Kathleen Nasti

Kathleen Nasti headshot
Kathleen NastiAdjunct Professor of Dance and Performance Studies

Areas of Expertise

Modern, Contemporary, Ballet, Musical Theatre Techniques and Women's Studies in the Field of Dance

Education

BA in Classical Studies and Theatre (Dance) from Dickinson College

MBA with a certificate in Project Management from Lehigh University

MFA in Performance and Choreography from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee

Kathleen Nasti dancingKathleen Nasti holds a BA in Classical Studies and Theatre (Dance) from Dickinson College, an MBA with a certificate in Project Management from Lehigh University, and an MFA in Performance and Choreography from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee.  She completed her MFA thesis on Contemporary Korean Dance Forms while living in Seoul and Shanghai for two years. 

As an educator, she loves connecting students to joyful movement rooted in somatic and anatomical knowledge and allowing students the space to find integrity in their own personal interest and research. She has been a lecturer in the dance departments of Muhlenberg College, Cedar Crest College, Dean College, Providence College, The University of Scranton, Temple University, Dickinson College, SungKyunKwan University (Seoul, Korea), the American College Dance Festival, and PA Governor’s School for the Arts.   She also served as the Director of the Muhlenberg College Community Dance and Pilates Center, Green Street Studios, and Lehigh University – Office of the VP for Research and Graduate Studies.  Her dance research has been presented in the Journal of Dance Medicine and Science, Lehigh Valley Hospital Grand Rounds, and The Congress on Research in Dance. 

She danced extensively with Alyce Finwall Dance Theatre and worked with many independent New York choreographers including:  Scott Lyons, Skip Costa, Giada Ferrone, Lars Rosager, Edward Augustyn, and Max Stone among others.  She was also a dancer with the American Dance Machine, Radio City Christmas Spectacular, Broadway Bares, Momix at the MIT Centinneal, Urban Nutcracker, among others.  She performed Aerial Track Harness Dance with Lisa Giobbi Movement Theatre and appeared in the film Morphing Gravity.  

She has led her own company based out of the New England area for the last decade.  Her choreographic focus combines women’s studies with her love of contemporary movement and pulls from ballet, musical theatre, jazz, circus, and physical theatre.  She was a 2017-2018 Next Steps Artist, an award from The Boston Foundation and Aliad Fund, and a Catalyst Artist at the Dance Complex.  She has received funding from The Boston Foundation, New England Foundation for the Arts, Lehigh Valley Arts Council, and Massachusetts Cultural Council.  Her work has been presented by and at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Boston Center for the Arts, the Dance Complex, AS220, Green Street Studios, APAP, and many colleges across the northeast.