KT Niehoff is a 2012/13 MAP Fund recipient for the support of her 2012/13 project, commissioned by ACT Theatre (Seattle) and Alverno Presents (Milwaukee). She was a 2009/10 Artist in Residence with ACT Theatre’s “Central Heating Lab” in Seattle, a 2006 MANCC Fellow and a 2001 Artist Trust Fellow (Seattle). She appeared in Dance Magazine’s April ’08 “International Women in Dance” and was named 2007 Dance Artist of the Year by Seattle Magazine. She holds a BFA from the Experimental Theater Wing at New York University.
Since 1998, the major platform for her work has been Lingo, the container for her creative works in all forms – performance, commissions, writing, film, teaching and research. Lingo expands and contracts depending on the demands of the work, yet is centered around a reoccurring cast of characters who have been instrumental in the creation of Lingo’s vision. Lingo has been presented at places like ACT Theatre (Seattle), On the Boards (Seattle), The Joyce SoHo (NY), Alverno Presents (Milwaukee), SUSHI (San Diego), The Southern Theater (Minneapolis), Cleveland Public Theater among others, including a bunch of colleges and universities throughout the country such as Vanderbilt, Oberlin, Evergreen, Mt. Holyoke and Kenyon. She has received funding from The National Endowment for the Arts (‘05/’06), The National Dance Project (’05 Production, ’06 Creation), The National Performance Network (’06, ’08, ’09), Meet the Composer (’99), Arts International (’00), Bossak/Heilbron (’99-’09), and all of the city, county and state funding agencies in Washington State (since ’98), which has allowed her to make her work – thank you.
Since 2006 her interest has been audience/artist/art proximity – practically, metaphorically, emotionally and psychologically. This research has led her off the stage. Inhabit (2007) and Glimmer (2010) used spaces where the audience was free to roam amongst the performance. The Lift (2008) pushed passers by up the hill from Seattle’s Pike Place Market to 1st Avenue for a month. The 1-to-1 Solo Project (2010) tailored solos for 30 individuals, performed for them in public spaces. Install (2010) embedded dancers throughout the Seattle Art Museum for five hour stretches.
She has taught a lot in the last 15 years throughout the U.S. and abroad – Oberlin College (OH), Cornish College of the Arts (Seattle), Tisch School of the Arts (NY), University of Washington, The Hong Kong Academy of the Performing Arts and The School for New Dance and Development (Amsterdam) – to name a few. She is part of the contemporary dance faculty program at Jacob’s Pillow for the 2011 season.
As an administrator, KT started and ran Velocity Dance Center in Seattle from 1996-2006. In 2003 she created the project SCUBA, National Touring Dance Alliance with Seattle (Velocity), San Francisco (ODC), Minneapolis (The Southern Theater) and Philadelphia (Philly Dance Project). Thanks to the next generation of dedicated staff, both Velocity and SCUBA are still running strong today.
In June 2011, KT opened an intimate research and performance art space in Seattle’s Capitol Hill region for Lingo’s projects, as well as resident artists near and far. She is also building a small hotel and artist residency space in Waitsburg WA - a city (pop. 1,200) in the Southeast corner of Washington State near Walla Walla, set to open the end of 2012. In 2011 she completed her first short film titled Parts Don’t Work, shot on location at the Fun Forest Amusement Park in the Seattle Center.
Maggie Allesee
