About

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Caroline Clarke, born in New York, is a dancer and choreographer and will soon graduate from Skidmore College. Caroline began her dance journey with Class Act Performing Arts Studio, where she trained on a competitive team, honing her skills in contemporary, lyrical, jazz, and musical theater. Her classical foundation in ballet, pointe, and character was built through training at the New Jersey Dance Theater Ensemble and Joffrey Ballet School.

In 2019, Caroline continued her training at Walnut Hill School for the Arts under Michael Owen’s direction, where she performed iconic works by Antony Tudor and Dianne Arivantes. She joined the Pre-Professional Division of Boston Ballet at Walnut Hill a year later, studying under the direction of Margaret Tracey. During her time there, Caroline deepened her expertise in ballet, pointe, contemporary ballet, character, and classical partnering while performing original works by Naoko Brown and Kathleen Mitchell.

At Skidmore College, Caroline is pursuing a B.A. in Psychology and Dance Performance and Choreography. As a senior, she is focusing on refining her technical and artistic skills while integrating research in psychology and neuroscience. During her time at Skidmore, she has performed works by esteemed choreographers such as Robert Battle, Erika Pujič, and Brian Lawson. Her studies have included rigorous training in ballet and Cunningham technique, alongside an emphasis on improvisation and choreography.

Caroline’s professional development extends to year-round training across the country. Caroline has partaken in programs at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Ballet Austin, Walnut Hill School for the Arts, and Moving Forward Dance. In her extended training experience, Caroline has learned works by Kyle Abraham, George Balanchine, Crystal Pyte, William Forsythe, and Jiří Kylián. 

Caroline has recently expanded her choreographic portfolio, premiering two new works in the past two months. Most recently she premiered What Weird Bodies and in November choreographed and performed 6, in collaboration with Jacque Forman and Nayah Reagans. Caroline continues to push creative boundaries, refining her vision and deepening her exploration of movement as a form of expression.

Additionally, Caroline has been actively involved in multiple research labs, culminating in her recent presentation at the Eastern Psychological Association’s annual conference in Philadelphia in February. Her current research in cognitive neuroscience under the mentorship of Dr. Pablo Gomez focuses on enhancing signal-to-respond procedures in lexical decision tasks through innovative training protocols. Beginning in January, her follow-up research on bigram processing using signal-to-respond paradigms will analyze behavioral and neural data with electroencephalogram (EEG) techniques.

Caroline also gained experience in an animal research lab led by Dr. Hassan Lopez, where she conducted intraperitoneal and subcutaneous injections in rats and worked with the behavioral paradigms of the Elevated Plus Maze, Conditioned Place Preference Apparatus, and Radial Arm Maze. Additionally, her work in cross-cultural psychology with Dr. Hyeyoung Shin involved meta-analytic research comparing values of freedom and security in collectivist societies (China, Japan, Korea) and individualist societies (the United States and Germany). 

Through her artistic and academic pursuits, Caroline has cultivated a unique interdisciplinary perspective, combining her research expertise with her dance training. She is particularly interested in exploring how principles of psychology and neuroscience can inform the creative process, enhance performance, and deepen the understanding of movement as a form of communication and expression.

My work is driven by impulse, curiosity, and an unyielding desire to create. I use dance as a tool to explore the unknown, continuously challenging the relationship between intuition and possibility. My movement balances the polished with the unpolished, where spontaneity, groove, and play coexist with structure. This dynamic tension allows me to delve into the subtleties of expression and navigate the delicate interplay between chaos and simplicity.

I approach the body both as a mechanical system and as a raw, unfiltered vessel for expression. Through this lens, I uncover layers of humanness that bring authenticity to even the most constructed forms. It is a process of internal self-discovery that reflects the movement innate in everyone and everything. By embodying this natural flow and humanness within the theatrics of performance, I strive to bridge the gap between authenticity and artifice. Grounding my work in the intrinsic qualities of movement, I honor the natural and universal energy that unites us all.

I consider myself a vessel—an open channel for the visions and ideas of others. Yielding to different perspectives pushes my body and artistry into spaces I could not reach alone. Much like an instrument in an orchestra, I thrive in the symphony of creation, where every element contributes to a greater, unified whole. Ultimately, I aim to create, perform, and engage with work that feels alive, deeply human, and transcendent. My art is a continual exploration of what it means to be present and connected, both to myself and to the world around me.