Sarah Morrison, M.A.
Biography
Sarah Morrison (Cleveland, OH) is the Director of MorrisonDance, a unique performing company that has brought dance to alternative settings with LEAPING INTO THE NET!, the first modern dance performance broadcast live online, (1997); INSIDE, a groundbreaking performance featuring live brainwave projections; ERIE SIRENS, a lakeshore collaboration with artist Scott Radke, supported in part by the Puffin Foundation; and the three internationally acclaimed collaborations with NASA commissioned by the Ingenuity Festival: RENDEZVOUS, WALKING ON OTHER WORLDS, and CRYSTALLINE. Morrison has created over 75 original dance creations that have been performed in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, California, Georgia, Italy, England, and Mexico.
A 2009 recipient of the Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, Ms. Morrison began her professional dance career as a teenager with Lee Harper and Dancers in Atlanta, Georgia. She relocated to Cleveland, OH upon receiving a scholarship from Case Western Reserve University for her dance choreography. After four intensive years at CWRU, Morrison graduated summa cum laude as a Phi Beta Kappa with a Master of Arts degree in Psychology and Bachelor of Arts degrees in both dance and psychology, with a minor in Biology. Since that time she has made her home in Northeast Ohio, where she founded and directs MorrisonDance. MorrisonDance has been awarded support by the Ohio Arts Council, Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, Neighborhood Connections (a program of the Cleveland Foundation), and the Rauschenberg SEED grant, an unsolicited, anonymously nominated three-year award recognizing the contribution to the vibrancy of the community. In 2019, Morrison was honored by OhioDance for her outstanding contributions to the artform.
Ms. Morrison currently serves as an adjunct faculty member in the Creative Arts Division at Cuyahoga Community College, and has been a guest lecturer in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Case Western Reserve University, and the Department of Psychology at Baldwin Wallace University and Notre Dame College. She has taught college level courses in Modern, Ballet, and Jazz Technique, Dance Appreciation (History), Sport and Exercise Psychology, Sensation and Perception, Learning and Memory, Lifespan Development and Research Design and Analysis. Ms. Morrison has additionally taught master classes and workshops at University of Akron, Cleveland Institute of Music, Universidad de Verecruzana, Kent Dance Ensemble, Beck Center for the Arts, Cleveland Public Theatre, Dancing Wheels, YWCA Early Learning Center, Shore Cultural Center, Merrick House, and throughout numerous school districts in Northeast Ohio with extensive residencies in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. Morrison is a roster teaching artist with Center for Arts Inspired Learning (Young Audiences of Northeast Ohio), and has served as Master Artist for their Artworks program, an apprentice program for high school students.
Ms. Morrison has contributed to the advocacy of dance statewide as a board member of OhioDance, and nationally as a host committee member for the 2019 Dance/USA conference. She additionally serves as advisor and an external evaluator for area arts and education organizations.
On the research side, Ms. Morrison spent over 10 years working with the department of Psychological Sciences at Case Western Reserve University and Boston University in Visual Perception funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Alzheimer’s Association. Working with Primary Investigator, Dr. Grover C. Gilmore, Morrison co-authored findings from these research projects for publication in several scientific journals including Cortex and Vision Research, in book chapters, and at conferences nationally and internationally. Morrison always enjoys applying her in depth experience in both the arts and the sciences to her work as a creator, performer, researcher, and educator. 
morrisondance 