Originally from Anchorage, Alaska, John Heginbotham graduated from The Juilliard School (1993), and was a member of Mark Morris Dance Group (1998-2012). In 2011, he founded Dance Heginbotham, a New York-based contemporary performance company that tours nationally and internationally.

John received a 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship and the 2014 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award. Other acknowledgements include a World Choreography Award Nomination (The Umbrella Academy, 2023), the National Center for Choreography at The University of Akron-NCCAkron (Research Fellow, 2018-2020), New York City Center Choreography Fellowship (2017 - 2018 ), NYU’s Center for Ballet and the Arts (Fellow, 2016), the Jerome Robbins Foundation New Essential Works (NEW) Fellowship (2010, 2012), the Bowen Award for Inclusive Choreography (2025). 

John’s independent choreographic projects include the Tony and Olivier Awards-winning revival of Oklahoma!, directed by Daniel Fish; “Meet The Family”, Season 3, Episode 1 of The Umbrella Academy on Netflix, directed by Jeremy Webb; Peter and the Wolf for Works & Process at the Guggenheim, directed by Isaac Mizrahi; RACECARfor The Washington Ballet; Music City for BEDLAM, directed by Eric Tucker; Once Upon a Mattress for Central City Opera, directed by Alison Moritz; La Traviata for San Francisco Opera and LA Opera, directed by Shawna Lucey; and John Adams’ Girls of the Golden West, directed by Peter Sellars. John is the Director of the Dartmouth Dance Ensemble and he is on faculty at Dartmouth College's Department of Theater. John is a founding teacher of Dance for PD®.