Julianne O’Brien Pedersen has a background in the field of dance as a performer, choreographer, academic leader, and dance educator. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Connecticut College, a Master of Fine Arts from the Ohio State University, and is certified yoga instructor and Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst.

Prior to joining Chapman University, she served as the Dean of the School of Dance at Dean College in Massachusetts and as program director and professor at Eastern Michigan University. She teaches modern techniques, pedagogy, dance history, yoga, Bartenieff Fundamentals, Laban movement analysis, improvisation, and choreography.

Julianne performed as a founding member and soloist for fourteen years with the Peter Sparling Dance Company. While with Sparling, who was a member of both the Limon Company and the Graham Company, she had the opportunity to train deeply in two foundational modern techniques. She has also had the privilege of performing with William (Bill) Evans, and in repertory by Isadora Duncan set by Lori Bellilove. She has choreographed more than sixty works that have been seen in venues across the states and in El Salvador and received recognition for choreography including funding from the US Embassy in El Salvador, and selection for the American College Regional Dance Festival finale.

An interest in K–12 movement integration curriculum has spanned two decades: receiving several grants from the Michigan Association for the Education of Young Children to work with under-served middle schoolers; working with the Malashock Dance School on teaching residencies and math in motion curriculum; and spear- heading movement curriculum into MA public schools in partnership with college internship programs.

She has presented at numerous conferences, most recently including the Somatic Dance Conference (2022), The National Association for Schools of Dance (2023), The National Dance Education Conference (2023), and the Dance and the Child International Conference (2024).