle, Mary Cochran and Roxanne d’Orleans Juste. She was a member of the first graduating class for the MFA in Dance at Hollins University, where she expanded and deepened her choreography under the close mentorship of Donna Faye Burchfield. There, she also had the privilege to study with Thomas Defrantz, and to train with Douglas Becker of The Frankfurt Ballet. During her professional career in New York City she studied consistently in ballet with Marjorie Mussman at the Mark Morris School.

She was fortunate to perform in work by a number of choreographers including Helen Simoneau Danse, Camille A. Brown, Sara Hook, and Sarah Skaggs, among others. Her professional performance career has taken her to many theaters and international festivals including Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, The Venice Biennale Danza, The American Dance Festival, The Baryshnikov Arts Center, New York Live Arts, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, The United States Botanic Garden, The Banff Center, Mt Tremper Arts Festival, Washington D.C.’s Dance Place, New York City’s Danspace Project, Dixon Place, the New York Historical Society, The Chocolate Factory, The 92nd St Y, and Movement Research at the Judson Church.

Since relocating to Milwaukee, she has worked in close collaboration with Wisconsin-based composer and percussionist Jon Mueller (recently named one of Rolling Stone Magazine’s top 20 avant artists of the year). Together, their projects have been produced by multi Grammy Award winning artists Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) and Aaron Dessner (The National) for the Eaux Claires Music and Arts Festival. She choreographed for the band The Collection of Colonies of Bees’ sold out performances at the BMO Harris Bradley Center in Milwaukee and with Grammy nominee Sylvan Esso at the Riviera Theater in Chicago. She was an invited artist in residence for two years with Milwaukee’s Alverno Presents series. She has received multiple commissions for choreography with Danceworks Performance Company, and has produced her own work throughout the city.

She toured the country for several years with the American Dance Festival as an adjudicator for the Young Artist Tuition Scholarship auditions. She was Artist in Residence in Dance for two years at the University of Maryland. She has choreographed, taught and lectured in universities across the country including The Ailey School, The University of the Arts, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Dickinson College, Beloit College, Cardinal Stritch University, The American College Dance Festival Association, and at The Congress on Research and Dance and The Society of Dance History Scholars. Her writing is published in the Perspectives on American Dance Anthology by the University Press of Florida. She is currently on faculty in Dance at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee in the Peck School of the Arts where she teaches courses in both the undergraduate and graduate programs. She is also on faculty at The Milwaukee Ballet, where she works with dancers in MBII and in the Pre Professional Program.