“Terre is one of the most creative people I've ever met, as a dancer, as a choreographer & as a multi-disciplinary performer she is a delight to work with. She continually blasted open my boxes & showed me the ways I was stuck, and similarly she never inhabits her own boxes for long.” - Peter Jaques, Composer and Musician, Brass Menagerie
Terre Parker is an experimental dance artist whose stage performance draws on the rich history of strong women in her family- storytellers, writers, reproductive activists, bakers and farmers. When Terre was one year old, her mother placed her in the grass and Terre began to dance. Since then, Terre has felt a deep connection with the earth. Her workshops and performance in natural environments seek to awaken a similar appreciation in others, and inspire action for environmental sustainability. Terre is committed to experimentation, to creating structures for art that are useful and accessible, and to enjoying the dance in everyday life.
Since 1997, Terre has taught at pre-schools, middle schools, high schools, colleges, homeless shelters, holistic conference centers, private dance studios, and dance festivals in the United States, Java, and Romania. Terre’s classes and workshops teach participants to understand the structure and abilities of their own bodies and celebrate their unique creativity.
In January 2008, Terre founded Open Experiments Ensemble with artists from different performance disciplines who are committed to experimentation and new performance. Open Experiments ensemble will perform its inaugural work this year. Terre’s first full-length performance work, Spit/Kiss was created/ performed with Corrie Baumgardner and Mica Phelan in the Jon Sims Center for the Arts AIRSpace program. Later recycled for a five woman cast and solo directed, Spit/Kiss: Cassandra’s Story was performed at Project Artaud Theatre in July/August 2005.
Since 2003, Terre has studied and performed with the internationally renowned pioneer of postmodern dance, Anna Halprin. As a member of Halprin’s Sea Ranch Collective, Terre performed En Route and Parades and Changes (San Francisco JCC, 2006; assistant performer in Festival D’Automne á Paris, 2004) and currently teaches Halprin's Movement Ritual and Dance Explorations. Terre collaborated with Anna Halprin and Ben Jarrett to create Broken Lily and Paolo y Francesca in 2007 for Halprin’s Awaken (Mountain Home Studio Theatre & Yerba Buena Center for the Arts).
Terre also studied and performed with the Urban Bush Women in Is this democracy?, Place Matters, and Walking with Pearl. Terre has a B.A. degree from Mount Holyoke College in Dance, Spirituality and Community and is the recipient of the Betty Grenier Award for Dance Research. Terre received grant support from the Lyman Fund and completed a dance residency at the Workspace for Choreographers, VA.
Terre’s solo works since 2003 (Gramie’s Hands, The Habit Experiment, Persephone, and In Your Absence) have been performed at the Virginia Beach Friends Meeting House in VA, Chabot Co-op in Oakland, Works in the Works in Berkeley, and ODC’s Pilot in San Francisco. Collaborations include: The Very Important Hard to Clean Up Dance with Marielle Amrhein, Sense of Place Dance Festival, WY; Sita in the Fire, part of the One People Voice Company’s Situbanda performed in Bali, Java and San Francisco; Straits Rd. Stories, a candid look at best-friendship from age 8-28 with Alyssa DeCaro; and Dance with Michael, with Michael James Pouncer, feline.
Site-specific works include Milkweed (Earthlands Retreat Center, MA), Dance for Spring (a collaboration with 6-9 year old girls and college students culminating in a participatory performance for 100 audience members), and Vigil (with Karl Gillick and Lesley Ehrenfeld in Stinson Beach’s old growth oak grove).
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