about me
Shifu Damon Honeycutt, M.F.A.
Damon Honeycutt is a devoted father, visionary warrior artist, educator, and retired adventurer whose lifelong passion for discovery has inspired many others. Driven by curiosity, discovery, and the desire to build bridges across cultures, he has cultivated the worlds of music and martial arts, forging a unique path that elevates both personal growth and artistic performance.
Throughout his unique career, he has performed in more than twenty countries and worked with respected dance companies like Pilobolus, Nai-Ni Chen, Scapegoat Garden, and Beijing Opera Company Yuan. He composed music for The Oregon Shakespeare Festival and has had his music performed by Chatham Baroque, The Power String Quartet headed by Jennifer Choi, The Delgani String Quartet, Ensemble Entelechron, The VCFA Saxophone Quartet led by Ken Thomson, and the GADO GADO ensemble. Was co-curator and sound designer for an iteration of the Dark Goddess series with Shanta Lee at the Bennington Museum. Honeycutt has been featured in Art New England Magazine, Kung Fu Wushu Magazine, The Journal of Martial Arts Studies, The IMMERSION Foundation (Strands of Strife and Life Vol II), and Sign & Breath: Voice and the Literary Tradition (Etruscan Press, 2025).
Honeycutt holds an M.F.A. in Music Composition from The Vermont College of Fine Arts, an M.A. in Conscious Evolution and Integral Studies from The Graduate Institute, and a B.F.A. from the California Institute of the Arts.
Teaching Philosophy
I was blessed with direct, personal training and mentorship that I have coupled with years of experience as an artist and scholar. I have had the guidance of many teachers and mentors whom I traveled to learn from, and this has allowed me to have a strong personal commitment to evolve and transmit the traditions and knowledge I have been given.
I believe that any wisdom tradition practitioner needs depth in knowledge and technique, both within a multifaceted or transdisciplinary context. My philosophy regarding teaching is really one of mentoring and cultivation. As with the axiom that teacher and student travel together. This traveling begins with listening to, guiding, and supporting the student's ideas and vision, while also equipping them with tools they can carry beyond the studio, classroom, or training hall. The philosophy of embodiment that stems from ancient traditions of self-inquiry and exploration has been the backbone of my personal cultivation and professional career in the arts and education. The philosophy of embodiment is a ‘coming to knowing’ that is defined by the process of one's individual journey through practice, repose, and self-discovery, thus creating a meta-discipline that informs all aspects of the practitioner's life. I do not do this; the art does. I feel that we as teachers are guides. The student has the power to choose their path, and I also know we all need to have a strong foundation in our art form in order to ask for help and guidance. My goal is to facilitate the student to achieve a depth of understanding in an authentic, informed, and confident way.
Testimonials
"I have known Damon since the fall of 2014 when we were introduced by fellow artists working at the intersection of dance and martial arts.
Damon is a great artist; he is an expert-level martial artist, an international-level professional contemporary dancer and a masterful composer of new music. It has been a great pleasure and honor to collaborate with him. He has had extraordinary teachers and his practical experience as an artist is both deep and diverse. Discovering that we had both created pedagogical approaches for actors and dancers using the partnering approaches found in the traditional Chinese martial arts and in Chinese theatre, our affinity and mutual interest has led us to collaborate, beginning in the winter of 2016 to combine our ideas into a more comprehensive, detailed and accessible method to cultivate the performer’s presence, responsiveness and insight. So far we have taught master-classes for professional dancers together, co-facilitated a practical research workshop at the 2017 international Martial Arts Studies Conference in Cardiff, UK together and are currently creating a scholarly video essay on our research for the peer-reviewed Journal of Embodied Research.
Damon’s ideas about interdisciplinary art, about martial arts as a meta-discipline and model for the collaboration of art forms and artists, and about translational competences between artists, have already been inspirational for me. He is a great joy to work with and his generosity, ease, wit, and insight generate new practical and conceptual paths both in the studio and in conversation.
For martial arts and self-cultivation enthusiasts, working with Damon is dream come true. I offer him every endeavor my deepest respect and strongest recommendation."
Daniel Mroz, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Theatre, University of Ottawa
Author, The Dancing Word
Damon,
You are a master teacher in every sense of the word.
I was mesmerized by your ability to engage, encourage, excite and explain so that every student could comprehend the task, translate your words into physical manifestations, take risks and grow as artists.
What a gift you gave Dance Alliance today for its 40th anniversary!
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Mary Anne,
President Dance Alliance
Teaching students