Charles O. Anderson
Charles O. Anderson is the head of the African American Studies program and an Assistant Professor of dance at Muhlenberg College. He is also artistic director of the Philadelphia-based dance company dance theatre X. Originally from Richmond, Va., Anderson began his professional dance training at Cornell University in 1991 where he received his BA in 1994. He has studied with and performed for such noted choreographers as Ronald K. Brown, Talley Beatty, Jim Self, Mark Dendy, Sean Curran, Joy Kellman, and Miguel Gutierrez. Anderson moved to Philadelphia in the summer of 1998 and earned his MFA with honors from Temple University in 2002. Both as a solo artist and with dance theatre X, Anderson has presented his work nationally and internationally. Currently Anderson’s choreographic research led to collaborations and artistic exchanges with international choreographers working in fusions of traditional dance forms and contemporary movement styles such as South African choreographer Vincent Sekwati Koko Mantsoe and Japanese choreographer Kota Yamazaki. In June 2007, he was named a recipient of the prestigious Pew Fellowship in the Arts. In 2008, Anderson and dance theatre X were also selected as one of “25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine and the 2008 Company-in- residence at The Yard, the premiere artist colony for dance on Martha’s Vineyard.
