LAURIE GOUX
Dancer, Educator, Curator

Laurie Goux, a native of Chicago began her dance career in 1981 at Columbia College. Currently, she is the Director of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion at WV Wesleyan College. Laurie was Adjunct Professor in Dance at Davis & Elkins College, for 10 years, where she received a B.A. in Liberal Arts.

Laurie is a protégé of dance legends, Jimmy Payne Sr. (Tap and Afro-Caribbean) and in Katherine Dunham Dance Technique under Thomas “Tommy” Gomez and masterclasses with Katherine Dunham. She is an alumna and former faculty of Columbia College Chicago Dance Center, where she taught modern dance. Laurie was a principal dancer with Mordine & Company Dance Theater in residence at Columbia College. In 1988 she met Katherine Dunham in Chicago and her purpose in dance was forever changed.

She was artistic director, co-presenter of the first, Chicago Katherine Dunham Awards (1996-1998) (with Rasheed Akbar and later Sadira Muhammad) for 19 years and produced the annual Keep the Legacy Alive: Tribute to Katherine Dunham, in collaboration the last 2 years with Ruby Streate, Dunham Certified Master Teacher and the Dunham Center for the Arts and Humanities. Laurie was also a founding member of Danny Hines Chicago dance company, Sundance MPAC which had a great impact on her African and African-Caribbean dance training. While working at Columbia College she was instrumental in the plan to host their first Dance Africa, community outreach. She met and took a Master class with the Legendary, Baba Chuck Davis and Joe Nash, who gave her a photo copy of Katherine Dunham from his collection at Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Laurie produced Suite Chicago Blues, featuring Max-A-Million’s rendition of Willie Dixon’s song, My Babe at DuSable Museum of African American History and Chicago Blues Museum exhibit of Bronzeville. She was co-presenter of Ebony On Ice, at the Legacy Theater, Blue Island, IL; an original dance concert on ice to an anthology of black music from the African drum to American Hip Hop starring a world-class cast of Black skaters. Ms. Goux’s studies led her to master class residencies with Katherine Dunham, Erick Hawkins, Bill T. Jones, Kei Takei, Judith Moss, Talley Beatty, Clay Taliaferro, Anna Paskevska, and June Finch. She has performed in the works of Loretta Livingston, Shirley Mordine, and XSight! Performance Group, What are we going to do with Mary?, Isosceles Triangle, and Wait ’til it Happens to You. Also, Jan Erkert’s Sensual Spaces, Robin Lakes, Mouth, Kate Kuper, Carol Bobrow’s Hiroshima Trilogy, Claudia Gittleman’s Amartia, and Martha Clarke’s, Haiku, a trio performed by Mordine & Company with Tim O’Slynne and Brian Jeffery.