Faculty Research Connections Profile
E.E. Balcos is an Associate Professor of Dance in the Department of Dance. He teaches Modern Technique, Improvisation, Anatomy for Dancers, and choreographs for Performance Practicum. He holds a BA in Music from The Colorado College and an MFA in Choreography from The University of Iowa. He is a Registered Somatic Dance Educator.
Balcos has been a professional dancer and choreographer for over 30 years. At the age of 18, he began studying with modern dance pioneer Hanya Holm at the Colorado College in Colorado Springs. As a performer, Balcos toured nationally and internationally with Shapiro & Smith Dance (NYC), Demetrius Klein Dance Company (FL), Zenon Dance Company (MPLS), and worked with renowned choreographers including Danny Buraczeski, Ping Chong, Sam Costa, Sean Curran, David Dorfman, Joe Goode, Daniel Gwirtzman, Dwight Rhoden, David Rousseve, Stephanie Skura, Jan Van Dyke, and Bill Young. He performed and presented work throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Italy, Uzbekistan, and the Philippines. He is currently a member of the dance company Movement Migration performing and touring nationally and internationally.
For the stage, he has choreographed over 50 professional works and 35 works for dance students. From 2006-2013, his dance company, E.E.MOTION, was featured with North Carolina Dance Festival, Charlotte Dance Festival, ADF’s Acts to Follow Series, Piccolo Spoleto’s Dance at Noon Series in Charleston, SC, and the Minnesota Fringe Festival in Minneapolis. His choreographic works have been presented in such well-known venues as Walker Art Center and Intermedia Arts in Minneapolis, Joyce/Soho and St. Mark’s Church in New York City, Folly Theatre in Kansas City, Lawrence Art Center, and at numerous dance festivals, and universities nationally. Balcos’s collaborative work with composer John Allemeier, Deep Water: The Murder Ballads, an evening-length dance-theatre piece, was premiered at the Knight Theater in Charlotte in 2013.
Research
Balcos’s research interests include somatic movement practice and its application in dance technique and performance, interdisciplinary collaboration, improvisation, contact improvisation and choreography. Recent dissemination of his research has brought him to many national and international conferences including: performing an interdisciplinary work, Signs Following, with Erik Watterkotte, at the Dance and Somatics Conference in Geneva, NY; presenting a paper, Teaching Somatic-based Pedagogies in the Academy, at the 5th International Dance and Somatic Practices Conference in Coventry, UK; leading a movement workshop, Eco-equitability through Somatic Practice and Contact Improvisation, and participating in a panel, Somatic Activism and Critical Somatics, at the Body IQ Festival in Berlin, Germany; and presenting a movement workshop, Authenticity through the “Triple Rs” and Contact Improvisation and performing a solo, Just Tripping at the 2019 Annual Body-Mind Centering Conference in Santa Barbara, California. Balcos received a 2020 Faculty Research Grant to conduct somatic research in choreography and performance with Bill Evans in Port Townsend, Washington. This research involves creating a solo dance, embodied investigation, choreography and performance. It focuses on the beneficial effects that somatics has on the aging dancer and the relevance of incorporating somatic methodologies into the creative process and practice. Balcos also continues research investigating Body-Mind Centering at Espirit en Mouvement in Montreal, Canada.