About Hannah Martha Cohen Banks

Hannah Martha Cohen Banks is a choreographer and “dancing theologian”. She currently leads the Dance Ministry at Grace Capital City in Washington, D.C. where she also serves as the Director of Justice and Operations. Banks earned her M.A. in Theological Studies degree at Duke University’s Divinity School where she focused on dance and the Divine. She also earned her M.A. in Performance Studies from NYU Tisch. She holds a B.A. in Dance and a B.A. in Film Studies and Production from Hofstra University.

During her time in NYC, Hannah Martha Cohen Banks worked closely with her dance mentor, Robin Becker, as administrative support for her dance company Robin Becker Dance. There, she spearheaded the fundraising, marketing, and public relations efforts for the dance film Into Sunlight which was most recently featured at Dance on Camera at Lincoln Center.

Also during her time in New York, Banks served as the Co-Founder of Je Suis, an NYC artists networking group of over 1,100 artists.

Hannah Martha Cohen Banks has worked and performed world wide. During her time at Giada Ferrone’s Toscana Dance Hub at the Florence Dance Center in Italy, she participated as a guest choreographer. There, she choreographed and performed works at the Florence Dance Festival at the Bargello. Her works have also been performed on various stages and festivals in NYC and DC. Banks has also led dance intensives across the country teaching groups of various age and skill levels.

Banks was the Artistic Director of Neshamah (2014-2018) - a dance company that utilized intentional structures paired with the organic movement of dancers to develop sympathetically resonant choreography that contemplates metaphysics.

Neshamah’s most recent piece is titled Voyager . This project was inspired by NASA’s Voyager I and II and was produced in collaboration with Alon Ilsar and his Airsticks. Voyager was performed at NASA’s 2017 Annual Astronomy Festival on the National Mall in an inflatable planetarium a stone's throw away from the Washington Monument.

Prior to the performance on the National Mall, Neshamah hosted a work-in-progress showing at The Kraine Theater in New York City. The show featured a performance of Voyager and included a panel discussion with notable experts in the fields of performance and dramatic arts, astronomy, aviation, physics and jet propulsion including Kiran Rajagopalan, Jason Kendall, Dr. Tony Schultz, and Dr. Donald Lubowich.