HILARY GRUMMAN

Hilary Grumman is a Seattle-based artist, educator, and community organizer. Drawing on training with international practitioners, and 14 years of personal floorwork research, Hilary co-founded Undercurrent in 2017 as a dance company committed to nurturing floorwork technique, experiential design, multi-media performance, and care-centered community building.

After growing up in Washington and earning her BFA from CalArts, Hilary pursued floorwork training with Piso Móvil, Psico-Físico, RUBBERBAND, Flying Low, Jorge Crecis, Adam Barruch, Tunç Leech Lisovest Parkour, Ihsan Rustem, Moving Air, Duela-Cemento, A Surprised Body, CONTINUUM, and Ákos Hargitay's Bodyparkour. Deepening her research, she was awarded an Annual Residency at Delfos Danza in Sinaloa, Mexico, a Season Residency at London Contemporary Dance School in the UK, and a Summer Festival Scholarship at ImPulsTanz in Vienna, Austria. Weaving these methods into her own investigations, she has cultivated a cohesive, injury-preventative approach to fluid floorwork sequencing, challenging inversions, and immersive movement exploration. In 2025, she launched the Undercurrent Research Lab, where dance artists are paid to collaboratively continue to deepen and develop the possibilities of this kinesthetic vocabulary.

Since 2017, Hilary has been an Artist in Residence at Fremont Abbey Arts Center, researching with local artists (most intimately, Alethea Alexander) and leading 2-3 drop-in Undercurrent classes per week. She helps organize social, political, creative, outdoor, and mutual aid events for the community, including retreats, backpacking trips, swimming days, dancer dinners, public shows, protest caravans, voting support, grocery deliveries, and guest artist residencies. Additionally, she is a Kawasaki Artist in Residence at the University of Washington and an adjunct professor Cornish College of the Arts. She has led pop-up floorwork workshops globally, including at FIDCDMX, New York City Center, Mark Morris Dance Center, Peridance Center, AWID Forum Brazil, The Dance Complex Boston, Spectrum Dance Theater, Bodies of Empowerment SF, EDGE Ciudad de México, Mosswood Hollow Retreat Center, and Velocity’s Professional Cohort of Seattle Festival of Dance + Improvisation (SFD+I, FKA Strictly Seattle). She also loves hosting workshops with other floorwork practitioners and has had the pleasure of teaming up with Nicole von Arx / NVA&GUESTS, Babatunji Johnson, Ground Grooves, 2nd Best Dance Company, Lavinia Vago, Tom Weinberger, Elia Mrak, RUBBERBAND dancers, et al. She has performed in Seattle, Mazatlán, London, Vienna, Tijuana, Montreal, Lewiston, Valencia, and Los Angeles. Her choreographic commissions include new works for Walk Don’t Run, University of Washington’s KAIR, CO—, Actualize AiR, Cornish Dance Theater, Seattle Art Fair, Sessions in Place, The Round, Ode at Mini Mart City Park, Kaylee Elizabeth, Studio Current Sessions, and Starbucks, and she was previously a collaborative member of Daniel Costa Dance, Yaya by Liv Fauver, and The Royal Society.

In addition to dance, she has worked in the human rights sector since 2011, radicalizing philanthropy practices internationally, advocating for Indigenous-led grassroots movements (including Native Movement and Grassroots Global Justice), contributing to Grassroots International’s Solidarity in Action Host Committee and EDGE’s Global Engagement Lab, and serving as Vice President for the CarEth Foundation. She has also worked for Wave Books, the poetry publisher of her former mentors Maggie Nelson, Anthony McCann, Harry Dodge, and Eileen Myles.

Further information about Hilary+Undercurrent’s offerings can be found on our home page.