Originally from Silicon Valley, California, Aurora Vaughan (she/they) is currently a freelance dance artist based in New York City. She graduated in May 2021 with a BFA in Dance from the University of Southern California Glorya Kaufman School of Dance and a Performance Science Minor from the USC Marshall School of Business, which includes studies in biology, psychology, and business, with the intent of optimizing mindsets, maximizing performance and creating a culture of high performance within organizations. While in school, they had the honor of performing works by Crystal Pite, William Forysthe, Sonya Tayeh, Jiri Kylian, Andrew Winghart, and Barak Marshall. 

 

Aurora transfuses her work with technological and musical collaborations, all informed by her experiences as a queer person. She augments her dancing by traveling globally to study with esteemed artists such as Cindy Salgado, Ayman Harper, Shannon Gillen, Ella Rothschild, and more, as well as training in acting and vocal performance. They teach dance in the New York and New Jersey areas, as well as frequently return to the Bay Area to set choreography and teach at local studios.

 

Aurora is professionally dancing in the contemporary/dance theater fields and creates process-driven collaborations with artists of all backgrounds, with the goal of experiencing the multitude of intersections between forms. The creators challenge themselves, each other, and audiences to consider their actions and reactions from different lenses, in hopes that new information can produce reifications of equality, equity, consciousness, and engagement, both artistically and not.