emily liptow (she/they) is multi-disciplinary artist, creative producer, facilitator, and community organizer from the watershed of Lake Erie. Working with movement, voice, and textiles, they create experiences – in the form of performances, rituals, workshops, and gatherings – that weave intergenerational relationships and connection with ecosystems. As a student of change, cycles, and grief, they research how collaborative movement and performance practices nurture cultures of care.  

Before starting Duke’s MFA program in Dance: Embodied Interdisciplinary Praxis, emily worked as an independent performance artist and organized the Cleveland Contact Improvisation Jam. Now in Durham NC, em teaches contact improvisation through Living Arts Collective and co-organizes monthly Group Shakes. Their movement practice is shaped by training in contemporary dance forms, physical theater, contact improvisation, Tai Chi, and capoeira.  

emily's performance work has been featured at Borderlight Fringe Festival (2022), Maelstrom Collaborative Arts (2019-2023), Cleveland Public Theatre (2018-2020), and most recently Sanctuary Series in Durham NC (2024). They have a B.S. in industrial and systems engineering from the Ohio State University and a decade of experience working across academic, non-profit, small-business, and grassroots organizations. They have 325+ hours of trauma-informed yoga training and are an active node in networks of mutual aid, wealth redistribution, and land justice.