Assistant Professor
Dance
Holly Matthews received her MFA in Dance from Mills College, in Oakland, CA, and her BA in English from San Francisco State University. Holly attended Interlochen Arts Academy for four years as a boarding student, where she studied piano with Dr. Charles Asche. She has also been a certified yoga instructor since 2010.
Holly has taught dance at Eastern Michigan University, University of Toledo, and University Liggett School, among other places. She taught ballet history for Pacific Northwest Ballet’s professional summer program in Seattle. Last year, she taught contact improvisation at the Ontario Regional Contact Jam. Currently, she teaches flamenco dance at Hoover Street Studios in Ann Arbor and Center for Performance Arts and Learning in Wixom. She is a yoga teacher for the Detroit Zoo’s summer yoga series, and also teaches at B in Action Movement Center in Farmington Hills.
During her 10 years in San Francisco and Seattle, Holly worked as a ballet accompanist. She accompanied at LINES Contemporary Ballet, San Francisco State University, University of California at San Francisco, Pacific Northwest Ballet, and other private studios. Her in-depth musical understanding and her years of observing teachers from the piano bench have informed her own teaching and given her a unique perspective on ballet, pedagogy, and musical accompaniment.
She was a founding member of the performing flamenco group, Companeros de Flamenco, with whom she danced for over ten years. She has danced with several flamenco groups, including the fusion group, Al Flamenco, and the rock band, Domingo Flamenco. She performs regularly with Floreo Flamenco Dance Group, a group she founded in 2018. She participates often with People Dancing as a Guest Artist/ choreographer.
Eclectic in her interests in movement and dance, Holly trains in capoeira at The Michigan Center for Capoeira, and in 2018, she presented an academic paper on capoeira for the Annual Dance Studies Association Conference in Malta.