Margaret Paek   Margaret Paek is a collaborative performing and teaching dance artist. Since 1997, she has been dedicated to furthering the individual artist within a shared creative process. To that end, she has created works with the collectives Lower Left, GROUP, UpSideDown, Off the Hip, Project LIMB, Team Djordjevich, and with Charlie Mosey, Melissa Guerrero, and Loren Kiyoshi Dempster. Her cooperative and individual work has been presented at venues including Sushi Performance & Visual Art in San Diego, ODC in San Francisco, Dixon Place, Starr Street Productions, and Danspace at St. Mark's Church in New York. The San Diego Dance Alliance awarded her a "Tommy" for duet ensemble performance in Jane Blount's Linefold in 2000. Since instructing her first Contact Improvisation course in 1998, Ms. Paek continues to find inspiration through teaching. She has been adjunct faculty at California State University at San Marcos, guest taught at a variety of universities and studios across the U.S., and worked abroad for the Swedish Dance Alliance and the International Contact Festival in Freiburg, Germany. With other Lower Left artists, she organizes and facilitates programs she co-founded such as "Construction Site", "Dance Ranch", and "March 2 Marfa". In New York, she is an adjunct professor at Manhattanville College and is a Movement Research faculty member. Though she began her training as a young gymnast, she has since been influenced by her studies of dance, improvisation, performance art, and Alexander technique. Nina Martin's Rewire States and Lower Left's Ensemble Thinking and Creative Research techniques have been integral to her artistic development. Graduated cum laude from University of California at San Diego in 1997, she majored in Psychology and minored in Theatre Dance. She regularly travels to Marfa, TX where she serves on the Board of Marfa Live Arts and develops performing arts programs for the Marfa community. Ms. Paek has authored an article published by the Contact Quarterly. Currently, she also coaches gymnastics and creates a home in the lovely community of Woodside, New York.