Kristin Marrs, MFA, M.AmSAT, is a choreographer, performer, and an Associate Professor of Instruction at the University of Iowa Department of Dance. Her research and teaching interests include the integration of somatic practices with ballet pedagogy. Marrs has presented her research at CORPS, Dance Studies Association, National Dance Education Organization, and the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association; her writing has been published in the Journal of Undergraduate Teaching and Learning Practice and Dance Chronicle. Marrs is a certified Alexander Technique teacher with the American Society for the Alexander Technique and a Functional Awareness® Movement Educator. She is a founding member of Alexander Technique Iowa (www.alexandertechniqueiowa.com), an online community of Alexander teachers and students in the Hawkeye State. 

Marrs’s choreography explores the evolution of ballet as a technique, narrative form, and performance practice. She has collaborated with artists in diverse media, including paper and fiber artist Mary Merkel-Hess, composer Jacob Bancks, violinist Sabrina Tabby of Atlys String Quartet, and filmmaker Alex Bush. She is a 2025 recipient of an Iowa Arts Council Individual Artist Grant, in support of her forthcoming work Chalk, co-written and performed with Denver-based artist Anne Marie Nest. www.chalkdancetheater.com

Marrs trained at SUNY Purchase and London Studio Centre and holds an MFA in Dance from the University of Iowa. Prior to finding her home as a liberal arts educator, Marrs performed as a company member of Columbus Dance Theatre, Ballet Quad Cities, Northern Ballet Theatre, Arova Contemporary Ballet, Paradise Ballet Theatre, Opera Columbus, and Images of Dance (London). Learn more about Kristin’s work at www.kristinmarrs.com