Education
Bachelor of Arts, Connecticut College, 1993
Master of Fine Arts, Choreography and Performance, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2007
Studied and worked with David Dorfman, Nicholas Leichter, and Lisa Race
Biography
Holly Handman-Lopez received a BA from Connecticut College in 1993 and an MFA in Choreography and Performance from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2007. She has worked with many prominent choreographers, including David Dorfman, Nicholas Leichter, and Lisa Race.
She has performed extensively in New York City venues, including the Dance Theater Workshop, Miller Theater, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Handman-Lopez’s choreography has been shown at a number of colleges and universities; among them are Bennington and Bowling Green State University. She has been awarded numerous guest artist residencies at such prestigious institutions as New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Sarah Lawrence College, and the New School, where she has taught, choreographed, and directed student performers.
She has been a vsiting artist in the dance department of Oberlin College since 2003.
Presentations and Projects
She choreographed Oberlin’s production of Orpheus in the Underworld in 2004; A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2007; Kindle in 2007; Tennessee Williams' Vieux Carre in 2008; and in 2009 for the Oberlin Dance Company.
Faculty Notes
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Holly Handman-Lopez Acknowledged for Achievement
December 22, 2016Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance Holly Handman-Lopez was acknowledged for Superior Achievement by the Cleveland Critics Circle 2016 Theater Awards for her choreography of Mr. Burns at Cleveland Public Theatre. The production was directed by Matthew Wright.
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Dance Department Awards and Recognition
May 16, 2016Professor of Dance and Department Chair Ann Cooper Albright and Assistant Professor of Dance Holly Handman-Lopez each received Individual Excellence Awards from the Ohio Arts Council. The Dance Department and Dance Disapora, directed by Artist in Residence Adenike Sharpley, were recognized by the Bonner Center for Service and Learning for their ongoing service to the Oberlin community. In addition, the community-based programs Girls and Boys in Motion and Dance Diaspora were the focus of an article in the May edition of Dance Magazine entitled “Dance to Give Back.”
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Holly Handman-Lopez Receives Individual Excellence Award
April 27, 2016Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance Holly Handman-Lopez has received an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award in Choreography for her evening-lenth dance and theater piece, "The Only Way," and "eleven years in," her duet with Bobby Wesner. "The Only Way" premiered in Oberlin in 2015, and "eleven years in" premiered in Oberlin in 2014 and has since been presented at numerous venues across the U.S.
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Holly Handman-Lopez Performs
December 11, 2015Holly Handman-Lopez, visiting assistant professor of dance, danced in the Where Were We: on intimacy, body, writing festival in Aarhus, Denmark, December 3 and 5 with her Berlin-based collaborators: Poet Esther Dischereit, DJ Ipek, and Percussionist Ray Kaczyski. The festival featured artists from Turkey and France, as well as Germany, Denmark, and the U.S.
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Holly Handman-Lopez and Bobby Wesner Perform Duet
September 11, 2015Holly Handman-Lopez, visiting assistant professor of dance, and Bobby Wesner, visiting instructor of dance, performed their duet "eleven years in" at the Spring to Dance Festival in St. Louis.
Their piece was selected by a panel led by Dance St. Louis Artistic and Executive Director Michael Uthoff. They shared the stage with The Joffrey Ballet, ODC/San Francisco, and Camille A. Brown and Dancers, among others.