Echo Gustafson is a performer, choreographer and teacher. She has performed around the world with the Martha Graham Dance
Company, Pearl Lang Dance Theatre, Moving People Dance, Catherine Cabeen and Company, and Robert Wood Dance NY among others. She is a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner as well as a Gyrotonic® and Gyrokinesis® Master Trainer. In the present Echo creates open system performances that explore dimensions of time and space underneath thought-based movement control. Ideas from dynamic systems approach to development and Moshe Feldenkrais’ work and writings inspire her movement practice and her performance systems. Echo uses experiential anatomy principles that she learned from years of studying alternative movement systems to teach functional dance technique from the inside out. Echo strives to initiate her students into a dialogue of development with their movement patterns that can inform their technique continually across all dance styles.
Company, Pearl Lang Dance Theatre, Moving People Dance, Catherine Cabeen and Company, and Robert Wood Dance NY among others. She is a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner as well as a Gyrotonic® and Gyrokinesis® Master Trainer. In the present Echo creates open system performances that explore dimensions of time and space underneath thought-based movement control. Ideas from dynamic systems approach to development and Moshe Feldenkrais’ work and writings inspire her movement practice and her performance systems. Echo uses experiential anatomy principles that she learned from years of studying alternative movement systems to teach functional dance technique from the inside out. Echo strives to initiate her students into a dialogue of development with their movement patterns that can inform their technique continually across all dance styles.Echo grew up in Los Angeles, CA where she studied Jazz, Ballet and Modern dance. Her jazz teachers included Jackie Sleight (serving as Sleight’s assistant from 1990-1994), Terry Beeman, and Doug Cauldwell. She studied Modern with former Alvin Ailey dancer Ron Brown and performed his works in Crossroads Dance Company. Her ballet teachers were Adelia Roman and Rosemary Valaire. Echo moved to New York City in 1994 after graduating high school and continued her dance education on full scholarship at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance. In 1996 she was accepted into the Martha Graham Dance Company at the age of 20, with whom she performed in the United States and Europe. While in New York Echo trained in Ballet with Finus Jung, Modern with Max Stone, Klein Technique from Susan Klein, and the Gyrotonic® Method with Juliu Horvath. She also danced professionally with the Pearl Lang Dance Company and Javier Dzul Dance Theater. In 2001 Echo moved to Santa Fe, NM to focus on creating her own work and teaching. She served as a principal dancer and resident choreographer for Moving People Dance Theater from 2003- 2009, performing works by Robert Moses, Gail Gilbert, and Sam Watson. Echo has trained high school age Pre-Professional dance students in Santa Fe since 2004. Her students have been accepted to Juilliard, Boston Conservatory, NYU Tisch, Cal Arts, University of Arizona, Skidmore, Cornish and Lines Pre-professional Program among others. She has been teaching the Gyrotonic system since 1996. She is a graduate of the 2013 Berkeley 7 Feldenkrais Professional Training program with Director Dennis Leri. Echo loves living in Santa Fe New Mexico, creating her own work, and helping emerging dance artists find their voice and their power.
