Natasha McCandless earned a B.A. in Theatre (Dance Concentration) and a B.S. in Secondary Education (English Language Arts Concentration) from Penn State University in 2017. After graduating Summa Cum Laude, she moved to New York City, where she continued to train, create, and perform. Notably, she created a curated performance series on her Brooklyn rooftop in order to showcase new work. A desire to further pursue her personal pedagogy and choreography practices led her to the University at Buffalo, where she is thrilled to serve as a Teaching Assistant in the MFA Dance cohort.  

Natasha’s current research – supported by a secondary emphasis in Educational Psychology – identifies pedagogical strategies to foster emotional wellness for dance students. Her work is garnering recognition beyond the UB community: she was recently awarded a Public Humanities Grant through Humanities New York in support of her thesis research, and she presented her paper “Made of Water: Emotion and Touch in Pedagogical Spaces” at the national Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) conference in August 2023.

During her time at UB, Natasha has performed in both thesis and faculty work, while her choreography has been presented in the Emerging Choreographer’s Showcase, Twelfth Night, and the Informal ChoreoLab showing, as well as two annual MFA Showcases. She was awarded a Judge’s Choice Award at the 2023 Art of Research Competition for an image of her choreographic work “mirth shorn” (presented in the Fall 2022 MFA Showcase). Additionally, a highlight of her time at UB was Co-Choreographing the department’s production of Rogers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella with Director James Beaudry.  

She has also enjoyed getting to know the Buffalo theatre community; credits include Cabaret with Second Generation Theatre (Helga/Dance Captain) and Guys and Dolls with Musical Fare (Ensemble).