Jacalyn Carley

Jacalyn Carley is a Berliner-by-choice with an American passport. She studied dance with Prof. Maida Withers (GWU) and with the founders of Motion Berlin dance company — all Mary Wigman students with a focus on improvisation and performance. She cofounded Tanzfabrik Berlin. As choreographer, educator, and social-activist for the Free Scene, she helped shape modern and post-modern dance in West Berlin and onwards. Her evening-length choreographies, a blending of literature and dance, toured extensively throughout Europe and the US for over two decades, sponsored by both the Goethe Institute and the Berlin Ministry of Arts. She has been the recipient of various stipends and residencies.

After ending her active career as performer and choreographer, Jacalyn Carley authored four books and edited the English version of Dance Techniques/Tanzplan Germany (an authoritative tomb on all modern dance styles) published simultaneously in German and English by Tanzplan Deutschland/Henschel Verlag. Her focus shifted to Community Dance as coauthor for Royston Maldoom’s autobiograhy Dance for Your Life (S. Fischer Verlag) and as author of A Community Dance Handbook on Maldoom’s methods (Henschel Verlag).  

Jacalyn’s personal interests delve into the topic, “From Political Revolutionaries to Cultural Missionaries: Modern Dancers in Germany 1900 - 2020,” – a course she taught for Sarah Lawrence College and lectures given elsewhere. 

She has been On-site Director for 'Summer Arts in Berlin,' a Sarah Lawrence College study abroad program, since 2011. 

For videos and publications see:  jacalyn-carley.com

Contact:
Jacalyn Carley
Dance
j.carley@berlin.bard.edu