Ben Munisteri
Ben Munisteri was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, and his company of dancers has enjoyed New York City seasons at the Joyce Theater, Central Park SummerStage, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Celebrate Brooklyn, the Museum of Arts and Design, the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Fisher Space, and other stages. Supported by several creation grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, he and his group have toured to Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, MASS MoCA, the Florida Dance Festival, UC Santa Cruz, the International Tanzmesse (Germany), and a few dozen other venues. Ben has won grant awards from the Jerome Foundation, the National Dance Project, the New York Foundation for the Arts, Harkness Foundation for Dance, the Charles and Joan Gross Family Foundation, the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, and other dance funders, presenters, and commissioners. He has been hosted in extended residencies at many schools, including Indiana University, Wayne State University, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, and Bates College.
Prior to arriving at Alma College, Ben was the choreographer-in-residence for the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s “choreographers on campus” initiative at Lafayette College, PA, where he fostered interdisciplinary collaborations, identified dance artists for short- and long-term residencies, and piloted teaching-and-learning partnerships. He’s also taught at Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts, Adelphi University, and the University of South Florida.
He is interested in choreographic compositional theory; 20th-century dance history; and the application of dance to interdisciplinary research.
Title
Discipline
Educational Background
- B.A., English, Dance minor, Oberlin College
- M.A., Dance Education, New York University
- M.F.A., Dance, Interdisciplinary Arts, Goddard College
Rank
Associate Professor and Director of Dance
Chair, Department of Theatre & Dance
My career at Alma began in
I'm an expert in
Recent publications:
Bowyer, James, and Munisteri, Ben. (2019). “Move Me a Story: Augmenting Story Genres With Creative Movement,” in Kerry-Moran and Aerial (eds.) The Strength of Story in Early Childhood Development—Diverse Contexts Across Domains. Berlin, Germany: Springer.
Munisteri, Ben. (2017). “Twenty-five Years After College,” in Stenn, Rebecca and Kirmser, Fran (eds.), A Life in Dance: A Practical Guide. North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace Independent Publishing.
Recent presentations:
Andre, Phillip and Munisteri, Ben. (2017). “Transcendence: Moving Toward New Masculinities.” National Dance Education Organization, Bridging the Gap: The First Men in Dance National Symposium, West Virginia University, June 29-July 1.
Munisteri, Ben. (2017). Rich and Strange. American College Dance Association, Mid-Atlantic North Region Conference, adjudicated concert. Dickinson College department of dance (performers). University of Maryland, College Park, MD. March 8-11.
Munisteri, Ben. (2017). Petrichor (excerpts). American College Dance Association, East Central Region Conference, informal concert. Alma College Dance Program (performers). Kent State university, Kent, OH. March 25-28.
Munisteri, Ben (2017). Speedy Composition Workshop. American College Dance Association, East Central Region Conference. Kent State university, Kent, OH. March 27.
Creative work:
2019, Elemental Complexity at the 92nd Street Y, NYC. Oct. 18, 19, 20.
2017, new and in-progress work at the Actors Fund Arts Center, Brooklyn, NY. August 11-12.
2017, premiere of Tin (50), West End Theater, New York City. May 18-21.
2016, choreographer in residence, Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA, Sept. 16-25
2016, choreographer, workshop of MEGA!, Indiana University South Bend. August 1-13.
2016, evening-length performances of Antimony and Petrichor at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Fisher Space. April 22-24.
Recent grants:
2016, Heyday Foundation
2015, Lafayette College choreographers on campus commission, with funds from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation