Rate My Professor Maria Giliespie

Maria Soledad Gillespie (she/they) is a Professor of Dance and Graduate Program Representative in the Department of Dance at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Peck School of the Arts. She holds an MFA in Choreography from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and a BFA in Dance from the State University of New York at Purchase (SUNY Purchase). A Certified Laban Bartenieff Movement Analyst (CLMA) and Pilates teacher, her choreographic research explores embodied storytelling through auto-ethnographic performance, incorporating somatics, translation studies, narrative storytelling, and new media. Gillespie conceptualizes dance as a liberation practice and choreographic writing in the body via gesture, facilitating the restoration and rewriting of histories, embodied subjectivity, and future-making.

Prior to joining UWM in 2012 as an assistant professor, Gillespie served as an adjunct professor in UCLA's Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance from 2001 to 2012 and founded and directed the Los Angeles-based Oni Dance from 2003 to 2015. Her accolades include being named one of Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch," four Lester Horton Awards (2002-2005), UWM's 2014 Global Studies Fellowship, 2019 Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, and the 2024-25 Advancing Research and Creativity (ARC) Grant. She has received grants from the Wisconsin Arts Board, Milwaukee Foundation, Durfee Foundation, Irvine Foundation, UWM’s Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, Center for International Education, and Office of Research. Gillespie directs MG/The Collaboratory and Hyperlocal MKE to foster interdisciplinary collaboration and improvised performance. Her choreographic commissions include the Getty Center, Present Music, Renaissance Theaterworks, Loyola Marymount University, Scripps College, Pomona College, Cal State Long Beach, Utah Valley University, University of Florida, and Santa Monica College. She has performed internationally in Beijing, Guangzhou, Tokyo, and Mexico City. Her performances ricochet between vulnerability and strength with razor-sharp shifts. She created the three-year community teaching project Parts of the Whole-The Body Is Home for youth impacted by the carceral system and mentors UWM undergraduate researchers through the SURF program, profoundly impacting dance education, somatic practices, and community engagement.