Katie O'Loughlin

it is that simple, isn’t it. i have never been more convinced that our day to day choices are the biggest influence on the trajectory of our lives. who you are in the tiny, mundane, simple tasks lays the groundwork for who you become during the passion projects, the spiritual beckoning, the hills that your gut tells you to climb, but not die on. thich nhat hanh mentions that how you approach the micro moments – doing the dishes, taking a step – reflects your core approach to life. did you thank the ground that came up to meet your feet? adrienne maree brown says our attention is our super power, the water that feeds the soil of our mind’s garden; “what we pay attention to grows”.

well, that is not much of an about me, except that it is. i think more about this kind of stuff than i do about how to make more money, or where i will travel next, or any kind of list of accomplishments (don’t worry i have a cv). david abram writes about how when we speak, our tongue and mouth change the chemistry of the air in front of us, which echoes through the atmosphere. how we breathe changes the atoms around us. how we speak physically changes our space (“life and death are in the tongue” – jesus). why should i care about a bigger house when i can spend my time caring about this? i know i know, i can care about both. don’t worry, i desperately know that we hold multitudes within our bodies and have endless capacity for experience. it is my favorite phenomena.

onto the boring? okay. i am a born and raised alaskan. i grew up in a town that had one grocery store until i was about 10. i did not want to go to college, but after a devastating gap year that involved an eating disorder, a dance apprenticeship falling through, and a loneliness at 19 years old that would trickle into adulthood, i reluctantly signed up for college classes at uaa because of pam (she is a whole other blogpost to come). let me tell you, none of the cool kids were doing it. they were dancing, apprenticing, traveling. but to college i went and wow was it what i needed in order to feel capable and creative. i received a degree in theatre (technical) and dance and the program changed me for good. learning to be a choreographer shifted my view of myself and the world. being a maker is innate in me, there is no other way to put it. i must, must, create. it is, without a doubt, in my spiritual dna. my primary gut feeling is to make something that doesn’t exist yet. thank god i found dance.

i graduated, went to cuba (twice) to finally dance outside the u.s., created a small performing group while knowing nothing about leading a performing group, but made some lifelong friends along the way. after 3 years i applied to grad school and got accepted into ohio state’s mfa in dance program (this was a surprise – i was a dance minor! that’s it!). and so, covid pandemic and all, i moved to columbus and completed the program (details for another blog, or five). during my final year, uaa called and said they were reinstating the minor (yes, it got cut in 2019) and sent me the application. welllll, i got hired and have spent October 2023 – present rebuilding a small dance minor as the only dance faculty and wow is that an adventure (for another blog hah)! ohhh, this is a weird about me? okay here you go

Katie O’Loughlin is a dancer, choreographer, director, and educator based in Anchorage, Alaska. She received her BA in Theatre and Dance from the University of Alaska, Anchorage and her MFA in Dance from The Ohio State University. She created Sunlight Collaboration, a multimedia dance company that works with artists of a variety of styles, which she directed for 3 years. She has studied and trained with Brian Jeffery, Susana Pous, and Eddie Taketa. She is currently leading the Dance Minor at the University of Alaska, Anchorage and teaches courses in Contemporary, Improvisation, Composition, Musical Theatre, Dance Research, Core Strength, and choreographs on UAA students. She directs the annual dance productions held at UAA. She works in contemporary dance, fusing elements of release technique with dynamic floor work and somatic practices. She engages in the intersections of dance and technology, weaving live feed video and projections into choreographic works.