Amelia Rose Unsicker

Amelia earned her Master of Fine Arts in Dance from the University of California, Irvine in June of 2016. She currently teaches ballet, contemporary ballet, movement exploration, and Pilates throughout the Portland Metro Area. Amelia is a professional dancer, choreographer, dance educator, certified Pilates instructor and multimedia artist.  

Amelia Unsicker, born and raised in Portland, Oregon, has been dancing and creating movement since childhood. She is an artist, teacher, mover, dreamer, and environmentalist. 

Amelia began her professional ballet training at Pacific Festival Ballet under the direction of John Gardner. She later trained at the School of Oregon Ballet Theatre (SOBT) for several years, under the instruction of Damara Bennett, Elise Legere, Tracey Katona, Elena Carter, Lavinia Magliocco, and Josie Moseley, among other renowned instructors. With SOBT, she performed in Il Distratto, Napoli, Peter and the Wolf, Snow White, Swan Lake, and George Balanchine's Raymonda, La Source, and The Nutcracker. 

While studying science at the University of Oregon (UO), Amelia danced as a soloist with Ballet Fantastique for four seasons, under the direction of Donna and Hannah Bontrager. She performed many original contemporary ballet works in Eugene and throughout the Pacific Northwest. In 2011, she graduated from the UO with a Bachelor of Science in biology and a minor in dance. 

Amelia later worked as a freelance dancer and choreographer in Portland. She has appeared as a guest artist with Portland Festival Ballet, under the direction of the late John Magnus, where she performed in his rendition of The Nutcracker, Don Quixote, and Hansel and Gretel. Amelia also danced for choreographer Jennifer Camp in the 2012 (A)merging Dance Festival, and for artist Emily Schultz in the 2013 (A)merging Dance Festival. In 2013, she joined the Agnieszka Laska Dancers, where she performed The Rite of Spring, The Chopin Project, and Broken Flowers in Portland, Chicago, and through multiple cities in Poland. In June of 2014, Amelia collaborated with Emily Schultz and Amanda Coleman to co-produce, choreograph and perform in Chiaroscuro, a choreographer's showcase at Performance Works Northwest, featuring local choreographers and dancers. 

In the Spring of 2016, Amelia earned a Master of Fine Arts in Dance from the University of California, Irvine (UCI), where she taught ballet and Pilates, choreographed, and performed. She choreographed several pieces at UCI, including her thesis concert, Carbon Footprint: Watch Your Step, which premiered in May  of 2016 at UCI's Experimental Media Performance Laboratory (xMPL). Amelia's thesis research, Using Dance to Communicate Issues of Climate Change, explores how renowned choreographers have effectively created works regarding social, political, and cultural issues. Amelia used her research to choreograph a concert that poetically interprets the challenges of climate change. 

In February of 2017, Amelia earned her Pilates certification under the mentorship of Diane Diefenderfer. Amelia currently teaches dance for Portland Public Schools, The Portland Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre School, Fired-Up Dance Academy, and Oregon International Ballet Academy. She is excited to be back in Portland, dancing, teaching, choreographing, and growing as an artist, researcher, and mover. 

Awards

Kris and Linda Elftmann Scholarship, 2016

Carbon Neutrality Initiative Communications Fellowship, 2015

UCI Graduate Student Fellowship, 2014-2016

Carl and Dorothy Crow Scholarship, 2007