photo by Minnie Morkie
movement-first, always.
finding new ways to fall.
BIO
After receiving her B.F.A in performance and choreography from The Ohio State University where she worked with artists like Abby Zbikowski, Bebe Miller, & Ohad Fishof/Noa Zuk, Manning moved back to Nashville where she joined Found Movement Group, a dance theater company specializing in immersive, physical-theater-based contemporary works, and became Associate Director alongside Stacie Flood-Popp in 2017. Through Found, Manning created numerous live, immersive, and film based works: Bum One (2018), the way i see it (2019), Shrine (2019), Obsession (2019), & Four Me’s (2020).
During the pandemic she choreographed and directed her first episodic dance short film in collaboration with WeGo Nashville Public Transit called We Keep on Going (2020) which helped turn her attention to a dance film centered creative process. In 2022, Manning choreographed and directed Going Down (2022) in collaboration with Aberration Media which premiered at festivals including Cinedanza, San Francisco Dance Film Festival, and won Best Film at LA Dance Film Festival. Manning has recently graduated from London Contemporary Dance School with a Masters in Screendance and has recently taken a graduate teaching position within the course.
Other notable choreographic works include Blended Hues (2015) which presented at the Midwest American College Dance Festival Conference and From Four to Two (2016) which won the BellaMoxi Emerging Choreographic Artist Festival in Chicago, Illinois. Other film credits include Unveiling (2014) which premiered at both 30FPS Film Festival in Columbus Ohio & the Jacksonville Film Festival in Jacksonville, Florida, DP work for Millennium Dance Complex, and videographic work for American Dance Festival at NYU Tisch. Choreographic commissions include work for Seven Dance Company, The Collaborative Dance Project, Susan Petry & The Gift Project, Found Youth, & Found Movement Group.
Teaching credits include Found Movement Group, New Dialect Summer Intensive, Southern Association of Dance Masters, Millenium Dance Complex, TMProductions & Watkins College of Art and Design, and London Contemporary Dance School.