Artists' Biographies

John Allen is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at Tulane University . He directs John/Allen Project which just returned from performances at international festivals in South Africa , Zimbabwe and a show in Salt Lake City , Utah . One of his latest works, Link/Unlink was selected from 23 dance companies in the southwest region of the USA to go to the national performance of Regional Dance America . While there, it was selected for the gala performance from among the top selected companies of every region (92 companies, 2,000 dancers total) in the nation.

John also choreographs for and performs with New Orleans-based, Tsunami Dance Company which was recently invited to perform in Brooklyn , New York at the Wave Rising Series and which was awarded the Big Easy Classical Award for Best Modern Dance Production in 2006. Most recently, he and Anna Morris were awarded the 2007 Big Easy Classical Arts Award for Best New Choreography for a work they co-created.

John has performed with the Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, Stephen Koester and Dancers and danced in original works by Doug Varone, Sean Curran and Daniel Ezralow. He has done teaching and choreographic residencies with such international companies as First Physical Theatre ( Grahamstown , South Africa ), Kannon Dance ( St. Petersburg , Russia ), and Ekaterinburg Contemporary Arts Centre ( Ekaterinburg , Russia ).

At the local level, in addition to creating work for Tsunami, John has been commissioned to set works on such Louisiana companies as Of Moving Colors and Baton Rouge Ballet. John is also active in teaching having recently taught residencies at Rhodes University (South Africa), the Open Look Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia, the University of Utah, Utah Valley State College, and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette as well as master classes at the American College Dance Festival, Louisiana Dance Festival and the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA).