Valerie J Ifill

Assistant Professor

Dance

Dance Education

About

Valerie Ifill is an active dance artist, educator and researcher interested in the intersection of dance and community, making dance education more accessible to communities of color and embodied storytelling. Valerie is a collaborative dance artist and Assistant Professor of Dance at Drexel University.

Valerie is invested in university-community dance education initiatives and using Africanist perspectives to support university dance curriculum. Her written research is centered on university-community partnerships; race and power in education; and making dance accessible to all. Invested in making dance more accessible to communities of color, Valerie has founded and directed university-community dance programs at Drexel University through Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships in Philadelphia, PA, and at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, NC. Certified to teach Inside-Out Prison Exchange courses, Valerie also teaches classes for groups of university students and incarcerated citizens. Black Girls STEAMing through Dance is a collaborative project making Dance, Code, and Making with electronic textiles accessible to 7-12-year-old Black girls. This research has been presented nationally and internationally, as well as being highlighted in TED-X Philadelphia (2019) as innovative work making STEAM accessible to people of color.

Through her creative work, Valerie strives to tell non-linear stories supported by values of community building while creating spaces for marginalized people. This process-based creative work is expressed through leading process-based self-reflective movement workshops on identity; bringing interactive dance experiences into elementary and middle schools in urban communities; creating work for the concert stage; and creating interdisciplinary site-specific performances for non-traditional dance audiences. Collaborative interests have led to multiple projects including founding IfillDance Co./LAB and co-founding TRANSForm Dance Collective, a cross-country collective focused on contemporary discourses on and through the art of dance. Valerie’s research has been presented at the South Carolina Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance conference, the American College Dance Association festivals, International Conference on Urban Education, National Arts Education Association conferences, Blumenthal Performing Arts Educational Lunch & Learn series, the Journal of Dance Education, and National Dance Education Organization conferences. Valerie earned her Master of Fine Arts degree in Dance from the University of Oregon, completed the Independent Study Program at The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and earned her Bachelor of Business Administration degree with a Dance minor from Kent State University.