Beginning in Los Angeles, she formally trained at Los Angeles Ballet Academy under the direction of Ms. Andrea Paris-Gutierrez where she completed Royal Academy of Dance coursework through Advanced 2 passing with distinction in 2015. At the same time, she trained with a multitude of significant dancers and choreographers in the commercial industry at institutions such as Debbie Allen Dance Academy and EDGE Performing Arts Center where she acquired versatility in jazz, hip-hop, tap, ballet, contemporary, and others. Notably, Polly worked intimately with tap legends Greg Russell, Ryan Lohoff, Jason Samuels Smith, and Kathy Nicolas, to name a few. 

 

Her multi-faceted training resulted in a unique versatility that led her to refine her technique and further her studies at the university level. Polly achieved a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance at New York University’s acclaimed Tisch School of the Arts under the direction of Sean Curran, and a minor in Art History specializing in Renaissance and Baroque art and architecture. At NYU, she had the privilege of working intimately with faculty Rashaun Mitchell, Betsy Coker, Pam Pietro, Jolinda Menendez, Giada Ferrone, Patricia Beaman, and Andy Teirstein, and guest artists Ralph Lemon, Bobbi Jene Smith, Richard Chen See, Ron K. Brown, Eleanor Bauer, David Dorfman, Bill T. Jones. In 2017, Polly was selected to participate in an exchange program at Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance where she worked closely with Anton Lachky. To supplement her training, Polly attended numerous international dance festivals and intensives such as P.A.R.T.S. in Brussels where she learned repertory of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, founder of Rosas, and ImPulsTanz festival where among participating in workshops, she was selected for an original evening length production by Ismael Ivo. In 2018, Polly was selected by faculty member Dr. Andy Teirstein to join Translucent Borders, a “project exploring ways that dancers and musicians can engage across geographic, cultural, and economic borders.” She traveled to Santiago de Cuba with Valerie Naranjo, James Martin, Joel Hanna, and Olga Hiva to perform at Fidanz Fest, an international festival of dance and music.

 

Also during her time at NYU, Polly was recognized early as a gifted choreographer and went on to choreograph eight original works in her three years of study. Collaborating with composer John Taylor Arnold in 2017, Polly choreographed a piece entitled Bow & Lyre that would go on to be selected for the major senior concert in 2018, and later revived in 2019 for a performance at Peridance Capezio Center in New York. She went on to choreograph another piece entitled th(!)rds in collaboration with Arnold that premiered at Triskelion Arts in New York in 2019. 

 

Polly has had the opportunity to work with and perform both original choreography and repertory by Paul Taylor, MADBOOTS, Loni Landon, Hofesh Shechter, Vertigo Dance, Anton Lachky, Johannes Wieland, Jason Mabana, and others, and was selected to participate in Springboard Danse Montreal in 2020. Additionally, Polly has assisted numerous choreographers, traveling the country and setting more than 50 dances at studios, schools, and institutions.

 

In the wake of the pandemic, Polly saw an opportunity to further her studies and was accepted to New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study Master’s program under the advisement of Dr. Eugenia Kisin, and was a recipient of the Richard J. Koppenaal Scholarship, named in honor of the previous dean and awarded to a select number of incoming students who have exhibited superior academic achievement. She was fortunate to study with great scholars in the arts like Julie Malnig, Richard Move, Nina Kathadourian, and Malik Gaines, as well as prominent anthropologists Rayna Rapp and Tejaswini Ganti. Focusing her studies on the intersection of cultural anthropology and the infrastructures of arts economies, Polly authored a thesis entitled Defining Contemporary Dance: The Temporality of Method and the Embodiment of History, and designed a zine called on contemporary dance. The zine serves as a practical supplement to the thesis, offering insight that speaks to the current state of contemporary dance in the US and engages with dancers, choreographers, scholars, and archival material through her own observations and assertions embedded in an abstraction of photographs, sketches, text, and design.

 

Since graduation, Polly has continued working as a freelance dancer, choreographer, and teacher in Los Angeles. Most recently, saw an opportunity to further contemporary dance in Los Angeles and founded Hexis Dance Company in 2026. Hexis is a hybrid professional and pre-professional contemporary dance company that is committed to innovation on stage and on screen. You can learn more about the company at www.hexisdance.com. Additionally, Polly is currently on faculty at several dance studios in the Greater Los Angeles area and teaches and choreographs in a wide variety of styles. Polly is committed to continued engagement with and contribution to the field of dance studies and is excited by the potential to participate in international discourse and choreography.

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*Full CV available upon request