Biography
ALEX SPRINGER is a choreographer, performer, teacher, and video artist, and currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Contemporary Dance at the University of Florida. Until 2018, he was based in New York City, where his performance and choreographic work was deeply embedded in the city’s contemporary dance and experimental performance communities. Springer holds an M.F.A. in Choreography and Performance from Smith College and a B.F.A. in Dance with a minor in Movement Science from the University of Michigan.
PERFORMANCE:
From 2007 to 2017, Springer was a member of Doug Varone and Dancers, touring extensively throughout the U.S. and abroad. He served as rehearsal director and company manager and continues to act as the company’s archivist and répétiteur, restaging Varone’s work on professional companies and university dance programs such as Boston Conservatory at Berklee, the University of the Arts, and A.I.M. by Kyle Abraham. As a performer, he has appeared at prominent venues for Dance including The Joyce Theater, Lincoln Center, and Brooklyn Academy of Music. He has also had the pleasure of participating in projects with Alexandra Beller, Jeanine Durning, Adriane Fang, Angie Hauser, Heidi Henderson, Donnell Oakley, and the Metropolitan Opera Ballet.
CHOREOGRAPHY:
Since 2006, Springer has partnered with UF Dance colleague Xan Burley to create work that spans stage and camera, site‑specific performance, interdisciplinary collaboration, and multimedia installation. Their choreography has appeared at premier venues across the U.S.—including American Dance Festival, Jacob’s Pillow, Center for Performance Research, Movement Research at Judson Church, Danspace Project, the School for Contemporary Dance and Thought, the 92Y, among others. Additionally they have been commissioned by more than fifteen university and professional companies including James Madison University (VA), Skidmore College (NY), Emory University (GA), Ohio University (OH), Ball State (IN), Oakland University (MI), and Zenon Dance Company (MN), to name a few.
Their projects have earned prestigious residencies and awards: AIR Taipei International Artist Residency at Treasure Hill Artist Village (Taiwan), Marble House Project (VT), the Croft Rootstock Residency (MI), Jacob’s Pillow Research Fellowship and site‑specific commission (MA), and a yearlong residency at University Settlement (NYC). They’ve also held space grants with Gibney Dance, BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange, and Triskelion Arts, and received support from UF’s Scholarship Enhancement Fund, Research Incentive Awards, Work‑in‑Process Award, and the 2023–24 UF International Center Global Fellowship. Their evening‑length, transdisciplinary project for North was developed through CPR’s inaugural Technical & Production Residency and funded by the Mertz Gilmore Late‑Stage Production Grant.
INTERDISCIPLINARY PROJECTS:
Together, they co-direct Every Body Meeting (EBM), a hyper‑collaborative collective of choreographers, dancers, and visual artists—including sculptor/composer Will Owen and award‑winning dancer Hsiao‑Jou Tang—that reimagines the “general body meeting” as a site for inclusive, interdisciplinary creation. Through shared authorship and nonlinear processes, EBM fuses choreography, sound, sculpture, technology, film (and even culinary elements) into layered, site‑responsive performances and installations that invite audiences to become active co‑creators in theaters, museums, public spaces, and community markets.
EBM’s process‑based, cross‑cultural research has been championed by Treasure Hill Artist Village in Taipei, Taiwan. In Summer 2024, the collective was one of seven teams selected from over 450 applicants for a prestigious international residency, during which they presented two sold‑out, site‑specific performances and a gallery exhibition, alongside storefront installations in the local Shuiyuan market. Following that success, Treasure Hill commissioned EBM as featured artists for its March 2025 Light Festival—where they conceived an hour‑long, multi‑channel video and performance installation for VIP audiences—and again for the inaugural SouthSpark street arts festival in Fall 2025. These engagements underscore EBM’s evolving global impact and commitment to process‑driven, community‑engaged artmaking.
Springer and Burley’s interdisciplinary research has also manifested in several cross-campus collaborations at UF. They co-authored a feature article for the Journal of Dance Education in collaboration with Dr. Elif Akçalı (Industrial & Systems Engineering), applying systems engineering frameworks to the study of dance composition. UF’s Center for Arts in Medicine Research Assistant Professor Dionne Champion invited them to join her team as choreographers for an NSF-funded project “Choreographing Science” in 2022 and 2023. Champion’s project brought together learning analysts, choreographers, and scientists to explore science phenomena with middle-school participants through movement and coding. They are also working with Dr. Megan Butala (Materials Science and Engineering) on an NSF‑funded initiative that integrates choreography and battery science to catalyze public engagement around lithium‑ion research.
DANCE MEDIA/FILM:
As a video artist, Springer is deeply engaged in the intersection of choreographic and cinematic forms. His ongoing collaboration with Burley has yielded numerous dance films, including daylighting (2009), which won the Silver Award in Dance Film Association’s 48-Hour Challenge, and An Ostrich Proudly (2011), featured on Hulu via TenduTV’s Essential Dance Film series and examined in scholar Priscilla Guy’s chapter, “Where Is the Choreography? Who Is the Choreographer? Alternate Approaches to Choreography through Editing” (The Oxford Handbook of Screendance Studies). Their choreography is also featured in the feature-length film Frances Ha (2013). In addition to his artistic work, Springer freelances as a video designer and editor, producing digital content for artists such as Yanira Castro, Juliana May, Michelle Boulé, and Doug Varone. His scholarly research investigates video’s potential as a tool for dance archiving, including a presentation on activating archives at the Dance Studies Association conference.
TEACHING:
Springer has held teaching appointments at Gibney Dance, the Bates Dance Festival, the University of Maryland, Purchase College, Wesleyan University, Smith College, and Santa Fe College.
At the University of Florida, Springer integrates his extensive experience in the field into his courses by fostering a studio culture that encourages risk-taking, interdisciplinary experimentation, and mutual responsibility. He aims to guide students in developing embodied practices that are investigative, critical, and relational—practices that acknowledge the complexity of our shared world and the potential of art to shape it