BIO | artist

Catherine Cabeen, MFA, RSMT/E, CYI is an artist and teacher based in New York City. She directed the interdisciplinary performance company Hyphen from 2009-2019. As a choreographer, Cabeen has received commissions from On the Boards, Donald Byrd’s Spectrum Dance Theater, Seattle Art Museum, Gallery Galleon in Vieques PR, the Visa2Dance Festival in Dar Es Salaam, Alsarab Dance Company in Byblos Lebanon, Texas Women’s University, the American LGBTQ+ Museum, and the New York Historic Society, among others. In 2011, the New York Times called the work of Cabeen's Hyphen, “highly kinetic, complex... visually exquisite,” and “beautifully performed.”

Cabeen was a finalist in The A.W.A.R.D. Show! Seattle: 2009. During the summer of 2011, she was Emerging Choreographer at Bates Dance Festival. Cabeen’s 2011 evening-length work Into the Void, commissioned by On the Boards in Seattle, was documented for On the Boards’ on-line performing arts library. The full work can be seen at ontheboards.tv. Hyphen's other evening-length works include: Fire! 2013 commissioned by On the Boards, Where They May 2013 commissioned by Seattle Art Museum, Framed 2014 commissioned by the Mahaney Art Center, Arts Triangle 2016 commissioned by Texas Women's University, and the self produced 2018 Give Me More.

In 2019, Cabeen shifted away from the company model and in collaboration with Kristina Berger created and performed, Glitter in the Gutter. This ever-evolving, two-woman comedy show, was regularly performed at Pangea Cabaret in New York City from 2018-2024.

Cabeen has received support for her choreographic work from the Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, 4 Culture, The Washington State Arts Commission, the National Performing Network Creation Fund, The Bernstein Foundation, The Mellon Foundation, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and generous individual donors.

Cabeen is a former member of the Bill T Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company (1997-2005), and was Jones’ Assistant Choreographer on the original production of Spring Awakening at the Atlantic Theater. She is also a former member of the Martha Graham Dance Company, and Richard Move’s MoveOpolis!, among others. In Seattle, where Cabeen was based from 2006-12, she performed in her own work and as a guest artist with Donald Byrd’s Spectrum Dance Theater.

Cabeen is a repetiteur for the Bill T Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. She has been on the faculties of the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance, Cornish College, University of Washington, Middlebury College, University of Wyoming, Taiwan University of the Arts, Yale, Princeton, and Marymount Manhattan College (MMC). In her time at MMC (2014-2024), Cabeen served as an Associate Professor and Assistant Chair of the Dance Department. She created numerous new courses for the college that explore dance and embodiment through the lenses of race, gender, and social justice. Cabeen was an active member of the college’s Action Committee for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, since its inception in 2017, till her departure from the college. In addition to teaching at MMC’s main upper East Side campus, Cabeen taught at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison for women, through MMC’s prison education program. Cabeen's engagement with Somatic approaches informs her use of mindful, kinesthetic pedagogy in one on one, and group, classes with a wide array of dance and non-dance students, including those who are justice-impacted.

Cabeen is a Somatic Coach and Mentor. She has studied Vinyasa Yoga and meditation for 28 years and became a certified yoga teacher with OM Yoga in 2005. She has practiced and performed Contact Improvisation for over twenty years working with artists such as Nancy Stark Smith and Bill T Jones. She began her study of the intersection of experiential anatomy and environmental activism in 2014 with Andrea Olsen. Cabeen is honored to have worked with Martha Eddy and Dynamic Embodiment since 2018, becoming a Registered Somatic Movement Therapist/Educator (RSMT/E) and Dynamic Embodiment Practitioner (DEP) in 2021. She trained to become a Certified Mindfulness Meditation Teacher with Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield, completing their teacher training in 2023. Cabeen combines these skills with her experience as a professional dancer and choreographer in her one on one work as a somatic coach and mentor for student and professional dancers and non-dancers.

Cabeen is currently a PhD student in Developmental Psychology at CUNY Graduate Center where she is exploring the intersections of embodiment, ecology, culture, and transformation.