Kristen Duffy Young, Director
Kristen is the Co-Director for the office of Performing Arts and Director of Dance. She is also on the Theater Faculty at Emmanuel College where she teaches courses in Somatics, Ballet and choreographs main stage theater productions. She received an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College, a BA in Dance and BBA in Marketing from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and is a Certified Movement Analyst from the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies in NY. Her early training was through the Royal Academy Dance (RAD) method in classical ballet and she is currently working towards her certification as a Bill Evans Teacher. Kristen is also the President of the Massachusetts Dance Education Organization.
Kristen has been choreographing professionally for more than 15 years. She is the Co-Director of Accumulation Dance Company with Meghan McLyman, www.accumulationdance.org. They have received support for their choreography from New England Foundation for the Arts, The Boston Foundation, Boston Center for the Arts, and have been presented by The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, The Somatics Dance Conference, The Southern Vermont Dance Festival, Salem Arts Festival, Trident Art Gallery, Dance for World Community, The Dance Complex, Green Street Studios, Tufts University, College of the Holy Cross, and Salem State University. As an educator, Kristen believes in the artistic potential of every student and emphasizes creative expression as well as movement efficiency in her classes and rehearsals. Her creative work centers on themes of the human experience and is influenced by her studies in Laban Movement Analysis, Bartenieff Fundamentals, yoga, the Alexander Technique, and classical ballet and modern/contemporary dance. In addition to teaching for COF, she has instructed courses at the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies program at Lesley University, Salem State University, The Longy School of Music, Needham Public Schools, Kinetic Dance Studio, and Next Generation Theatre Company.