Heather Coker Hawkins is a filmmaker-choreographer and teacher originally from Southwest Missouri. She holds an M.F.A. in Film Production with a specialization in Directing from Chapman University and an M.F.A. in Dance from UCLA. Heather makes films, as well as, live physical theater and dance pieces with integrated video projection. Her work choreographs the audience’s eye using bodily and perceptual movement to communicate the ‘other side of the story’ and a ‘closer look into the world of’ representations of the human (body) in multiple social and cinematic contexts.

Heather’s live and film projects have been presented at Live Arts Los Angeles, DanceSpot, UCLA, MSU, ACDF, OsCene: Contemporary Art & Culture in OC Festival at the Laguna Art Museum, and Fowler Museum’s Fowler Out Loud! program. She has had the pleasure to choreograph for films that screened at the Sundance Film Festival, Houston WorldFest, Big Bear Film Festival, Show-Me Missouri International Film Festival, and the International Video Dance Festival of Burgundy. A few of her performance credits include dancing at ADF, LACMA, Pomona Art Walk, and in Matthew Barney’s film Cremaster 3. Heather’s industry experience ranges from researcher to casting associate, fiction to non-fiction film and television: An Inconvenient Truth (P.A. and researcher); Samsara (researcher); NCIS: LA and CSI: Miami (casting). She has enjoyed many collaborative engagements filming or editing colleagues’ ethnographic and dance films. Other adventures include serving as a cameraperson and editor for numerous live events and performances, and producing promotional video campaigns.

Heather has taught in the Department of World Arts & Cultures/Dance at UCLA and at AMDA College and Conservatory of the Performing Arts in Los Angeles. She is a certified kundalini yoga instructor from which she has learned the invaluable lesson that a teacher facilitates the student’s firsthand experience. Only then will the student truly understand and take responsibility for their own development. As a lifelong student, Heather takes her own lessons to heart, ever seeking opportunities to unlearn habits and grow, trying on a fresh perspective whenever possible, wherever applicable.