danah bella is the founding chair of the Dance Department at the Peabody Conservatory. Since its launch in 2018, bella has led the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance program with an intentional focus on interdisciplinary studies, social justice, and a wide variety of movement, performance, and choreography opportunities for every student. She has worked in higher education since 2002, teaching modern technique, dance theory, and history.

In addition to her role at the Peabody Conservatory, bella has served as an artist-in-residence and taught workshops at festivals and universities throughout the United States and abroad, including Pro Danza Italia, Bates Dance Festival, Monterey Dance Fest, the American College Dance Association’s Regional and National Conferences, Western Michigan University, University of Virginia, Oklahoma Contemporary Dance Festival, Santa Barbara City College, and Goose Route Dance Festival.

An award-winning choreographer, she is the artistic director of d a n a h b e l l a DanceWorks, a modern dance company focused on reclaiming evocative movement as social practice, and a founding member of Colectivo Caliban, an artist collective that transgresses disciplinary borders through sound and movement. bella has performed and presented her work throughout the country including the Cool New York Festival in New York, the United States Asian American Festival in San Francisco, the Bates Dance Festival in Maine, the American College Dance Association’s National Dance Festival at the Kennedy Center, ReVIEWING Black Mountain College international conference in Asheville, N.C., as well as in Mexico and Italy.

bella is also a dance film artist whose work has been screened at the Utah Dance Film Festival, Women in Leadership Dance Conference, Dance Camera North, and International Fine Arts Film Festival.

bella has received many accolades for her arts and education work, including most recently the Baltimore Sun‘s 25 Women to Watch (2018), Maryland State Dance Educator of the Year Postsecondary Education (2021), and Musical America‘s Top 30 Professionals of the Year (2022). She holds an MFA in performance from The Ohio State University and a BA in Dance from the University of California in Santa Barbara.