Dana Caspersen
Dana Caspersen is a conflict engagement specialist, award-winning performing artist, speaker, and author. Her work integrates these practices to support people in approaching conflict constructively on individual and community levels.
Biography
Caspersen is conflict engagement specialist, award-winning performing artist, and author. Her book, Changing the Conversation: The 17 Principles of Conflict Resolution (A Joost Elffers Book), has been translated into 8 languages and is widely used as a training tool by organizations, schools and individuals worldwide. In her work integrating conflict engagement strategies with choreographic methodologies, she has designed and realized teaching and communication methods and large-scale public dialogue models addressing topics such as immigration, racism and violence. These projects have brought together thousands of people from diverse communities across the world.
During over 30 years as a performing artist, she has authored, performed and toured works worldwide— principally as a primary collaborator of choreographer William Forsythe and a member of the ensembles Ballet Frankfurt and The Forsythe Company. This practice of developing agile physical and mental response strategies in complex environments as a dance thinker has also shaped her understanding of conflict as vehicle for transformation and positive change. Caspersen has received the Bessie Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement in the United States and was nominated for the Lawrence Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in England. She was a visiting faculty member at Bennington for Spring 2022.