Photo by Ted Roeder (Joanna in her work titled FIND YOURSELF HERE: Duet - Industry City)
Hometown: Born in Durban, South Africa; grew up in Cape Town, South Africa, Bloomington, Indiana and Littleton, Massachusetts
Current city: Brooklyn, NY
Age: 38
Attended an arts high school? No. But I started in ballet at age 6 and continued to 18 with multiple ballet classes a week and some jazz and tap.
College and degree: Miami University, OH – BA in Architecture
Website: http://www.joannakotze.com
How you pay the bills: Grants, setting work on companies and/or students, teaching, freelance dancer, freelance accountant/office manager for individuals, freelance architectural model builder
All of the dance hats you wear: Dancer, choreographer, artistic director, teacher, manager, grant writer, fundraiser, administrator, researcher, curator, panelist
Non-dance work you have done in the past: Freelancer for architecture and interior design firms mostly building architectural models, art handling, art installation, tutoring third graders, waitressing (one month!)
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In 1998, when I was 22, I graduated first in my architecture class at Miami University and then moved to New York to dance! I had studied mostly ballet since the age of 6, had pursued modern dance at Miami University through the resident company, and knew dancing was my passion. Studying both architecture and modern dance at the same time made a huge impact on me, and architecture continues to deeply inform my dancing and choreography.
I knew I wanted to move to New York. I had been there as a kid, my mom went to graduate school there, my parents met and married there. I wasn’t afraid of the big city, only intrigued. However, I knew only a few people in the city and none of them were dancers. I started going to class every morning mostly at Limón and the old Dance Space Center, but also at Ailey, Taylor, ballet with Jocelyn Lorenz at 890 Broadway, and other studios. I also went to almost every audition (big and small) that I could get my hands on. I was lucky to get into two small companies my first year in NYC - Mimi Garrard Dance Company and Company Appels – with whom I ended up traveling internationally. At Limón, I met Daniel Charon who included me in his work for the next 10 years. Also at Limón, I met Risa Steinberg and took her class religiously, 5 days a week, whenever I could. She made a huge impact on me as a student with her incredible movement but also her emphasis on performance (and more specifically “seeing”) and her constant energy that exuded the absolute need to dance.
In 2000, Risa encouraged me to audition for Wally Cardona, whom she had taught at Juilliard, thinking I might find it interesting. I did, and after a two-week audition, I was chosen for his company. I did not realize then what an impact the decision to go to that audition would have on my life. More on that later.
I worked with Wally for 10 years, which took me well into my 30s. Over this time I worked as a freelance dancer with the Metropolitan Opera Ballet, first in the works that Doug Varone set and then in other operas, as an extra to the company. I have also worked with several other independent choreographers. In 2008, I began working with both Kimberly Bartosik and Netta Yerushalmy, and those are relationships that are continuing today. My work with each of them has challenged me as a dancer, thinker, and agent for choreography and has certainly inspired me to continue making my own work.
Speaking of my own work, I did not know for a long time whether I wanted to make work or not. I love learning from other people and I LOVE dancing and performing. However, in 2004, I had the opportunity to go back to my alma matter, Miami University, and work with the dance company I was a part of for 4 years in college, Miami University Dancer Theatre. This gave me a safe place to begin researching and experimenting without the pressure of showing work in New York. I will always be so thankful to Lana Kay Rosenberg who was my amazing college dance professor and who has repeatedly invited me back to Miami to set work on the students there. It also gave me a chance to reconnect with my architecture professors who have been so supportive of my dance career.
In 2010, at age 34, I showed my first work-in-progress at Movement Research at the Judson Church. I caught the bug and thought maybe this was something I could and wanted to do. I continued choreographing, first a solo, then a duet, feeling so thankful for everyone who gave me a chance to further my work. My first evening-length piece, It Happened It Had Happened It Is Happening It Will Happen, premiered in May 2013 at Danspace Project. I have been very lucky to receive various kinds of support since then, including a 2013 Bessie award for Outstanding Emerging Choreographer. I continue to be challenged by not only the creative aspects of being a choreographer and dancer but by the administrative and financial ones as well.
Photo by Ian Douglas (Joanna Kotze, Stuart Singer, and Netta Yerushalmy in piece titled: It Happened It Had Happened It Is Happening It Will Happen)
When I began teaching in 2010, I learned a lot about what is important to me as a dancer, creator and performer. I constantly learn from my students as I continue to hone the information specific to my technical and performance practices. With the new opportunities I have to set work on groups and companies outside of my New York collaborators, I am learning how to work with many kinds of dancers and in shorter periods of time. This is a challenge for me since I tend to spend 1-2 years on any one project, deepening relationships with the people involved. Both ways of working serve multiple purposes, especially if I am still learning from them!
I look forward to continuing my own work and hope to continue to be a collaborator in other creators' processes. Living in someone else’s world also really helps to feed my own work. It gives me time away from my world, my responsibilities as leader and the opportunity to fulfill someone else’s vision. Here’s to creating in all ways possible!
Photo by Ian Douglas (Joanna Kotze and Francis Stansky in piece titled: Between You and Me)
Can you talk about your work with Wally Cardona? How did you land the position in the company (audition, seen in class, workshop, etc)? How did you grow as a performer through those 10 years working with him?
It is hard for me to speak briefly about my time with Wally but I will try…I auditioned for Wally in August 2000. I remember it well as I almost did not go. I was not having a good day and my audition slot was at 5pm, or something like that, right at the end of the day. But, I did go. I think about 100-150 women auditioned. He made several cuts that day and then had a few of us work with him and the company for the next two weeks. Then, I got the job!
From day one I knew working with Wally was going to be special, challenging, inspiring and a privilege. Wally immediately challenged my notion of who I thought I was as a dancer and what I thought I could do. He constantly pushed me to new places, new boundaries, sometimes more than I could handle in the moment but in the end fully appreciated. He challenged me on always wanting to be right and what that meant. Learning to let go of “getting something right” and continuously pushing what was unknown was a hard lesson but one that I am forever grateful for.
Wally introduced me to a new technical way of using the body – the way he uses the forces in his legs into the ground, the way the upper body has so much movement against the lower half, an architecture of parts that have myriad potential. Much of the language and theories were inspired by Klein technique, which I originally rejected and then fully embraced, and still do. These concepts, although in my own way, form the basis of my own movement now.
For the first five years, Wally, Kathryn Sanders, Matthew Winheld and I worked, traveled and performed together. They were family to me, and as the youngest member of this family, I learned so much from each of them. After our BAM season in 2005, Kathryn and Matthew left the company, which was very emotional for me. I not only missed them but I suddenly became the veteran company member.
For the next five years, Wally chose other wonderful dancers to be involved in the projects we were building – among them were Julian Barnett, Omagbitse Omagbemi, Stuart Singer, Francis Stansky and Kana Kimura. He also began to emphasize the practice of performance and the individuality of the performer more in the work. I feel extremely lucky that I benefited from both his emphasis on technical movement and performative aspects. Wally continues to be a friend and mentor and is very supportive of my own creative projects. His projects and processes have been among the most demanding of my life in many respects and I am grateful for all of them.
As a choreographer, when did you know it was time to take the leap and form a company?
I didn’t really know…I just tried something and then tried something again. I think the biggest leap is from making work (the creative end of it) to taking on all of the challenges that go along with trying to make more work and/or show your work in a public forum (i.e. fundraising, grant writing, paying dancers, finding rehearsal space and on and on!). This is all part of being a choreographer and can really get in the way of the creative process. It is a tough balance and one that takes a lot of commitment.
Resources and resourcefulness being a choreographer….how do you stretch dollars, prioritize, and budget?
Cook a lot! Luckily I like to cook but that is definitely one way I save money! But really it is about priorities and the realization that you have to make tough decisions and sacrifices. If you want to dance or be in the arts at all, you will have a small budget to work with all the time. I am married to a visual artist so we really know what this means! Whatever your priority is – to take class every morning, to rent studio space twice a week, to go see three performances a week, to pay your dancers – whatever it is, keep those things at the forefront. The biggest priority has to be your work (either as dancer or choreographer or both) and other things should fit around that center.
What’s on your plate for this fall and winter?
I am working on my next evening-length piece, FIND YOURSELF HERE, which is a collaboration between three dancers, three visual artists and a composer/sound designer. We have two work-in-progress showings coming up: DraftWork at Danspace Project on November 15th at 3pm, and Movement Research at the Judson Church on January 12th at 8pm. Both are free! We just finished a Process Space residency through Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and we have a Creative Development Residency at Jacob’s Pillow in March. I also continue to be a Movement Research Artist-in-Residence through June 2015. FIND YOURSELF HERE premieres at the American Dance Institute (ADI) outside of Washington D.C. April 24-25, 2015 and will premiere in NYC in Fall 2015 (stay tuned and check in on my website: www.joannakotze.com).
This December I am setting a new work on James Sewell Ballet in Minneapolis and will be back out there in May to set a new work on Zenon Dance. I am teaching this semester at Long Island University in Brooklyn and will be the Movement Research guest artist at Eugene Lang College, The New School for Liberal Arts for the spring semester. I continue to teach classes regularly in New York through Movement Research and Gibney Dance (I always list my classes on my website!). I am performing in a new work by Sam Kim in March at Gibney Dance and will continue working with Kimberly Bartosik and Netta Yerushalmy on upcoming projects.
Advice to young dancers moving to NYC:
Meet people, take classes, go to auditions, get into the studio, see the city, see all kinds of art, see performances in dance and otherwise, walk around a lot, write a lot, seek out the free events and free museum hours, talk to people, build a community, keep costs low, have good walking shoes, introduce yourself to your teachers, go to classes you wouldn’t normally go to, have a reason to be in New York and keep reminding yourself of that reason when you start to doubt. Constantly ask questions, and be inspired by others.
To read Joanna's update in December 2017, please click here.
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