Biography

Ursula Eagly makes bizarre performances full of darkness, humor, and other contradictions. 

Ursula’s work has been commissioned by Dance Theater Workshop’s Studio Series and the Howl Fesitval. It has also been presented by The Chocolate Factory, Dance Theater Workshop (Studio Series, Fresh Tracks), Danspace Project (DraftWork), The Old American Can Factory, P.S. 122 (Avantgardearamathon, Schoolhouse Roxx), and Ur. Nationally, her work has been presented by DiverseWorks in Houston, Texas and The Gilded Pony Festival in Troy, New York. She has received two individual artist grants from the Queens Council on the Arts and space grants from Topaz Arts and Ur, your neighborhood dance palace. 

Ursula is also dedicated to her work as a performer. Since 2006, she has collaborated with choreographer Kathy Westwater, delving into a process-oriented somatic investigation of the pelvis. Also since 2006, she has been a core performer in Yoshiko Chuma’s Page Out of Order series, a project with which she’s toured throughout Albania, Macedonia, Japan, and Romania, collaborating with incredible local musicians and performers. They’ve performed on proscenium stages like Japan Society in New York and the National Theater of Albania in Tirana; on a long, narrow red carpet at Lincoln Center Out of Doors; in living rooms in Japan; and, for two seven-hour-long endurance performances, at Issue Project Room’s indoor/outdoor space on Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal. 

Ursula is an active member of the New York performance community. She teaches dance classes in Dance New Amsterdam’s Guest Artist Series. Since 2003, she has been supporting artists through her work in development at Danspace Project. Previously, she edited Arts International’s magazine (ai) performance for the planet. Her writing has appeared in Movement Research Journal’s 25th Anniversary Issue, Dance Insider, The Creative Capital Channel, *surface magazine, and Time Out New York Kids. She has been invited to speak on panels by the American Dance Festival’s New York intensive, the Asian American Arts Alliance, and the Queens Council on the Arts. 

Ursula grew up in Indiana and graduated from Princeton in 1999 with the Francis LeMoyne Page Theater Award for Excellence in Dance and the Class of 1955 Grant for her senior thesis in dance. She also studied at the School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam.