“I have been blessed to have Katiti King in my life since she was a young ambitious teenager. Her immense talent was immediately revealed as a dancer and then grew to fruition as a masterful choreographer with her signature movement and as one of the original educators of Simonson Technique™. Organically, the technique is in her bones and this is elevated by her ability to articulate the principles, coupled by a razor sharp eye and mind and a thoughtfulness in knowing when and where correction or encouragement is in need. Simply, Ms. King is the heart and soul of that which I created, Simonson Technique™.”
—Lynn Simonson
Katiti King is a native New Yorker that spent some of her early childhood years in the Caribbean where her father was recruited by Pablo Casals to help develop degree programs and to teach percussion at the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music and the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra. This is where Katiti learned the relation of movement in space with the 7 elements of rhythm and its pattern of sound, silence, and emphasis in song from one of the greatest musicians of the 20th century, Pablo Casals. “The greatest respect an artist can give to music is to give it life” and “don’t play the notes; play the meaning of the notes”, she recalls hearing repeatedly from Mr. Casals. Katiti would later transcribe the latter into dance terms; “don’t just execute the movement, communicate the meaning of those movements”. Both classical music and the traditional Afro-Caribbean, movement, rhythms, and culture continue to be an intrinsic part of Ms. King’s world of dance. Her wonderful parents were both accomplished educators and classically trained music professionals on the world stage. Dance, rhythm and performance is literally in her DNA.
Katiti spent 31 years on faculty teaching Jazz Dance at Barnard College and helping to build their dance program from a 5 person teaching staff and a minors program to a teaching staff of over 50, and a world-renowned majors dance program that serves 3 Universities at Columbia and 1 college (Barnard). Since 1980, as a teenager, Katiti began teaching Simonson Technique™ in NYC and abroad before it was even recognized as a ‘top-8’, world-wide dance discipline and prior to any formal teacher training certification program. Katiti continues to dance, choreograph and educate to diverse audiences at universities, dance schools, workshops, in media and private sessions/classes all across the globe. Communicating through movement and teaching others to do so, dance continues to be Katiti’s mission, honor and her passion. Katiti’s extensive training includes dance disciplines of; Dunham, Simonson, Horton, Graham, Afro-Cuban and Ballet. King proudly states, “my approach to my signature movement and flow is rooted firmly in the African Diaspora’s rich storied heritage of cultural and ritual significance that continues to inspire and shape Jazz Dance today.”
Katiti’s Simonson™ methodology of Contemporary Jazz Dance continues to guide you into mind-body awareness, proper anatomical alignment, technique and rhythm connectivity, all necessary to execute movement deliberately and fluidly while managing an emphasis on injury prevention throughout your dance and movement journey.
Katiti King Danse, Chorégraphie et Bien-être™ @katitiking
