“Dance is a powerful means of communication and plays a profound role in our creative and everyday lives.” To this belief, Paula Kramer has devoted her 45-year professional life to the creation and teaching of modern and creative dance Her multi-arts choreography and workshops have been described as “richly dramatic and reflecting timeless social issues.” As a founding director of Detroit Dance Collective, a professional, touring modern dance company, she created more than sixty works for DDC, other companies, for children, career-bound students, and for festivals. She founded and directed DDC’s Art Camp for Children, and the company’s Dance Is Education” program, a widely lauded arts in education curriculum taught throughout Michigan
Paula received a BS in Education and Dance from Wayne State University and studied extensively with members of the Martha Graham, Alwin Nikolais, and Jose Limon Dance Companies, with Joseph Gifford, Mary Anthony, Sophie Maslow, and Paul Sanasardo in New York, Cleveland, and Detroit.
She received the Wayne State’s Arts Achievement Award as well as awards from the Dance Department, Dance Alumni Ass’n and the College of Education. She received six Creative Artist Grants from the Michigan Council for the Arts and the Dance Teacher of the Year designation from the Michigan Dance Association for commitment to community arts programming and extensive work in schools and colleges.
Most recently, she, along with her husband Tom, received the Studio@620Honors Award as well as a grant from the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance to produce a theater and dance project with writers/actors/directors, Bob Devin-Jones, Fanni Green, and Maureen McDole.
She has created works for Beacon at the Palladium Theater, Moving Current, University of Tampa, Hillsborough Community, and St. Pete Colleges and has been a guest artist at the Museum of Fine Arts, Dali Museum, Florida Holocaust Museum, and Eckerd College. She has also been a Creative Clay Arts-in-Medicine dance artist at All Children’s and St. Anthony’s Hospitals.
Presently she lives in St. Petersburg, with her husband Tom, a well-noted dance photographer, and is presently working with actors, dancers, playwrights, and solo artists for production during the 2018- 19 season.
