Performing, Creative Artist & Educator
BIO
Kellie St. Pierre. (she/her). I am an interdisciplinary artist, engaged as a choreographer, performer, filmmaker, and educator. I create dance experiences that highlight the kinesthetic and emotive interplay between movement, environment, technology, and objects. I craft socially relevant works that invite dancers and audiences into tactile worlds, often collaborating with other artists. My approach encourages risk-taking, awareness, and spontaneity while examining the balance between simplicity and complexity. For me, choreography lives beyond the body and is part of our everyday experience.
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I am also a wellness practitioner and instructor, merging worlds of somatics and embodiedment. I guide yoga, meditation, and injury prevention, informed by Sugarfoot Therapy and physical therapy practices. I value holistic care and advocate for autonomy. I have a passion for sharing the knowledge that has helped me through my own recoveries and life's unexpected experiences. Overall, I am part of a beautiful mission to work toward healthier, more sustainable practices for myself and my community.
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I am originally from CA and currently based in Salt Lake City, UT. I graduated from the University of Utah with an M.F.A. in Dance and Screendance, and from the University of California, Irvine, with a B.F.A. in Dance Performance, a minor in Business Management, and a minor in Civic and Community Engagement. I am currently an educator at the University of Utah and Utah Valley University, and co-director of UVU's Contemporary Dance Ensemble.
I have performed as a company member of Donald McKayle's Etude Ensemble, as well as with DIAVOLO | Architecture in Motion for five seasons, during which I toured internationally and nationally. Additionally, we were featured on America’s Got Talent, Season 12.
Some of my choreographic commissions include Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company, SALT Contemporary Dance & Ching Ching Wong, Ballet Conservatory of San Antonio, and several universities, including the University of Utah, Utah Valley University, University of Central Oklahoma, and California State University, Los Angeles. I have been selected as the Pacific Monticello Emerging Choreographer through Regional Dance America, and I am currently a finalist for the Palm Desert Choreography Festival, 2025. As a screendance artist, my films have been recognized at the Women in Dance Leadership Conference, Los Angeles & Dance Film Festival in Yokohama, Japan. Other festivals include Cinedanza International Festival, For This Earth Screendance Festival, and Utah International Dance Film Festival.​​​​
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My lineage is made up of many parts, a beautiful blend of Japanese and European. I value bringing these practices that have been passed down to me forward. I'm often inspired by values, philosophies, and practices within Japanese culture to frame my questions around dance as an expression for secular and spiritual insight, as expanded research artistically and personally.
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Total Shift of Perspective
My story
In 2017, I learned the biggest lesson of my life that has shifted the way I see the world, myself, and how I choose to navigate within it. At the time, I was dancing for a high-risk company that made me feel invincible. I was attracted to trying on thrill-seeking activities and felt consistently pressured to prove my strength. On a weekend trip, I participated in a dangerous cliff jump which brought me seconds away from death. I ended up landing on rocks before the water. I severed my brachial artery, transected several nerves and ligaments, openly fractured the radius and ulna, dislocated the elbow, fractured the wrist, and the list continues. I was airlifted to a brilliant team of surgeons, doctors, and nurses–arriving without a pulse. I was in ICU for weeks, the hospital for a month, and in an external fixator for several months. I have endured paralysis of the arm, seven surgeries, a rollercoaster of emotions, years of physical and psychological therapy, and now a shifted anatomy with functioning limitations. I am certain God saved my life twice; once through medical attention and the other through depression in recovery. I am forever grateful for the teams at Dell Seton Hospital and Cedar Sinai–the many occupational, physical, and psychological therapists. I am grateful for a support group of close friends and family and for anyone that has shed kindness along the way. I share my story, as it informs who I am as a person and artist, and why I care deeply about the health and wellness of dancers, including the environments in which they work. I share as an advocate for mental health, and to confirm the other side of injury and depression is possible. I hope to inspire empathy towards others–we do not know what someone has gone or is going through. Finally, cominig face to face with mortality helps me channel a new perspective toward life, as one the practices gratefulness, empathy, and boundaries. Sharing this history is another step in the healing process.