HOPE MOHR

Hope Mohr (she/her) is a white, queer artist and advocate based in the San Francisco Bay Area on the ancestral lands of the Ramaytush Ohlone people.

In 2007, she founded Hope Mohr Dance (HMD). In 2010, she founded HMD's presenting program, The Bridge Project. In 2020, she co-stewarded the organization’s transition to a model of distributed leadership. In 2022, the organization changed its name to Bridge Live Arts and its mission to creating and supporting equity-driven live art that centers artists as agents of change. In 2023, Hope transitioned out of Co-Directorship and into Affiliated Artist status with Bridge Live Arts. She now works as an independent artist fiscally sponsored by Fractured Atlas.

As a choreographer, Mohr makes work that “conveys emotional and socio-political contents that ride just underneath the surface of a rigorous vocabulary.” (Dance View Times). Her performance work has been presented by Movement Research at Judson Church (NYC), 18th Street Arts Center (LA), Highways Performance Space (LA), Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore), di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art (Sonoma), Moody Center for the Arts (Houston), and in the Bay Area at SFMOMA, ODC Theater, Counterpulse, ICA San Francisco, 836M Gallery, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

As a dancer, Mohr trained at S.F. Ballet School and on scholarship at the Merce Cunningham and Trisha Brown Studios in New York City. She performed in the companies of dance pioneers Lucinda Childs and Trisha Brown. While dancing in New York, Mohr also freelanced with Liz Gerring, Douglas Dunn, Trajal Herrell, and Pat Catterson.

In April 2019, Mohr came to NCCAkron for the first of three research residency visits exploring themes and challenges around dance writing. She met with Dr. Jon Miller, Director of the University of Akron Press, and spoke with students in the 20th Century Dance History course at The University of Akron School of Dance, Theatre, & Arts Administration. She is the author of Shifting Cultural Power, the first book in NCCAkron's series partnership with The University of Akron Press.