E.E. Balcos
E.E. Balcos is a full Professor of Dance at UNC Charlotte. In 1982, he began training with modern dance pioneer Hanya Holm while also engaging in contact improvisation. A successful performer and choreographer for over 40 years, he danced with companies including Zenon Dance Company, Shapiro & Smith Dance, and the Demetrius Klein Dance Company. He worked directly and performed in the works of renowned choreographers and dance artists including: Chris Aiken, Danny Buraczeski, Sam Costa, Ping Chong, Sean Curran, David Dorfman, Bill Evans, Joe Goode, Daniel Gwirtzman, Dwight Rhoden, David Rousseve, Stephanie Skura, Jan Van Dyke, and Bill Young. E.E. was the Artistic Director and choreographer for his own company E.E.MOTION from 2007-2013. His current explorations focus through a lens of somatics as it is applied to contact improvisation, creative process, performance, teaching, and interdisciplinary collaborations. He has presented and performed at numerous venues including several Body-Mind Centering Conferences nationally; the Annual Somatic Dance Conference & Performance Festival; the Dance and Somatic Practices Conference in Coventry, UK; and the Body IQ Festival in Berlin, Germany. He is a Registered Somatic Dance Education (RSDE) and Master Somatic Movement Educator (MSME). Balcos is also an avid gardener and landscaper.
Balcos is passionate about somatic movement practice, primarily Body-Mind Centering, and its application in dance technique and performance, interdisciplinary collaboration, improvisation, contact improvisation and choreography. His work is demonstrated through a lens of diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion as it applies to social and environment justice and activism. He is an active member of the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association, (ISMETA) and is on the Board of Directors.
As a lead presenter at the 2023 Annual Body-Mind Centering Conference, “Being With” at Hobart & William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York he performed in a trio, Set Forth: Being with Synchronicity with Mariah Maloney and Margery Segal; presented an experiential workshop, Relational Beings: Resonating with the Endocrine System through Contact Improvisation; and was a featured panelist in The Nature of Comfort: a round table conversation with Jorge Samuel Faria, Wendy Hambidge, and Tarina Quelho. His interdisciplinary project, The On-Going-Ness of Earth and Humankind, was a trio performed live with a composer/ pianist, Leonard Mark Lewis and video artist, Claudia O’Steen (moving throughout the stage space). This project was concerned with the human body and the natural environment, its parallels and intersections, and life-force energy. This project was supported by the ASC and was performed in several venues from 2022-2023. Balcos received a UNCC Faculty Research Grant to conduct somatic research in choreography and performance with nationally recognized Bill Evans in Port Townsend, Washington. This research involves creating a solo dance, embodied investigation, choreography and performance. It was focused on the beneficial effects that somatic movement practice has on the older dancer and the relevance of incorporating somatic methodologies into the creative process. Balcos performed Tales of the Wizard by Evans in 2021 and 2022. Read more →
