Department of Theatre and Dance

• MFA, The University of Iowa - Choreography
• BFA, New York University - Dance

Chris Yon is a teacher, choreographer, and performer. He mostly performs, choreographs, and sometimes curates, with and for Taryn Griggs. As a performer, he has also worked with and for Yoshiko Chuma, Justin Jones, David Neumann, Karinne Keithley Syers, and Kristin Van Loon.

Yon’s choreographies have been presented at American Dance Festival, Dance Theater Workshop, Performance Space 122, La Mama, Symphony Space, The Kitchen, Danspace Project, Gershwin Hotel, CBGB's, The Knitting Factory, Walker Art Center, The Southern Theater, Bryant Lake Bowl, Philadelphia Dance Project, ODC Theater, Velocity Dance Center, Highways Performance Space, Pieter, Project Art Centre (Dublin), Tangente (Montreal), CiteDanse (Grenoble), Legion Arts (Cedar Rapids), and Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (Winston-Salem). His work has been commissioned by The Danish National School of Performing Arts (Copenhagen), The Wooden Floor (Santa Ana), Irish Modern Dance Theatre (Dublin), d9 dance collective (Seattle), North Carolina Dance Festival, and Greenhill Gallery.

Yon has had residencies and space grants from Trillium Arts, Maggie Allessee National Choreographic Center, The Yard, SILO and BAX. Co-founder of Ur, your neighborhood dance palace in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 2003-2005. Recipient: 2003 NYFA Fellowship for Performance Art, 2005 BESSIE Award for Performance, 2009 SAGE Award for Choreography, 2011 McKnight Artist Fellowship for Choreography, 2015 City Pages Best Choreographer, and a 2024 North Carolina Choreographic Fellowship from Trillium Arts.

Since 2022, Yon has been collaborating and performing with Taryn Griggs and their daughter Bea as The Yoggs. The Yoggs have presented their family show at The Southern Theater in Minneapolis, Dance Limerick in Ireland, La MaMa in New York, and co-presented by the Nasher Museum and American Dance Festival in Durham.

Since moving to North Carolina, Yon has taught at Appalachian State University, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and Wake Forest University. He started full-time as an Assistant Professor at Appalachian State University in Fall 2024.

Website: https://chrisandtaryn.com