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Teena Marie Custer is an urban dance theater artist based in Pittsburgh.
For over 15 years, Custer has trained, battled, and represented her crews, Venus Fly and Get Down Gang, both nationally and internationally in the underground street dance scene. Her solo work has been presented by the Breakin’ Convention at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London, the American Dance Festival, Rhode Island College, Ohio Dance Festival, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Nevada Reno, Connecticut College, Cleveland State University, Illinois State University, and Arizona State University. She has also been a guest artist in residence at over 30 universities across the U.S, teaching master classes and creating original works on students from Alaska to Texas.
Custer earned a BA in Dance from Slippery Rock University and an MFA in Dance Performance from The Ohio State University. She is on faculty at Slippery Rock University in the Department of Dance where she teaches street dance styles, contemporary dance, and dance composition, and has been on faculty at the American Dance Festival at Duke University where she premiered the first hip hop repertory piece in the history of the festival. She performs with Bessie Award winning Ephrat Asherie Dance in New York, and Bill Shannon, aka “Crutchmaster.”
Photo: Joey Kennedy