Joanna Kotze is a Brooklyn-based choreographer, dancer, and educator who has been part of the New York dance community since 1998. She creates highly physical dance performances through a collaborative, multi-disciplinary process, presenting ways to look at effort, labor, humor, violence, unpredictability, and beauty through movement as well as the body’s relationship to sound, light, and space.
Joanna received the 2013 New York Dance and Performance "Bessie" award for Outstanding Emerging Choreographer, and her evening-length work, What will we be like when we get there, was nominated for a 2018 "Bessie" award for Outstanding Music Composition and Sound Design by collaborator Ryan Seaton. Her work has been supported by the Nathan M. Clark Foundation, City Artist Corps Grant, New Music USA, Jerome Foundation, Mertz-Gilmore, Harkness Foundation, NYFA BUILD, Brooklyn Arts Council, Yellowhouse, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant. Her choreography has been presented at Wanås Konst, The Space at Irondale, Summer on the Hudson, The Yard, Bates Dance Festival, Stonington Opera House, New York Live Arts, The Wexner Center, Velocity Dance Center, the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Danspace Project, American Dance Institute, Bard College, Industry City, Show Room Gowanus, Lu Magnus gallery, Jacob’s Pillow Inside/Out, Dance New Amsterdam, Roulette, Dixon Place, 92nd Street Y, WAXworks, Soho20 gallery, and Movement Research at the Judson Church.
Joanna has had residencies through the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (MANCC, FSU), Dance Place (Washington, D.C.), Mount Tremper Art (NY), Dance Program Malmö (Sweden), Loghaven (Tennessee), The Bogliasco Foundation (Italy), The Yard (Martha’s Vineyard), New York Live Arts, Baryshnikov Arts Center, Exploring the Metropolis, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Movement Research, The 92nd Street Y, Milvus Artistic Research Center (Sweden), Jacob’s Pillow (Massachusetts), Bennington College (Vermont), Sedona Arts Center (Arizona), Marble House Project (Vermont), The Camargo Foundation (France), and Djerassi (California). She has had commissions to create new works on Gibney Dance Company (NYC), Toronto Dance Theatre (Toronto), Ririe-Woodbury (Salt Lake City), Zenon Dance (Minneapolis), and the James Sewell Ballet (Minneapolis) and has created or is creating original works on students at University of the Arts, Ailey/Fordham, Barnard, The New School, Purchase, Long Island University, Ohio University, Southern Utah University, and Miami University.
Joanna danced with Wally Cardona from 2000 to 2010 and again in 2018. She currently dances for Kimberly Bartosik/daela (2009-present), and has worked with Kota Yamazaki, Stacy Spence, Netta Yerushalmy, Sam Kim, Sarah Skaggs, Christopher Williams, the Metropolitan Opera ballet, Daniel Charon, Nina Winthrop, and others.
Joanna has served on panels for New York Live Arts’ Fresh Tracks, The Bogliasco Foundation, New Music USA, Marble House, and Dance New Amsterdam and has curated performances for the 92nd Street Y and Sundays on Broadway. She is on faculty at Movement Research and has taught at University of the Arts, Ailey/Fordham, Amherst College, Melbourne University, Toronto Dance Theatre, Gibney Dance, Sarah Lawrence College, Barnard College, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, The New School, LIU, Southern Utah University, Ohio University, Miami University, Bates Dance Festival, Salt Dance Fest, and the American Dance Festival. She is originally from South Africa and has a BA in Architecture from Miami University. www.joannakotze.com IG: @jrkotze
Photo by Maria Baranova