Niki Cousineau

Niki Cousineau

Niki Cousineau is a Philadelphia based choreographer and dancer and co-director of Subcircle. She is a 2007 Pew Fellow and recipient of grants from Dance Advance, the Independence Foundation and PA Council on the Arts. As a performer Niki works regularly with Nichole Canuso Dance Company, and is currently in her seventh season with Headlong Dance Theater.

Together, with Jorge Cousineau – a composer/designer, she founded Subcircle in 1998. Their work transforms theatrical and site-specific spaces, merging dance, sound, set design, lighting and film. Whether site-specific or performance for the stage, the work aims to convey to audience and performer alike - an inseparability of performance from environment. Cinematic and introspective, it makes visible and vulnerable the inner lives of characters, citizens, and bodies.

With collaboration at its core, Subcircle at times acts as an umbrella to artists of various media. The company has worked with Carol Brown (London/New Zealand), Zen In The Basement Dance Company (Germany), composer Toby Twining, choreographers Darla Stanley and Gin MacCallum, and actor Geoff Sobelle among others. Some of their works include Just Between Me (2001), Crevice (2003), Somewhere Close to Now (2005) and Only Sleeping (2010).

Subcircle’s work has been performed throughout Germany in Potsdam, Berlin, Dresden and Broellin, where they participated in the Body and Landscape Residency at the International Theater Research Center Schloss Broellin. In Philadelphia, they have been presented in DanceBoom, the nEW Festival, Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, and Blindspot 2011. In Spring 2009, their dance film was presented at the Michener Museum as part of the exhibit Lucid Dreaming. In 2010, Niki and Jorge collaborated with Arden Theatre Company’s production of Sunday in the Park with George.

In November 2011, Subcircle will present its new work SEED, a duet directed by Carol Brown (New Zealand) with performance design by Jorge Cousineau.

Niki Cousineau's Links:

subcircle

Dance Advance Partnership | March 26 – April 7, 2012

Choreographic Studies

This residency concludes a year-long reflective process for Cousineau aimed at questioning habits surrounding her own movement invention and opening up a dialogue with others about her creative process. Cousineau will be working with several mentors throughout the year including Belgium-based choreographer Alain Platel, examining physicality in her work, from improvisation to set material, as a soloist and with other performers. While in residence, she will be joined by Peggy Baker (teacher, performer, and artistic director of Peggy Baker Dance Projects), who will offer critical feedback on her choreographic studies.

This partnership project is made possible in part with support from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through Dance Advance.