Johanna Kepler is a choreographer, creative director, and interdisciplinary researcher whose work explores the intersections of movement, cultural memory, and sustainability in the arts. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Embodied Interdisciplinary Praxis at Duke University, where her research examines the body as a site of cultural knowledge and preservation. Her thesis centers on a methodology she developed called weaving, which integrates dance, visual art, and writing to explore cultural hybridity, ancestral memory, and identity formation.

In 2025, Johanna received two research grants from Duke University to conduct ethnographic fieldwork in Guatemala, where she studied Mayan weaving practices as embodied forms of cultural transmission. Her work is deeply rooted in a commitment to cultural preservation and artistic sustainability, with a focus on how embodied creative practices can serve as tools for both individual healing and collective transformation. She is particularly interested in how artistic methodologies can resist cultural erasure and support community empowerment.

Johanna holds a BFA in Dance with a minor in Latino Studies from the University of Michigan (2020), where she founded Arts in Color, a student organization dedicated to inclusion and equity in the performing arts. During her undergraduate studies, she was awarded the UMS 21st Century Artist Internship, working with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. In 2020, she launched Power of Performing Arts, a digital storytelling project that documented the impact of COVID-19 on over 300 professional artists worldwide. After graduation, she worked at American Ballet Theatre for three years, serving as Executive Assistant to the former Executive Director and later contributing to the Marketing and Communications team.

Her choreographic work has been presented at the American College Dance Association (2018), Harvard University (2022), and Duke University’s November Dances (2024). She has set original work on BoSoma Dance Company (2022) and taught at Mass Motion Dance Academy, the BoSoma School of Dance, and Duke University. She has also presented her research and artistic practice in invited talks at the University of Michigan and the University of South Carolina.