Choreographer Joanna Haigood co-founded Zaccho Dance Theatre in 1980. Her creative work uses natural, architectural, and cultural environments as points of departure for movement exploration and narrative. Joanna’s works involve in-depth research into the history and the character of sites and typically integrates aerial flight and suspension to expand the dancers’ spatial and dynamic range. Her stages have included grain terminals, a clock tower, the pope’s palace, military forts, and a mile of urban streets in the South Bronx. She has been commissioned by the San Francisco Exploratorium Museum, Dancing in the Streets, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Walker Arts Center, National Black Arts Festival, and Festival d’Avignon. She has been honored with the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Cal/Alpert Award in Dance, the US Artist Fellowship, a New York Bessie Award, and the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award.

Zaccho Dance Theatre