Maya June Dwyer is a New York–based interdisciplinary performing artist and director/choreographer who creates highly theatrical, design-forward choreographic works in unexpected places. Her projects plunge audiences into secret worlds built within nightclubs, freight elevators, and historic mansions, where they experience story from exhilarating proximity.

 

Maya’s experience growing up working class in Syracuse, a city marked by dramatic socioeconomic disparity, fuels her interest in interclass tension and shifting power. The psychophysical imprint of the patriarchy is also intrinsically linked to her creative inquiries, and a central fascination of her work is how intrusive psychological impulses—planted by external systems—exert control over a body’s animation. This translates into a movement style with a billowing, supernatural texture interrupted by physical glitches seemingly compelled by external entities.

 

With a passion for composing, sound design, and practical lighting, Maya frequently scores her own pieces and integrates unlikely lighting instruments controlled by dancers. Her interdisciplinary approach summons folkloric, character-driven storytelling influences while experimenting with contemporary tools. Key inspirations include Teaċ Daṁsa, Kidd Pivot,  and DV8 Physical Theatre.

 

Maya’s training is an eclectic jigsaw puzzle: two self-designed B.A.s from SUNY Empire State (in Movement Theatre and Community Engagement Through the Arts) and intensive company training with Hofesh Shechter, Pilobolus, PUSH Physical Theatre, Meredith Monk, Third Rail Projects, and Punchdrunk. Additional training includes Espace Ouvert’s Big Bang contemporary dance program (Montréal) and Directors Lab North (Toronto). Her trajectory has been shaped by mentorships with choreographers Kimberly Bartosik and Adam Barruch.

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Maya’s performance work spans theatre, puppetry, movement, music, and film. Recent roles include Levi in the touring puppet musical Levi’s Relic; Harper in Angels in America, Part I; The Chosen in PUSH Physical Theatre’s Dracula National Tour; and her solo work Mad Scene, a dance-theatre installation embodying Nina’s monologue from The Seagull set to a nightmare techno score.

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As a freelance director/choreographer and teaching artist, Maya works with regional theaters, K–12 schools, community organizations, and universities, including The Redhouse Arts Center, Breadcrumbs Productions, Syracuse University, and Le Moyne College, where she frequently guest directs, choreographs mainstage productions, and teaches acting and movement. In 2025, Maya choreographed her first music video—Ox Hunt’s Love—depicting a mercurial relationship between two men through a sweeping physical duet across Syracuse’s urban landscape, leading to a final sequence in the fountain of the Everson Museum of Art at midnight.

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In December 2025, Maya will wrap up a 6 week long artist residency in Joshua Tree, California. Her 2026 projects include co-directing and choreographing the musical Edgar and the Red Room at The Hope Theatre in London (UK directing debut), directing and choreographing Spring Awakening at Le Moyne College, and choreographing Jagged Little Pill at The Redhouse.