Cari K.Cunningham

is an Associate Professor of Dance at the University of Nevada, Reno and the founder of bellē contemporary dance co., an all-female project-based company in Northern Nevada. The name bellē is derived from the intersection of the French word for beautiful and the English term for our midsection and Cunningham’s choreography seeks to expose the beauty and power of the soft underbelly (the core, the womb, the center of the body) through movement, sound, costume, and video. She has created numerous choreographic works, including two evening-length pieces – TIES (2009) and on being fuller (2019).  She is currently working on a third full-length dance work centered around names and naming as a reflection of individual identities that features a cast of 12 mothers/dancers.

Cunningham’s choreography has been performed in Oregon, Colorado, California, Massachusetts, Mexico, New York City (La Mama Experimental Theater, DUMBO Dance Festival, Green Space Take Root, and the CoolNY Dance Festival), and at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival.  Most recently she performed at the Future Bodies Symposium at Virginia Tech in a collaborative work with UNR faculty members Tyler Calkin-Low (Art) and Jean-Paul Perotte (Music).  Cunningham’s written work has been published in Dance Magazine, Dance Spirit, and Dance Teacher.