Marcia Custer is a movement and sound-based performance artist with a penchant for both the bizarre and the sublime. Her original work has been performed at Pitchfork Music Festival, Elastic Arts Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, Transformer Station, and basements, backyards, and bookstores across the U.S. Custer’s performance work is rooted in feminist and queer approaches to embodiment, experimental sound, and radical community dance practice. She is a somatic educator and creative producer currently working in Cleveland, Ohio.
Marcia holds a Bachelor of Arts in Dance from Kent State University, where she received the School of Theater and Dance Scholarship Award for Excellence in Creative Scholarship and for Outstanding Choreographer. She received a scholarship to attend Headlong Performance Institute in 2016.
Most recently, she and collaborator Ben Oblivion received an Andy Warhol Foundation Satellite Fund project grant for their ongoing video performance project “Two Divorced Moms.”
“ I make live art that spans genres, but begins at the site of the body and voice. I believe art should be incisive, personal, expansive and challenging.”
Select Creative Work
2020
Peg & Deb: The Karen Kerfuffle (film)
Warhol Foundation Satellite Project || co-creator + performer
2019
The dull edge of danger by OPEN Movement Performance Group
Cleveland Dance Festival || choreographer
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moCa’s LOADED Series
Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland || curator + performer
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Fraud
Maelstrom Collaborative Arts ||| choreographer
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Peg & Deb… The Talk Show: Gal-Entine’s Day
Mistake Lab @ SPACES || co-creator + performer
2018
Stacey (2014-2018)
Pitchfork (Chicago), H0l0 (NYC), Mutual Irradiation (Philadelphia) || creator + performer
2017
i went down to the water and found myselfie there
Cleveland Public Theater || creator + performer
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SPACEBEACH
Resonance Series Chicago || co-creator + performer
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2016
Group Grief
Vox Populi || creator + performer
Kick the Can/ 77 on the Dollar
The Movement Project || choreographer
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Find Myselfie
Theater Ninjas || creator + performer
2015
Two Rooms
SPACES, Cleveland || co-creator + performer
2014
it’s like…
ACDA Informal Showing || choreographer + performer
2013
them/help
Ohio Dance Festival Informal Showing || choreographer + performer
2010
Larry Keigwin’s Bolero
DANCE Cleveland at E.J. Thomas Hall || performer
Select Teaching
2018 - 2020
OPEN Movement
Co-founder and lead instructor
Radical dance classes for adults of all abilities
2020
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Cleveland State University
Guest Lecturer
Dance in Community
Cleveland Institute of Art
Guest Artist
Sculpture & Expanded Media
2019
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Cleveland Institute of Art
Co-Instructor
Performance Art
2018
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Cleveland Institute of Art
Guest Artist
Sculpture & Expanded Media
Baldwin Wallace College
Workshop Facilitator
Making Your Life as an Artist
2017
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Cleveland Institute of Art
Guest Artist
Sculpture & Expanded Media
Honors, Awards, and Select Achievements
2020
Warhol Foundation Satellite Fund Recipient
2016
Headlong Performance Institute Scholarship
2014
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Mary Manchester Award for University-wide Student Leadership
School of Theatre and Dance Award for Outstanding Student Choreographer
G. Harry Wright Award for Excellence in Dance
SDEO Peer Award for Outstanding Student Dance Festival Choreographer
Alpha Psi Omega Award for Outstanding Choreographer, Dr. Faustus
2013
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School of Theatre and Dance Scholarship Award for excellence in creative work and scholarship
Dance Faculty Award for Outstanding Achievement in Creative Achievement
Alpha Psi Omega Award for Outstanding Choreographer, Treachery of Images
2012
Dance Faculty Award for Outstanding Achievement in Service to the Dance Division