Gillian Abbott

Gillian Abbott (she/her) is a Canadian-born actress, dancer, choreographer, intimacy director/coordinator, meditation and movement teacher. She received her BFA in Dance from The Juilliard School, and her MFA in Acting from Columbia University School of the Arts. Some of her performance credits include: “Baby” in the National Broadway tour of Dirty Dancing, featured artist in Cirque du Soleil’s Beatles LOVE show, co-star on HBO’S Boardwalk Empire, and member of choreographer Stacey Tookey’s company, Still Motion. She has taught, directed and choreographed in the MFA Acting program at Columbia University, and choreographed the first ever musical at The Juilliard School.

Alongside her career in the theater, she pursued meditation teaching after being a devout practitioner herself and seeing a need for it in the entertainment industry. For the past six years she has been the in-house meditation teacher at The Protégé Movement, supporting pre-professional dancers in their holistic wellness. She has also taught meditation at MNDFL, The Well, The Juilliard School, and Pace University.

Gillian is also an Actor’s Body teacher. She encountered this work, created by Sita Mani, in her MFA acting program. It is a somatic approach to acting involving the wisdom from Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais, and various other modalities. Gillian has taught this work at Columbia University in the MFA Acting program and HB Studio in New York.

Finally, Gillian served as adjunct faculty at Pace University introducing BFA candidates to consent-forward artistry through the work she has done with IDC, as well as teaching them mindfulness techniques to support themselves holistically.

She is delighted to be back in Canada!