Amy Foley is the founding artistic director of Bellwether Dance Project. Born and raised in Alaska, she is a long-time, devoted member of the San Francisco Bay Area dance community as a sought-after performer, teaching artist and choreographer. Amy has danced and created with numerous companies and independent choreographers, among them: Garrett+Moulton Productions, Margaret Jenkins Dance Company, ODC/Dance, Nol Simonse, KAMBARA+DANCERS, RAWdance, project b., Shift Physical Theater, and for over a decade, Robert Moses’ KIN. With Robert Moses’ KIN, she was honored to be a part of the original creation casts of major works such as, Lucifer’s Prance, Speaking Ill of the Dead, Biography of Baldwin, Word of Mouth, The President’s Daughter, Cause, and more recently, A History of this Moment.  Amy and her dancing have been called, “petite and powerful”, “writhingly potent” and, “filled with fierce velocity”. “She has left a lasting impression as one of the Bay Area’s great talents” (Rachel Howard, SF Chronicle).

Amy is currently on faculty at ODC Dance Commons, where she teaches contemporary technique and is a long-term guest artist with Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts (SOTA), where she is a teaching artist and choreographer. Amy has worked closely with Axis Dance Company as interim rehearsal director and with the students of Alonzo King’s LINES Dance Center, Dance Mission’s Grrrl Brigade, Academy of Ballet, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance in their summer intensives. She has taught master classes/workshops for Axis Dance Company, Garrett+Moulton Productions, Robert Moses KIN, Shawl-Anderson Dance Center, LINES Dance Center, and at universities across the country. She has created works on the ODC Dance Jam, Robert Moses’ KIN and the students of Ruth Asawa School of the Arts, as well as on her own company.

In 2015 Amy created Bellwether Dance Project in order to gather and further her choreographic interests of collaboration and meaning-making. “Amy Foley constructs dances that draw us in, intrigue and move us” (Jen Norris Dance Reviews). In 2017, along with three other dancer/mothers, she co-created the concert and program SEAM (Support and Elevate Artist Mothers), to support women’s leadership in the field. Amy and Bellwether Dance Project have received support from SAFEhouse for the Arts, Dancers’ Group, Zellerbach Family Foundation, community partner Eaze, and generous individuals. She is a recipient of the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company’s CHIME mentorship award, of an Opportunity Fund Grant from ODC and the Rainin Foundation, and was selected as a choreographer for ODC’s Sandbox Series. She lives in San Francisco with her family.

Photos of Amy Foley by Cola Gaeta and Stephen Texeira.