Monica Brady-Barnard first found comfort in movement creation after the birth of her first child in 2010.  A B.S. in Dance and four more kids later she's pretty positive she can do anything.  During her time at Wayne State University she focused heavily on choreographic techniques. Heavily influenced by her experiences as a mother and a woman she was awarded The Copperfoot Award for excellence in choreography in 2017.
Since graduating Monica has continued to create and produce her own work. Her work has been showcased in venues such as, Artlab J, Kristi Faulkner Dance (REGENERATE and Woman's Work), Brighton Dance Festival, Wayne State University, American College Dance Association, Sidewalk Festival Detroit, Oakland Dance Festival, Henry Ford College, RAW Detroit/Boston, and Detroit Fringe Festival.

Monica's personal style continues to grow and change as she uses movement to better understand her life experiences as well as others. Recently she has been interested in duration performance, creating work 30 min-2 hours in length. She finds beauty in simplicity and everyday gestures that might otherwise go unnoticed.  She hopes to give the audience an opportunity to connect to the work by allowing moments for them to see themselves. Her hope is that this "mirror effect" will cultivate meaningful conversations between people.
She is a sister, mother, daughter, artist, wife, friend, lover of comic books, Harry Potter, glitter and the color black. When choreographing she sees herself as a collage artist. Her process is conversational.  She enjoys collaborating with other artists to create a common movement vocabulary, allowing everyone to step outside their own experiences. The classes that Monica teaches are an extension of her creative process.  In class she explores choreography as a science that can allow movers to better explore and interject personal style into structured phrase work.
In her free time Monica enjoys spending time with her four daughters Lavender, Ursula, and Cosima, and Wanda. She can often be found taking long walks in the middle of the night or curled up with a good book.

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