Stephanie Clemens

Stephanie Clemens - Momenta Dance and The Academy of Movement and Music

Stephanie Clemens started The Academy of Movement and Music in her Oak Park livingroom in 1971. Truely building a small business today the Academy houses an active preschool, Academy A.R.T.S., a large dance program, a music department, MOMENTA, The Doris Humphrey Society, The Doris Humphrey Memorial Theatre and the Tidmarsh Arts Foundation. There are currently more than 1,000 students taking courses there.

There are generations of Oak Parkers who have had the opportunity to experience and learn dance due to her ongoing work and so I wanted to include her in my portrait project. She spends her time at the Academy teaching in the dance division and is a Co-Director of MOMENTA.


With both parents working artist Stephanie grew up surrounded by art and artists. She studied dance at Juilliard and took a B.A. in Physical Anthropology at U.C.L.A. eventually settling in Oak Park.