Stephanie Zaletel (she/they) is a choreographer, dance artist, movement facilitator, student, environmentalist, plant-based eater and cook, and mental health advocate currently based on the West Coast of the US.
Stephanie’s twenties were threaded together with persistent and prolific art making practices inspired by her quest to access and create dance in trauma-informed, femme led spaces – and in 2015 she founded szalt, a dance company to serve this very purpose. Through szalt she integrated choreography, music/sound design, textile/fiber arts, film, poetry, neighborhood inclusion, and astronomy into her highly collaborative performance-based offerings. Within 5 years, szalt’s performances, classes, and workshops traveled through 8 states, reached thousands of audience members and movers, and connected her with lifelong friends, colleagues, collaborators, and partnerships.
Beyond szalt, Stephanie creates works for musical artists, films, dance, opera, and theater companies nationally and internationally including collaborations with clipping., C. Prinz, and Lars Jan’s Early Morning Opera. Stephanie also enjoys dancing and performing in the works of others and has most recently danced in projects for Rosanna Gamson | World Wide, Lindsey Lollie, and is collaborating with Jodie Landau and Beth Morrison Projects in 2022-23.
Most recently Stephanie was a guest artist at California Institute of the Arts and Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University where she created new works for the students and led Contemporary Floorwork, Restorative, and Dream Embodiment classes.
In 2021 Stephanie completed the Certificate in Somatic Psychotherapy and Practices Program at Antioch University to deepen her understanding of how trauma lives in and moves out of the body and how this relates to her work in the Dance field (and beyond) moving forward.
Stephanie was born and raised in Las Vegas, NV. Their known oral history indicates that they are a 5th generation immigrant of the United States born of former Yugoslavian/Eastern European and Polish refugees of WW1 and Irish ancestors who adopted their mother.
Stephanie holds a BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography, minor in Humanities from California Institute of the Arts.
