TAJA WILL
Photo: Robbie Sweeny
Minneapolis, MN
Ideas in Motion: 21st Century Dance Practices
Taja Will is a queer, Chilean adoptee, performer, choreographer, therapist and restorative justice facilitator. Their approach integrates improvisation, somatic modalities, text and vocals in contemporary performance. Taja's aesthetic is one of spontaneity, bold choice making, sonic and kinetic partnership and the ability to move in relationship to risk and intimacy. They explore visceral connections to current socio-cultural realities through feminine archetypes and everyday magic.
In addition to their own work Taja has collaborated and danced with Sara Shelton Mann, Rosy Simas, Aniccha Arts (Pramila Vasudevan), Deborah Jinza Thayer, Blake Nellis, Tim Rehborg, Off Leash Area, Vanessa Voskuil, Body Cartography Project and Miguel Gutierrez among others. They maintain a private healing practice blending modalities of healing justice work with developmental psychotherapy and somatic bodywork. An an educator Taja has been a guest teacher and adjunct faculty at several institutions locally and throughout the United States. They have presented workshops at Hamline University, Luther College, Knox College, Earthdance Creative Living, Moving Arts Lab, Sierra Contact Festival, wcciJam, Dance New England, Zenon Dance School, the Peaceable Barn, and the Lion's Jaw Festival among others. They also work in healing justice and as an advocate for artists especially serving as a liaison for artists in experimental forms, people of color and the LGBTQ communities.
Taja worked with NCCAkron in the spring of 2020 to teach as part of a survey series called 21st Century Dance Practices — the first of three programs in Ideas in Motion, a new joint initiative between NCCAkron, The University of Akron School of Dance, Theatre, and Arts Administration (DTAA), and the Mary Schiller Myers Lecture Series in the Arts. They were also interviewed by NCCAkron Executive/Artistic Director Christy Bolingbroke for the Inside the Dancer's Studio conversation series.