Harper Piver is a dancer, multimedia artist and educator currently based in Phoenix, Arizona. Using contemporary dance, text, sound, and media, Harper constructs work that varies from choreography for traditional performance spaces, created environments, and public areas to videos and installations. She enjoys creating projects for outdoor and public spaces to encourage meaningful audience engagement and community involvement in the artistic process. She performs her own work and the work of others as a dancer and musician. Harper is Artistic Director of h-lab productions, the umbrella under which she presents her work.

Until 2005, Harper was based in North Carolina, where her choreography was presented in numerous venues including the American Dance Festival's Acts to Follow Series and on an extended tour with the North Carolina Dance Festival. In addition to dance performance with numerous choreographers in the US and abroad, Harper performed with the John Gamble Dance Theater Company as a dancer, musician, and actress. Her choreography has been commissioned and presented by universites, community colleges, performing arts high school dance programs and dance companies.

As a video artist, her dance for camera work has been presented in numerous dance film festivals both nationally and internationally. Her documentation includes shorts about her experiences dancing in China and studying yoga in India.

Harper presents papers at academic conferences on dance pedagogy, technology, and community process. She also blogs about dance and the creative process at homegrowndance.com.

Musically, Harper trained as a classical violinist. She studied Celtic music while living in Edinburgh, Scotland and has since stopped calling her instrument a violin and proudly started calling it a fiddle. She has been fortunate to play on several recordings for Portland-based band Solyoni and with her husband and collaborator, writer and guitarist Robert Lurie. She has also studied and performed West African percussion.

Prior to moving to Arizona, Harper was active in the North Carolina dance community as an independent choreographer and performer, showing her work and performing around the state. She co-founded the Dance Cooperative. Now celebrating a decade of service, the Cooperative is a community based 501 (c) 3 organization offering classes, rehearsal space, and performing opportunities to area professionals, teens, and community members. She served the dance community as a board member for the North Carolina Dance Alliance, a statewide advocacy organization for dance. 

As an educator, Harper facilitates explorations in dance, video, writing for performance, and the creative process with students and community members. Harper's comfort in the classroom stems from her experience teaching middle and high school dance as a licensed K-12 Teacher, facilitating community groups, and teaching in the community college and university environments.

Her breadth of experience informs her success in teaching a variety of courses including modern and ballet technique, choreography, improvisation, music theory for dancers, Pilates, and lecture courses such as dance anthropology, as well as dance technology, film history, and video and website production.

Harper has BFA and MFA degrees in Dance as well as extensive graduate coursework in education. Upon receiving her MFA from Arizona State University, she was named the Outstanding Graduate of the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. She currently teaches as a Faculty Associate in dance at ASU, in both dance and film in the Maricopa Community Colleges, and with community groups throughout the valley.