2017

Dissertation: “Ambivalent Norms, Radical Potential: Contact Improvisation Re-considered”

Artistic Director of Circo Zero.

Keith Hennessy is an award-winning performer, choreographer, teacher and organizer. Hennessy directs Circo Zero, a laboratory for live performance that plays with genre and expectation. Rooted in dance, Hennessy’s work embodies a unique hybrid of performance art, music, visual and conceptual art, circus, and ritual.

Hennessy was a member of Sara Shelton Mann’s legendary Contraband (1985-94), as well as the collaborative performance companies CORE (1995-98) and the France-based Cahin-caha, cirque bâtard (1998-2002). His work is featured in several books and documentaries, including Composing while Dancing (Melinda Buckwalter, U of Wisconsin: 2010), How to Make Dances in an Epidemic (David Gere, Univ. of Wisconsin: 2004), Gay Ideas (Richard Mohr, Beacon, 1992), and Dancers in Exile (RAPT Productions, 2000). Hennessy is a co-founder of 848 Community Space/CounterPULSE, a thriving performance and culture space in San Francisco. He earned an MFA (Choreography) and PhD (Performance Studies) from UC Davis.