BIOGRAPHY
CHRISTINE KNOBLAUCH-O’NEAL, Ph.D., Professor of the Practice in the Performing Arts and Director of the new MFA in Dance program for the Performing Arts Department at Washington University in St. Louis, MO. Dr. Knoblauch-O’Neal performed for twenty years with such companies as American Ballet Theater, the National Ballet, Dancers, the Cincinnati Ballet, Dancers, and the Dayton Ballet. Ms. O’Neal danced in the film Turning Point, performed as Kristine in A Chorus Line, and toured with Dancers to Italy’s Spoleto Festival. She was asked to perform Jennifer Medina’s Courtesan during the Spring to Dance Festival at the Touhill Center for the Performing Arts through Dance St. Louis in 2008. In addition, she was one of fourteen choreographers featured in Dance St. Louis’ Contemporary Moves concert, May, 2004 premiering her work Black, Pearls, and Harry at the Touhill Performing Arts Center, University of Missouri, St. Louis; 2004.
Christine in Rehearsal for “Turning Point,” pictured with Paul Newman
Dr. Knoblauch-O’Neal has choreographed over fifteen works for Washington University Dance Theatre. Also, she has choreographed and performed in eight of her own works and the works of five international and regional choreographers in the faculty concerts, Dance Close-Up. In addition, she has choreographed over thirty department musicals and theater productions including: Legally Blonde, 2019; Rocky Horror Show, 2018; Urinetown; The Musical, 2017; Company, 2015; Three Penny Opera, 2010; Fiddler on the Roof, 2006; Violet, 2006; Much Ado About Nothing, 200; Into the Woods, 2006; Hair, 2005, and The Awakening; 2004.
Christine performs in Harliquinad at the Kennedy Center with the National Ballet
Dr. Knoblauch-O’Neal attended Smith College as an Ada Comstock Scholar graduating with an AB in theater. Her M.A.L.S. thesis from Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, culminating with performances of As Is, a classical ballet, structured improvisation with the Webster Dance Theater at Webster University, St. Louis, MO, was featured in the Summer/Fall 2001 edition of Contact Quarterly. Ms. O’Neal participated in the panel discussion Musical Theater as Liberal Inquiry: The Pathway to Craft with colleagues Anna Pileggi and Lisa Campbell along with presenting her own research, Welcome to the World of Parallel: A Journey from Ballet to Ballroom at the Hawaii International Conference on Arts & Humanities in Honolulu, Hawaii, January ’07. In 2014, Dr. Knoblauch-O’Neal’s article, A Pedagogy of Restaging: The Authenticity of Embodied Practice, appeared in the Journal of Emerging Dance Scholarship through the World Dance Alliance.
An image from Christine’s performance in “Still Point” in Spoleto, Italy.
She co-presented with Jennifer Medina, The Mature Artist: An Embodied Story at the CORPS de Ballet, International Conference, July ’09 in which she also performed Ms. Medina’s solo Courtesan. For the 2011 CORPS de Ballet conference, Ms. O’Neal presented her research on the work of the Répétiteurs of the Tudor Trust in restaging the ballets of Antony Tudor. Also, and as part of the Antony Tudor Dance Studies Curriculum Development Committee, created by Sally Bliss, Executor of the Tudor will and Trustee of the Tudor Trust, Christine joined fellow committee members in presenting the newly designed curriculum during the 2011 CORPS de Ballet conference. Most recently, she was the guest of the Performing Arts Department as the Colloquium Speaker September 12, 2014 presenting her research “Restaging History: The Work of the Répétiteurs of the Antony Tudor Ballet Trust.”
Her awards include a bronze medal from the International Ballet Competition in Varna, Bulgaria, a State Department medal in recognition of her accomplishment in Varna, the Washington University in St. Louis’ ArtSci Faculty award, and, most recently, the 2009 CORPS de Ballet International Service Award. She recently published, Revealing the Inner Contours of Human Emotion: Preserving the Ballets of Antony Tudor.* Her research interests include: the restaging of master dance works, storytelling and the embodied narrative.
*BUY her book, “Revealing the Inner Contours of Human Emotion: Preserving the Ballets of Antony Tudor” by clicking below:
