Vanessa Voskuil

Vanessa Voskuil is an independent choreographer, director, performer, designer, community organizer, teaching artist, and creator of dances, interdisciplinary performances and films. She has created more than twenty original works presented by theaters and universities throughout the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area.

Voskuil has received two Minnesota Sage Dance Awards for Outstanding Design for her productions of The White Solos (2006) and en masse (2009), which was additionally nominated for a Minnesota Sage Dance Award for Outstanding Performance and received a 2010 City Pages “Best of Award for Best Dancer.” Voskuil is a recipient of a 2009 McKnight Fellowship for Choreography. She has been supported by the Minnesota State Arts Board, Moore Family Fund for the Arts of the Minneapolis Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, Forecast Public Art and commissioned by The Walker Art Center, The Southern Theater, Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater, Minnesota Visible Fringe, Red Eye Theater and Flaneur Productions. Voskuil was named one of the “7 Artists to Watch” by Minnesota Monthly Magazine and recognized by the Star Tribune as one of “9 Minnesota Artists to Expect Great Things.”

From 2003-09, Voskuil served as co-founding artistic director and education director of the ensemble-based performance group, Live Action Set. Dedicated to the creation of original work, the company received recognitions including “Best Stage Production” and “Artists of the Year” from City Pages (2005) and “Outstanding Experimental Theatre” from the Star Tribune (2005). In 2010, Voskuil also co-founded the Minnesota Dance Film Festival and currently serves as the festival director.

As a teaching artist, Voskuil has held choreographic residencies at Carlton College, University of Wisconsin-River Falls, Macalester College, Guild Incorporated, and F.A.I.R. School-Crystal and taught workshops and ongoing classes through Zenon Dance School, Live Action Set's Physical Education (P.E.), and the University of Minnesota. Voskuil worked with Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater for nine years as a performer and teaching artist - a performance company that has been at the forefront of arts and healing for three decades. She participated in their Community Connections programs, Caring for the Caregiver and Meaning in Movement, where she worked closely with health providers, clients, stroke survivors and their families. These programs created a space for participants to process their experiences through the arts in a very cathartic and healing way through movement, story workshops and subsequent performances.

Voskuil is a certified Qigong instructor through Natural Step School of Tai Chi and Qigong and brings healing movement experiences to those suffering from illness in hospitals and human service organizations. Voskuil holds a B.F.A. in Dance and a B.A. in Theater from the University of Minnesota.

http://www.vanessavoskuil.org