Department of Theatre and Dance

• B.F.A. Contemporary Dance - University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA)
• Certification: Pilates Certification by Body Precision
• Certification: National Academy of Sports Medicine, CPT
• Certification: Franklin Method Level 1 Educator

Taryn Griggs is a dancer, choreographer, Pilates instructor, Franklin Method educator, and Arts Administrator based in Boone, NC. She has been creating, performing, and touring dances with her husband, Chris Yon, since 2002. Their work has been commissioned and presented by (selected listings) the American Dance Festival, North Carolina Dance Festival, Walker Art Center, (Minneapolis), Dance Theater Workshop (NYLA), The Kitchen, La Mama (NYC), Velocity (Seattle), ODC (San Francisco), Project Art Center (Dublin), Cite Danse (Grenoble), and Tangente (Montreal). Recent choreographic explorations have taken place in museum and gallery spaces throughout North Carolina and have been presented at the Greenhill Gallery (Greensboro), The Turchin Center for Visual Arts (Boone), North Carolina Museum of Art (Raleigh), SECCA (Winston Salem) and the Nasher Museum of Art (Durham). They have received support from the North Carolina Arts Council in 2022 and through a 2024 North Carolina Choreographic Fellowship at Trillium Arts.

As a performer active in the dance communities of New York, Minneapolis and now North Carolina, Griggs has danced with Mary Cochran, Sara Hook, Susan Rethorst, Irish Modern Dance Theatre, Liz Roche/Rex Levitates, Anna Sperber, Johannes Wieland, Ivy Baldwin, Tori Lawrence, Karinne Keithley Syers, Sara Smith, Yoshiko Chuma, Sara Rudner, Hijack, Jodi Melnick, David Neumann, Joanna Kotze and Netta Yerushalmy. She has been honored to receive a Sage Award for performance, and a McKnight fellowship for Dance.

Griggs taught at UNCSA from 2017-2024 and was awarded UNCSA Faculty Leadership Grants administered by the Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts in 2021, 2022, and 2023. She is currently the Co-director of the Festival of North Carolina Dance at UNCSA and maintains an active teaching practice in Contemporary Dance, Composition, Improvisation, Pilates, and Franklin Method.