American Dance Festival Artist Courtney Liu Interview— Mermaiding and More

Editor’s Note: Read the related story— American Dance Festival 2026 – Picture Preview

Dance polyglot? 

From Phantom of the Opera Assistant Dance Captain, performing with Radio City Christmas Spectacular, helping direct performances on Norwegian Cruise Lines, to teaching ballet for more than two decades, to teaching dance for musical theater at North Carolina’s Elon University,  and now this summer not only teaching at American Dance Festival but also exploring her art as a way to  talk about our planet’s finite resources, and more—Courtney Liu’s resume speaks to the breadth of her experience and perspective.

As impressive as her resume is, Courtney Liu’s words say even more...

Here, Picture This Post (PTP) talks to Courtney Liu (CL) about her upcoming work in the Made in North Carolina performance,  how this differs from her academic work teaching dance for musical theater, and her many insights on the experiences that have contributed to her art as a dancer.

 

(PTP )Please share with Picture This Post readers a bit about your upcoming performance.

(CL) The piece is called The 85%. 85% of our oceans remain unexplored and that might be for the best! Humans are intensely curious and have intentionally and unintentionally harmed the 15% of the ocean we have explored.

As an alternative, this piece was created through on-land mermaiding, a collective dreaming and discovery of unexplored seas.

For some of the dancers in the piece, mermaiding is about protecting our vulnerable planet, and the animals and people who live here. For others, mermaiding is about creating a safe community to share parts of our identity and inner power.

My role in this process is coordinating and channeling the mermaiding - it has been a privilege to bring together the intuition of this group of artists to explore the unseen and unknown.

How does The 85% compare to your musical theater focus at Elon and in various performances leading up to that academic appointment?

I think of music theatre quite literally - to me the title defines the genre as theatre that prioritizes music as the main driver of the storytelling.

Therefore, when I create dance for music theatre I prioritize using the dance to amplify the music and the storytelling. While anything is possible in art, I tend to stay quite close to this hierarchical relationship when I choreograph for music theatre.

I welcome this opportunity to explore dance outside of music theatre because the process can be reversed.

For The 85%, the story and music have emerged from the dancing and the dancers. I’ve also enjoyed a beautiful iterative relationship with costume designer, Clare Parker, who has been highly integral to the creative process. The dancers, designers, and I are all working with specific images, metaphors, and themes, but we aren’t tied to a copyrighted story or a commercial desire for a particular audience reaction.

The freedom is exhilarating and exhausting.

Other recent dance works I’ve made outside of music theatre include Crystal Roots and Waters to Waters. Both explore detailed concepts but the storytelling and relationships between dancers onstage is less specific.  In these pieces, like The 85%, the format allows for more audience interpretation.

How do you feel teaching at Elon has affected your choreography?

What I learn each day from my colleagues and students is impossible to quantify or comprehend.

In addition to teaching and collaborating with them, I see a remarkable amount of shows at Elon. There is something almost every weekend - plays, dance concerts, musicals, senior thesis pieces, student-run theatre, new plays/musicals, revue shows, cabarets, fundraising performances - it is never ending and very helpful!

The quantity of information I process each day is part of why I’m grateful to be a dancer - my body can process much more data and spirit than my mind ever could. I fill my life with art and surround myself with artists, and it naturally seeps into what I make.

When I’m not at Elon I choreograph for theaters in North Carolina and around the United States. I also take regular trips to New York to see shows, reconnect with colleagues/alumni/friends, and take dance classes.

Courtney Liu's new work-- The 85%-- will be performed on Monday, June 22 at 7:30 pm as part of the American Dance Festival 2026 Made in NC program .

For more information visit—

The Courtney Liu website.

The American Dance Festival website

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