Brendan Drake
Brendan Drake (all pronouns) is an interdisciplinary artist, performer, and currently, the Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance at The Corcoran School of Arts and Design at George Washington University. Their work uses disparate movement forms, erotic imagery, text, and sound manipulation to interrogate issues surrounding gender, vanity, and queer power dynamics. Brendan was a 2017-2018 Fresh Tracks Artist at New York Live Arts and has been awarded grants and residencies through the Brooklyn Arts Fund, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, CUNY Dance Initiative, Brooklyn Studios for Dance, Monira Foundation, The Tank, and Chez Bushwick. Their recent work has been presented at Danspace Project (Draftwork), Movement Research, The Brick, La MaMa, PAGEANT, Joes Pub, The Wild Project, AUNTS, Brooklyn Studios for Dance, JrHigh (Los Angeles, CA), Fowler Museum (Los Angeles, CA) and The Dance Complex (Boston, MA). In addition to their work for the stage, Brendan choreographed the fall 2014 “Equality = Love” campaign for Adidas Originals/Pharrell Williams. They were the movement coordinator for editorial shoots with Vogue, Porter, V, and Elle Magazines (photographers: Liz Collins, Ryan McGinley, Collier Schorr). From 2022-2023, they were the director of UCLA’s “Sex Squad,” working collaboratively with undergraduates and LA County High School students to devise performances centering on issues of sexual health, consent, identity, and pleasure. In May 2023, they presented their graduate research on tracking queer sociality in contemporary dance and performance at the UCLA National Queer Graduate Conference. They have guest taught at UCLA, Columbia University, the University of Massachusetts, Muhlenberg College, DeSales University, Ball State University, Skewl, Peridance, SCDT, Loculus, and the New York Film Academy. As a dancer and performer, They currently work with Nattie + Hollis, and Kayla Hamilton/Circle O. Brendan holds a BFA in Dance from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and an MFA in Choreographic Inquiry from UCLA.