08/31/2026
Amanda Benzin is a somatically-conscious, rhythmically and passionately driven educator, Emmy-Award-winning performer, choreographer, scholar-artist, and administrator. She holds an MFA in Dance from CU Boulder with concentrations in performance, choreography, somatics, women and gender studies and pedagogy. She graduated summa cm laude from the University at Buffalo with a BFA in Dance and minor in Business Administration. Benzin was a member of the Chicago-based rhythm jazz dance company Jump Rhythm Jazz Project touring nationally and internationally and receiving an Emmy Award for her work in the multiple-Emmy-Award-winning documentary JRJP: Getting There. She has performed, worked, and studied with diverse artists, including Gesel Mason, Erika Randall, Rennie Harris, Nii Armah Sowah, Nada Diachenko, Erika Berland, Tim O’Donnell, Jonathon Scott, Teena Marie Custer, Ananya Chatterjea, Billy Siegenfeld, Jeannie Hill, Gus Giordano, Frank Hatchet, Roberto Villanueva, Brandon Ellis, Robert Reed, Bill T. Jones, Doug Varone, Denise Vail, In Young Sohn of Korea, and Eager Artists of South Africa, across numerous genres of dance.
Her teaching experience includes jazz, tap, modern, contemporary, hip hop, musical theatre, improvisation, choreography, and pedagogy to children and adults of all ages in many arenas across the country. Her research, musical theatre and dance choreography have recently been presented at Niagara University, Music is Art Festival, UB’s Zodiaque Dance Company, Colorado Mesa University, American College Dance Association, Alma College, DSA’s Conference at University of Malta, Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities. Benzin previously served as Assistant Professor of Dance and Dance Program Coordinator at Colorado Mesa University. She is currently the Associate Director of The Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy at the University at Buffalo School of Law and Senior Lecturer in Dance at Niagara University.
UBHornsUp University at Buffalo University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences
