Julie Satow Freeman

Julie Satow Freeman (Julenda) is the Chair of the Department of Dance at Mt. San Jacinto College where she has taught as part of the dance faculty for more than 20 years. She has an avid interest in teaching and in creating choreography and works with students as well as professional dancers. With a deep interest in social justice, Julie is deeply committed to creating a welcoming space for students of all backgrounds, with special care and advocacy for those who have historically had less access to academia and those whose cultural forms have been undervalued by mainstream dance. Julie has performed extensively with the companies of Stephanie Gilliland and Dancers, Groundwork, and Liz Davidow and Dancers. Performance highlights include dancing at the Japan American Theatre as part of the Olympic Arts Festival, as well as in the full-length opera, Les Noces, and performing solo work at the Edinburgh Arts Festival Fringe in Scotland where Julie received critical praise for her performance and choreography. Currently, she is in process with Kirsten Johansen to create choreography for both live and virtual spaces. In 2010, and in collaboration with Sue Roginski, she co-founded P.L.A.C.E. Performance, a dance collective that is committed to creating community by providing supportive, non-competitive performance opportunities for dance artists in the Riverside County area.  Julie holds an M.F.A.  in Dance, with a focus in Experimental Choreography, at the University of California, Riverside. She is a recipient of the Chancellor’s Distinguished Fellowship Award, and an MFA Graduate Fellowship, and is a two-time fellow in the Gluck Fellows Program of the Arts. She has been a Brithinee Fellow at the Culver Center of the Arts and, recently, an honoree of the CALIFA: RESToring the Source retreat sponsored by Dancing Earth. Julie is is a mixed-race person and member of the Cherokee Nation and Delaware Tribe of Indians (Lenni Lenape). Her first name, Julenda, is a Lenape name that means ‘little bird,’ which she shares with her great-grandmother. Julie is also the mother of three grown children who continue to teach her much about life and unconditional love.