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Areas of Specialization

Dance choreography and performance; Theatre movement direction and devising; Physical Theatre creation and performance; Contact Improvisation; Handstand training; AcroYoga; Alexander Technique

Courses Taught

Dance Composition Foundations; Dance Composition Solos, Duets, and Collaboration; Introduction to Physical Theatre; Mind-Body Unity in a Fractured World; Modern technique; Dance Performance Research; Independent Projects

Student Mentoring

Dance Minors, Interdisciplinary Studies Majors, Orchesis Dance Company, Â鶹Æƽâ°æ Theatre

Background

Joan Gavaler, Professor of Dance and Artistic Director of  is a choreographer, physical theatre artist, and somatics practitioner.

Aura CuriAtlas is known for its innovative blend of dance, theatre, and acrobatics. Their work embodies the qualities of lightness (Aura), curiosity (Curi), and strength (Atlas) to find enchantment in ordinary situations presented in unusual ways.  Since 2014, Aura CuriAtlas has toured DREAM LOGIC, A Life With No Limits, and The Fool and The World to communities large and small in the Midwest, East Coast, and Southern United States. In pivoting during the Pandemic, the company offered free online guided movement workshops for a year and premiered a digital work, S L. Feemster's ConFront(ed). Continuing in new directions Joan Gavaler and Ada Hao co-created a Williamsburg-London digital performance collaboration entitled  asathoughtfallsthroughthegapsoftranslation, and the company premiered a new play, The Zombie Life: A Seminar for Humans Seeking Conversion. Her most recent project is a physical theatre piece inspired by Jill Bolte Taylor's book My Stroke of Insight.

 Professor Gavaler uses her somatics background to help people seeking self-understanding and authentic expressiveness, most recently though workshops on self-care for climate activists in Dundee and St. Andrews Scotland and workshops on the inner work of social justice in Williamsburg, VA.

As a choreographer and movement director, Professor Gavaler has created 80 original works and been a driving force behind four performing companies. She relishes collaborative discovery and has worked with poets, visual artists, composers, musicians, actors, directors, acrobats, and physicists on dance and theatre projects.  She has been invited by over 75 organizations to present and teach in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, including presentations on the Alexander Technique in Lugano, Switzerland, a dance residency at Beijing Normal University, performances for American Dance Guild showcases in New York City, and movement consulting for the Virginia Shakespeare Festival.

Her professional expertise is sought for external program and faculty reviews and performance adjudications. She served as a Fellow in the Studio for Teaching and Learning Innovation, 2021-22. She served as Head of Dance from 2000-2009, as Department Chair for Theatre and Dance from 2009-2014 and again in 2025-2027, and as Director of Dance from 2015-2017. She co-leads the W&M Dance Program with two Dance faculty colleagues.