Andersen, Marion

Marion Andersen (1924-2002) was a modern dancer and choreographer. Born in New Jersey, Andersen received formal training in New York City under May O'Donnell and Gertrude Shurr in the modern dance style of Martha Graham. She joined the New York-based dance companies of May O'Donnell in 1951 and Norman Walker in 1960. She performed for both companies while also working as a teaching artist in California and Finland. May O'Donnell had a lifelong influence on Andersen; she performed and choreographed O'Donnell's seminal works throughout her career, and devoted much of her time in the late 1980s and 1990s to researching O'Donnell's career in modern dance.

Beginning in 1958, May O'Donnell's company, along with faculty from the New York High School of Performing Arts, was awarded an annual residency at Utah State University ("USU") in Logan, Utah. Andersen joined the company in teaching and performing in Utah each summer for almost a decade. In 1967, she was appointed Artist-in-Residence in Dance at Utah State University. Andersen established USU's first dance company as well as a dance program within the theatre arts department.

Andersen left Utah State University in 1974 and joined the faculty at the University of Washington ("UW") in Seattle. As in Utah, she founded UW's first performing dance company, the University of Washington Dance Theatre. Andersen also contributed to the development of a dance curriculum and department at UW, in which she taught historical and modern dance.

Returning to Logan, Utah in 1983, Andersen established Valley Dance Ensemble, a community-based modern dance company for which she served as choreographer and artistic director. She coordinated, choreographed, and directed dance concerts each season for the company, and hosted guest artists to perform and teach. Andersen also ran Valley Dance Ensemble's dance school, which offered modern dance classes to students of a wide range of age and skill.

Andersen was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in the late 1990s, but continued to direct and choreograph until her death in 2002.