some biographical things
Maxine Flasher-Düzgüneş is choreographer, writer, and filmmaker from Northern California currently researching the intersections of language and movement through interdisciplinary collaborations with composers, designers, animators, coders, writers, and dancers. Since presenting her undergraduate thesis strikethrough, at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, it has been featured by Dance Art Journal, samfiftyfour literary, Inbtwn. Magazine and The Museum of Wild & Newfangled Art, and has been adapted for dance & poetry workshops at Mill Valley Public Library and The Writer’s Nest.
Maxine graduated magna cum laude from NYU Tisch with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance and a Minor in English and American Literature. At NYU Tisch, she danced in the works of Sidra Bell Dance NY, Lar Lubovitch, Wayne McGregor, Trisha Brown, NiNi Dongnier | Field Motion, Aaron Samuel Davis, and Cari Ann Shim Sham*, among others. Maxine has guest performed for Isadora Duncan Dance Company, Eclipse Dance Theatre, CALI & Co Dance/Matt El Music, and Logos Dance Collective. She supplemented her training at SF Conservatory of Dance, Alonzo King LINES Ballet, and Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance, performing the works of Ohad Naharin, Christian Burns Amy Seiwert, Eléonore Valère Lachky, and Vittoria De Ferrari Sapetto. Her dance film "(v.) - to situate in a particular place," has been screened at the SzólóDuó International Dance Festival (Hungary), FilmFest by Rogue Dancer (Online), Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema (USA), and kNOwBOX Dance Film Festival (USA/South Korea). She is now a contemporary and ballet instructor at RoCo Dane & Fitness.
Maxine’s poetry has been published in Gallatin Review, October Hill Magazine, Literary Yard, Red Cedar Review, and NYU Under the Arch | Voices, and recently was awarded the Rubin Prize for Poetry by the Gallatin Writing Program for her poem, “A Series of Rogue Geographies.” She has served as editor for NYU Under the Arch | Voices, where she curated cross-disciplinary collaborations between graphic artists and writers. She is currently an editorial writer for Inbtwn. Magazine, an online and print magazine aimed to increase engagement between writers and visual artists. She serves as webmaster for Marin Poetry Center, and has interned with literary organizations including Poets House, The Writers Nest, and FastForward Magazine. In May 2020, she published her first novella, through Eileen with VerbalEyze Press.
AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS
2021 - Guest Judge - Marin County Poetry Out Loud
2021 - Alternate - US-UK Fulbright Student Program - University of Roehampton Award in Dance
2020 - Rubin Prize for Poetry - The Gallatin Review
2020 - Best 20 Films of the Ork_Kota Platform - Szólóduó International Dance Festival
2019 - NYU Conference Grant - NYU Student Government Assembly
2019 - First Place in Choreography - Dance Prix de New York
2018 - Guest Judge & Sacrificial Poet - Mill Valley Public Library
2017 - AP Scholar with Honor Award - The College Board
2017 - Lilian Roth Award in French - Just-for-Tam Scholarships
2016 - Opening Poet for Hamilton's Daveed Diggs - San Francisco Jewish Community Center
2016 - Second Place in Choreography - Paula Levine Choreographers Contest