Meet Our Directors >> Meet Our Dancers

Dancing People Company started in 1994, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, when founder Robin Stiehm decided to scale back her performing career in order to devote more time to choreography. We quickly gained a reputation as an innovative and cohesive modern dance company. Before long, we were performing for appreciative audiences all over Minnesota and the Midwest. DPC was invited to perform at several international festivals including those in Poland, Russia and Japan. In fact, we believe we were the first American modern dance company to perform in Belarus!

Our dances ride the fine edge of post-modernism while maintaining a lyricism and humanism that audiences welcome. Our dances are about people and their innate desire to communicate, connect, and discover a common voice. Our work was described by the Mpls. City Pages as "…abstract in the best sense of that elusive term - emotion contained and transfigured by form."

In 2003 DPC relocated to Ashland, Oregon where we are developing a strong base of support. Our company of six dancers performs in Ashland and the surrounding Rogue Valley communities and tours nationally, with a current focus in the Pacific Northwest. We are developing a school and training program that adheres to our philosophy that dance is an accessible art form that illuminates the commonality of human experience- that dance is an important means of expressing our every day lives.


In 2005 Peggy Paver, originally from Tucson, joined the company as Co-Artistic Director. With the addition of her choreographic and teaching expertise, DPC is expanding our education and community involvement programs. We now provide dance and performance opportunities for all members of our Ashland community that focus on giving voice to their stories and experiences. We also conduct workshops in the towns where we tour, which help residents of that community connect and find a shared artistic voice. Through our evocative, virtuosic performances and our profound workshops, people learn to embody the power of dance.