Simon Montalvo is a non-binary/transgender movement artist and choreographer born on the land of the Coahuiltecan and Karankawan peoples, now known as South Texas. Over the past 6 years, they’ve been living on the land of the Pawtucket and Massachusett peoples, now referred to as Boston. Since graduating from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee in 2022 with a BFA in Contemporary Dance Performance with an emphasis in Composition and Pedagogy, they’ve been focusing on somatic based and person-oriented movement practices. In 2023 they were awarded a Studio Space Grant through Urbanity Dance to continue in their creative process journey. Their creative approach is centered around healing, community, and growth; holding movement practice and healing as one interchangeable entity. They’re excited about the possibilities of using improv, mixed media, literature, research, and collaboration to create new works. Their past works have explored experiences of the home, love, family and power structures, gender and sexuality, and joy. Simon's teaching philosophy is collaborative and community centered. They like to empower their movement artists to listen to their bodies first, explore and get curious second, and create or learn movement phrasing third. They view learning movement as a process based in community and collaboration, and love to explore new ideas and experiment with each unique set of dancers.