Rachel Grisi Dugan received her training from Carol Wagner, Princeton Ballet School, Joffrey Ballet School, Steps on Broadway, The Ailey School, and The Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance. Ms. Dugan was selected to be a member of The Martha Graham Dance Ensemble where she toured the country dancing Ms. Graham’s most iconic works including “The Woman in White” from Diversion of Angels. Within the Graham vernacular she also danced for Pearl Lang, DanceFusion in Philadelphia, and choreographer Whitney Hunter.
Ms. Dugan has danced many classical ballet works including “Princess Aurora” at Princeton Ballet School, “Carlotta Grisi” in Pas de Quatre for Dayton Ballet II, and “Snow Queen” in The Nutcracker and “Lucy” in Dracula for Roxey Ballet.
Ms. Dugan was a founding member/rehearsal assistant for The Mantis Project, a NYC based jazz concert dance company where she worked closely with choreographer Geoffrey Doig-Marx for 10 years. She has performed in dinner theatre dancing Vegas revue style shows and with several freelance choreographers in NYC including Saul Maya and Aszure Barton. To round out her versatility, she also competed in Ballroom with a focus on International Latin dances.
Ms. Dugan was the founder/artistic director of The Nest for 10 years, a non-profit dance organization in the Philadelphia area. The Nest produced annual summer intensives and many full evening length concerts. She has been teaching for thirty years to all sorts of students at many different institutions and has a passion for dance education.
After relocating to Kansas, she continued to dance and choreograph with KC Contemporary Dance. Ms. Dugan is currently affiliated with First City Dance Center and Leavenworth Yoga. She received her MFA in dance from St. Mary’s College of California where she produced her solo evening work “Persisting”. In addition, Rachel holds a 500-hour yoga, Body Mind Dancing, and Dance Production Management certification.