She received a master's degree in dance education from Teachers College, Columbia University, in 1960, directly followed by attending the Juilliard School on a John Hay Whitney fellowship.

During the summers, she had begun to study with modern dance choreographers Doris Humphrey and José Limón at Connecticut College, and with Louis Horst in New York.

[4] Miller was one of the first choreographers to combine explicit references to race, gender, and social conflict with postmodern aesthetics derived from the Judson Church scene.

Robot Game was originally performed by Milton Bowser (later known as Abdel R. Salaam), founder and artistic director of Forces of Nature Dance Theatre, Chuck Davis (who founded his own company in 1968, and the African American Dance Ensemble in 1984), William R. Munroe, and Wanda Ward.

That same year, she founded her company, The Joan Miller Chamber Arts/Dance Players, and premiered her signature solo, Pass Fe White, which she had been working on since 1968.

Joan curated professional artists from across New York City to teach in the dance department at Lehman, including Chuck Davis, Yon Martin, Miguel Godreau, Nadine Revine, Louis Falco, Juan Antonio, Rudy Perez, Nancy Topf, and John Parks.

[6] In June 1975, the Joan Miller Chamber Arts/Dance Players performed in a week-long residency at the Ted Shawn Theatre at the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival.

Part of the reason for the strength is that while the taped voice reads a poem about "passing," the dancer in white racing outfit and goggles steams along her own track.

Milton Bowser's solo is full of dissipating energy: tours, jetés, runs, a snatch of social dancing as the tape announces: 'I am the modern black businessman.'