I am a dance and movement artist, teacher, and facilitator who connects with myself, my community, and my world through the language of the body. My tools are the body in relationship to sound, space, time, environment, memory, and other human and non-human beings. I don’t limit myself to dance or choreography and enjoy exploring and expressing in visual arts, written and spoken word, music, zine-making, and anything you are willing to teach me.

I move my body to oxygenate it. To soften my sternum and shift from my pelvis, re-pattern old neural pathways and build new ones. I dance because verbal processing is overrated, because it helps me sleep better at night, and because it returns me to myself. I make creative work to scratch the itch and work through whatever I can’t seem to let go of.

My creative process is research-based and collaborative. I investigate questions through a combination of improvisation, writing, conversations, and academic research and then begin the work of translation to the languages of body and metaphor. Collaborators, dancers, students, friends, family, ancestors, past teachers, students, and audience members are all co-creators in the experience.   

What keeps me going is the belief that by moving and making, we carve out spaces where we become a little more human, a little more open, and a little more compassionate towards each other.

Allyson Joy Yoder is a movement artist, facilitator, bodyworker and educator based in the Sonoran Desert on Tohono O’odham land, now known as Tucson, Arizona. Allyson’s movement is influenced by early training in ballet and classical modern techniques; later study of contemporary release techniques, yoga and mindfulness practices, groove-based movement languages, and social dance forms; and an ongoing curiosity with the movements of every-day life. Her creative process is collaborative and research-based,  grounded by practices in movement and improvisation, and driven by a desire to strengthen the threads of connection binding inner to outer life, self to other, body to spirit, human to ecosystem. Allyson’s work lives in shipping containers and on the Light Rail, in art museums, on the internet, and in her own home, and ranges from large group dances to intimate solo works.

As a teaching artist, Allyson works to expand access to meaningful dance experiences for movers across wide spectrums of age, physical abilities, and backgrounds. Students describe her teaching style as “light,” “kind,” “gracious” “energetic” and (importantly!) “fun.” Allyson has been honored to teach and collaborate with partner organizations including Rising Youth Theatre, Mesa Arts Center, Phoenix Center for the Arts, Oakwood Creative Care, the ASU Art Museum, and more. In 2016, Allyson was selected by the Arizona Arts Commission as one of 11 teaching artists for the inaugural Creative Aging Teaching Artist Institute, and continues to work as a dance educator and consultant for arts and aging projects.

Allyson graduated from Arizona State University with her B.F.A. in dance in May 2016. Other notable training experiences include the 2014 Bates Dance Festival and the 2016 Dance Exchange Summer Institute, and international experiences learning and teaching with Movement Exchange in Panama, at Varium Dance Center in Barcelona, Spain.

For three years, Allyson worked at [nueBOX] as a Artist Support and Development Director, where she helped to provide space, resources, and support for artists making interdisciplinary, research-based, collaborative work in the Phoenix Metro area. She has led many feedback sessions and some trainings on the use of Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process (CRP) to develop and strengthen works in progress. In 2018, Allyson worked with Phoenix Center for the Arts to pilot a Residency Program for the Beta Dance Festival, in order to provide structural support to emerging choreographers in the Phoenix Metro area.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a period of artistic hibernation, out of which she is recently emerging. Allyson has recently re-located back to Tucson. She is happy to be surrounded by mountains again, and excited to begin building connections to the many incredible artists, movements, and organizations that have their roots in the desert southwest.