Justice Miles is a biracial dance artist, choreographer, and scholar. 

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Miles is a dance artist, choreographer and scholar. Miles has served as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance at Cottey College, where she taught Choreography, Dance Company, Traditional Dance, and Beginning Dance and directed a spring and fall dance concert at Cottey College. Miles has also been visiting adjunct faculty at Washington & Lee University serving as co-artistic visionary and rehearsal director for the winter term University student dance concert which featured choreography from four national black choreographers set on students to live orchestral music composed by African American composers Duke Ellington, Mary Watkins and Florence Price. 

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Miles has been a Music, Race, and Social Justice Artist in Residence at the Metropolitan State University where she performed and presented her choreographic work "Soul of Flowers" featuring dancers Rhianna Cranston, Anabella Owens, and Layla Jordan and musical duo Solazur.Miles has been selected to be one of three artists in residence for the Create Award at Art Gym Denver where she made an experimental dance film based on botanical research titled Floral Tea. Floral Tea was selected to be streamed for ModArts Move to Change Festival and an excerpt, Nymphaea, was performed live at the Collegium of African Diasporan Dance (CADD) Conference at Duke University's Rubenstein Arts Center, Colorado College, and the Mile High Dance Festival. She's also performed in the Somebody's Friend Music & Movement Festival and had an opportunity to do a flamenco performance with Spanish Broom and perform as an apprentice for a Davis Contemporary Dance Gala.

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Miles has presented excerpts of her MFA thesis work Ink on Cotton which explored African American history and imagery through contemporary dance and flamenco and was invited to perform excerpts as an emerging choreographer at Meira Goldberg’s international conference The Body Questions: Celebrating Flamenco’s Tangled Roots at the Fashion Institue in New York City.  Miles was also invited to present her dissertation research on Carmen Amaya and Josephine Baker at the international bilingual conference Indígenas, africanos, roma and europeos: Ritmos transatlánticos en música, canto y baile in Veracruz, Mexico. Miles's first journal article, The Modern Synthesis of Josephine Baker and Carmen Amaya, edited by Raquel Paraíso, K. Meira Goldberg, Jessica Gottfried, and Antoni Pizá, was published with the journal Música Oral de Sur. Miles had the opportunity to present this article at a virtual Front Row at the International Association of Blacks in Dance (moderated by Dr. Meira Goldberg) and the 8th Biennial New Perspectives in Flamenco History and Research Symposium (virtually). Miles has also presented her research 'Dancing for the Dead: Exploring Ancestral Afro-Diasporic Water Spirit Stories in Dance Creation Process" about her in progress choreographic work influenced by her summer travel to Spain. 

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Miles received a terminal MFA in dance and choreography from the University of New Mexico. During this time, Miles had the opportunity to study with flamenco guest artists from Spain such as Adrian Santana, Jesús Carmona, Agueda Saavedra, Tacha, and Daniel Doña. Miles also had the opportunity to perform choreography by Dana Tai Soon Burgess and Adrian Santana for the UNM faculty dance concerts. For summer study, Miles attended summer workshops from Javier Latorre, Sara Calero, and Fernando Jiménez at the Albuquerque flamenco festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico, one week of the Fundación de Cristina Heeren summer intensive with Beatriz Rivero and Javier Baron in Seville, Spain, workshops with Carlos dos Santos and Lauren Philson at Cleo Parker Robinson Summer Dance Institute in Denver, CO, and Ballet Hispanico’s Choreolab summer program in New York City. Miles was also selected for the Flamenco Vivo's developing artist program.

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Miles received her BA in Dance from Colorado College where she had the opportunity to study with guest artist Eiko Otake and had the opportunity to perform in works by Anusha Kedhar, Shawn Womack, Patrizia Herminjard, Ron Jules, and Nail Ibragimov for faculty dance concerts. Miles also studied Balinese dance with Ketut Marni and performed traditional Balinese dances at Colorado College.  Miles also learned about old-school flamenco from guitarist René Heredia. During her undergraduate studies, she had the opportunity to study abroad in Granada, Spain for a semester with IES and participate in an administrative internship with La Escuela de Lucía Guarnido.  Miles choreographed various works during her time at Colorado College including Sechita for Idris Goodwin’s production of Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf and choreographed an evening-length work titled Aceite en Agua: Oil in Water, which featured various works exploring the in-between space of flamenco and contemporary dance. Miles’s excerpt of Aceite en Agua was presented at the faculty dance concert and was one of thirteen pieces selected for the gala at the American College Dance Festival in Laramie, Wyoming. Upon graduation, Miles received the Colorado College Broadway Theatre League Award. 

 

Miles also has had the opportunity to be an Administrative Executive Affairs Intern and Fellow for the International Association of Blacks in Dance. During her Diversity in the Arts Internship at Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, Miles also had the opportunity to teach flamenco fusion at the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Global Children's Camp for the International Summer Dance Institute where she taught fundamentals of flamenco and part of the Sevillanas to children age 5-13. Miles also obtained a Costume Design and Wardrobe Certificate from the Fashion Institute of Technology and has an ESL certification from the International TEFL Academy.

 

Miles continues to create work that explores race, gender, and identity and she works towards creating an inclusive dance world that is open to people of all ages, races, sexual orientations, and abilities.

Justice for All. Dance for All.