Biography
Caitlin E. Mahon grew up attending Holbrook Wade School of Dance, in Oneonta, NY (studying Horton, Hip Hop, Contemporary Jazz, Tap, Cecchetti & Vaganova ballet). Mahon graduated Magna Cum Laude from SUNY Brockport with her Bachelor of Science degree, and Honors College degree, in Dance, Environmental Science and Political Science in 2014 and earned her Master of Fine Arts in 2017. Mahon has been teaching and choreographing at Nazareth University since 2019. Caitlin has implemented and created Jazz, & Hip Hop (theory & embodiment) programs at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, Syracuse University, Nazareth University and Colorado Mesa University (2023 - 2024).
When Mahon was a child, she was engulfed by the dance forms of Tap and Hip Hop. They spoke to her. Forms closely tethered to the African Diaspora, without knowing that at the time. Later on in her dance life, she performed for Clyde Afanju Morgan (Ghanaian and West African Fusion), Dr. Zelma Badu Younge (Afro-Fusion), Telly Fowler (Hip Hop/Street Jazz), Bill Evans (Tap) among many others. Later becoming co artistic director of SANKOFA: African Dance and Drum ensemble - alongside Master Khalid Salem. She has additionally danced for Frazee Feet Dance (Contemporary Ballet), WILD BEAST dance (Contemporary), MPdanceworks (Contemporary), inFLUXdance (Contemporary) & beyond.
Along with teaching and performing Mahon is excited to share her passions and interests with future communities through the vehicle of MAYHEM//dance — Premiering at Mark Morris Dance Center (2017). To create and share choreography is the fulfilling fuel to her life.
Teaching Philosophy
Facilitating the discovery of students’ bodies and lives in new manners is one of the most fulfilling aspects of Mahon's life. Whether it is a modern technique class, a dance history class, a non major dance class, or a dance composition class, she aims to guide students in a safe and open environment where the art form of dance can be studied, investigated, and explored while simultaneously demonstrating how dance is interdisciplinary and intersects with our multifaceted world at large.
Her cognizance of knowing she does not possess all of the answers is invaluable to Mahon's teaching. This transparency grants students permission in classes to celebrate their own manner of thinking even if it counters her own. Not only do the values of collaborative pedagogy and individual thought enrich students’ educational experiences, but these values also continue to enrich her own because her students continue to teach her so much. This environment of mutual respect between the construct of students and teacher is an environment she aims to foster.
Even though she places immense value on the individual in the classroom, Mahon never desires for students to become complacent; therefore, she has always placed value on rigor: physical rigor in modern, West African, and hip hop classes, thoughtful rigor in dance history classes, as well as creative rigor in dance composition classes. Mahon invites students to push themselves in their own ways to become more realized versions of their beings.
View Mahon's Curriculum Vitae
Follow Mahon on Instagram: @mayhem.dance