About me

Katey O’Connell, originally from New Hampshire, receives her BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography at Elon University alongside a BA in History in May 2025. She has had the opportunity to perform for a multitude of choreographers including Jiwon Ha, Courtney Liu, Joyce King, Candice Franklin, Michelle Gibson, and Jennifer Guy.

Dance has taken her all over the nation allowing her to perform in New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Florida, and Pennsylvania, as well as being selected to perform at the Florence Dance Festival in Florence, Italy, and she cannot wait to see where else her journey takes her.

Artistic Statement

With each performance, I strive to embody authenticity and vulnerability, inviting audiences to join me in a shared journey of discovery. I am a versatile and passionate dance performer dedicated to expressing the full spectrum of human emotion and experience through movement by pulling from different genres of dance that I have trained in, including contemporary, modern, hip hop, jazz, and ballet. Dance is my language—a powerful medium through which I connect, communicate, and inspire. 

My choreographic work is driven by a deep commitment to sparking conversations around important personal and social issues while also celebrating the pure joy of dance. I believe in the need for balance—creating pieces that challenge and inspire, yet also honoring dance for dance’s sake, because it is our passion, our dedication, and our way of life. Simultaneously, I aim to create a space within each work where each dancer can bring in their own story in order to find a personal tie to whatever message the piece aims to share. It is important to me as a creator that the creative process is a space where everyone has a voice and connection to the conversation. I achieve this by allowing time in the rehearsal space for open conversation or journaling in order for each performer to identify their own personal tie to the message trying to be conveyed through each piece. I find this allows each dancer to either internally or externally find something within the work that connects to them personally and create spaces where individuals can experience the transformative power of dance—to feel seen, understood, and inspired. Dance is not just performance; it is a living expression of identity, connection, and boundless possibility.