The Journal

Issue date: 2/25/10 Section: Lifestyle

Media Credit: JOSH MAASSEN Beckah Voigt, an associate professor of the theater and dance department at Webster University, is the artistic director of ANNONYArts, an organization to create new work from and for performing artists. She is also a dancer and a mom.

Beckah Voigt, associate professor of dance at Webster University and the artistic director of ANNONYArts, an organization whose mission is to create new work from performing artists and to provide educational programming, is a dancer, a mother of two and a feminist.

Voigt, whose career has been in modern dance, said although many ballet dancers and musical theater dancers use music as an inspiration in musicality and in rhythm, she doesn't need music as an inspiration to dance.

"As I learned modern dance, I learned to dance to my own inner rhythm; not from an outside sound," Voigt said. "I've learned to choreograph from internal rhythms."

For Voigt, the simplest internal feeling can be used as an inspiration to create dance movements.

"Silence is a key factor toward finding those inner emotions and listening to how your body wants to move at a specific moment," Voigt said.

Emily Thompson, professor of French, met Voigt on the Women's Studies Committee, and it was through their work together that she started to appreciate what a wonderful person she considers Voigt to be. Although they haven't had a conversation directly about music, Thompson said she learned about dance as an art form.

"I have found it incredibly moving to watch Beckah perform, whether as Josephine de Beauharnais or in Kiener Plaza as part of Dine on Dance," Thompson said.

As a child, Voigt was exposed to plenty of music. Her main inspiration was her mother, a visual artist and a modern dance teacher who loved listening to folk music and Gregorian chants.

Voigt was born in Denver, Colo. but spent her childhood in Glenwood, Colo. with her older brother and sister. One of her best childhood memories was playing with her sister in the mountainside with lizards, dogs and chipmunks.

Voigt received her B.A. in Theater at Colorado Women's College in 1975 and received her Masters degree in dance, with emphasis in performance and choreography of dance theater at the University of Colorado.

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