​Hiie Saumaa, Estonia / United States / France

​Hiie Saumaa (Ph.D., Columbia), is a dance writer/scholar and movement educator. Her dance writings explore interconnections between dance, movement imagination, and creativity. She is currently working on a book on the unpublished writings and artwork of the choreographer Jerome Robbins. Her articles have appeared or are forthcoming in Dance Research Journal, Dance Chronicle, the Journal of Dance, Movement & Spiritualities, Somatics Journal/Magazine, Journal for Alternative and Complementary Therapies, Journal of Dance and Somatic Practices, and Routledge Companion to Dance Studies.

In 2018-2019, Saumaa was an inaugural fellow at Columbia's interdisciplinary Institute for Ideas & Imagination in Paris. In 2017, she was a fellow at the Dance Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. As a certified instructor of Nia dance, the BodyLogos© Technique, and JourneyDance™, Saumaa teaches courses and classes in sensory-based dance modalities, creative movement, expressive arts, meditative strength training, and somatic awareness. She is currently doing a residency at Cite Internationale des Arts, where she collaborates with other artists on movement and art projects. In 2019-2020 Hiie will join faculty of the Paris College of Art.