Andrew Pearson’s versatile career as a performing artist, choreographer, and educator meets at the intersection of contemporary concert dance, queer-theater, and social play. Hailed as “one of LA’s finest dance artists” (LA Dance Chronicle) and “a provocative choreographer and imaginative presenter” (Cultural Weekly), Andrew founded Bodies in Play to disrupt traditional creative hierarchies and build a sustainable, consent-forward ecosystem where whole-self artistry can thrive.

Andrew’s appetite for performance began early, staging living room productions for his parents at age five. He later refined his craft at UC Irvine’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts, earning a BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography. It was under the tutelage of dance master Donald McKayle—who cast him as "Sissy Boy" in the historic dance-theater work Games—that Andrew’s rigorous conservatory training first fused with his innate sense of queer theatricality and play.

This distinct artistic voice led to a prominent six-year career with the LA Contemporary Dance Company (LACDC), where he performed at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City, The Ford Amphitheater in LA, and the CCK in Buenos Aires. While with the company, Andrew originated roles spanning from a warped Big Bad Wolf in drag to a bedazzled adventurer in a light-up bodysuit. His additional performance credits trace the full spectrum of LA's creative landscape— including dancing alongside carnival rides on the Santa Monica Pier for The Disney Channel; celebratory performances with BODYTRAFFIC; embodying a 90’s Go-Go Boy at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA); and weaving childish humor into classical opera at the LA Philharmonic under the direction MacArthur Fellow Yuval Sharon.

As a creator, Andrew’s knack for crafting story through movement has earned him commissions from LACDC, Santa Monica College, Northern Kentucky University, and residencies with ARC Pasadena and the Dance Resource Center. Following a series of critically acclaimed, long-form solo productions presented from San Francisco to Poland, Andrew felt a distinct call to shift away from top-down artistic models. He pursued an MFA in Directing and Choreography from Wilson College, focusing his research entirely on co-choreographic models and consent-based frameworks. This pivotal academic and creative investigation laid the operational blueprint for Bodies in Play.

Today, Andrew brings this deep lineage of shared authorship and creative autonomy to his extensive work as an educator. He currently serves on the faculty at UC Santa Barbara, AMDA Los Angeles, and the Art of Acting Studio, and serves as the Assistant Director for the LEAP Program at Saint Mary’s College of California, where he champions professional dancers navigating higher education.

Through Bodies in Play, Andrew continues to prove that rigorous, deeply textured performance doesn't require sacrificing the human being behind the dancer.