ARTIST BIO

Joy Prendergast is a dance artist and movement educator. She began her work and performance career in San Francisco. Joy is an alumni of the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance and holds a Bachelors of Dance from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. Joy has worked as a freelance performer with many Bay Area choreographers and companies including The Foundry, Detour Dance, Project Thrust, Alyce Finwall Dance Theater, Katie Faulkner, Amelia Rudolph, Robert Moses, Eric Kupers and Dandelion Dance Theater, and Woodminster Theater. 

Joy’s performance career has spanned almost two decades.  The most influential of this time was her 5 plus years dancing for Malinda LaVelle’s San Francisco based dance theater company “Project Thrust.” Her performance career includes immersive theater, improvisation, contemporary, ballet, experimental performance art, musicals,  dance for animation/film, and dance theater. 

As a choreographer, she began creating her work through SAFEhouse for the Performing Arts (formerly The Garage), and The San Francisco Conservatory of Dance. Joy's choreography has been performed at Z Space Theater, The Garage, SFCD, Presented in the Annual San Francisco Summer Dance Series, San Francisco Dance Tiny Film Festival, Performa (Tel Aviv), Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, Machol Shalem, HaMiffal Artist House (Jerusalem), Canyon Concert Ballet, Movement Research (NYC), and Colorado State University. 

As a teacher, Joy has had the opportunity to work with many different age groups and demographics. She has taught dance and movement technique extensively throughout San Francisco, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Denver, and Fort Collins. In 2019 she created “Little Movement” a class for children and parents to promote physical play and bonding. In 2022 she created “Elements of Movement” and “Bodies in Play,” a movement series of improvisational play and holistic movement for all bodies. She currently teaches Dance at Colorado State University as well as in the community.