NINA KOSSLER
Interdisciplinary choreographer, scholar, and educator based in Indianapolis.
Nina Kossler is a choreographer, educator, and scholar committed to fostering collaboration and inclusivity in all facets of her creative processes and pedagogy. She holds an MFA in Dance (Choreography) from the University of North Carolina Greensboro, and a BA in Dance from Muhlenberg College.
Nina has previously taught at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, Valdosta State University, Ball State University, and Purdue University. She has also taught for Mark Morris Dance Group and Liberate Artists. Her teaching and choreographic style is informed by her background in musical theatre, tap and jazz dance, and contemporary dance.
Nina continues to perform as a company member of Crossroads Dance Indy, and collaborates with Ballet INitiative, in addition to developing new performance based research.
A self-proclaimed "jill-of-all-trades", Nina is well versed in multiple dance forms including: jazz, tap, contemporary, modern, ballet, and musical theatre repertoire. Her pedagogy and choreography is influenced by many of the distinguished artists she has studied with, such as B.J. Sullivan (Safety Release Technique), Clarice Young (Contemporary), Robin Gee (Afro-Contemporary), Karen Gayle (Horton), Dana Moore (Fosse Jazz), Shelley Oliver (Jazztap), Charles O. Anderson (Afro-Contemporary), and more.
Nina’s choreographic work is interdisciplinary, grounded in social justice and intersectionality, and responsive to issues in American society. Her creative process is thoughtfully researched and inherently collaborative. Her concert and screen dance choreography has been presented at the Indy Fringe Festival (Indianapolis, IN), Global Water Dances Film Festival, the Identically Different Dance Festival (Brooklyn, NY), Dance New Jersey (Manalapan, NJ), The Fishbowl Collective (New York, NY), and the ChEcK Us OuT Dance Festival (Queens, NY), the American College Dance Association Screendance Festival, as well as numerous universities and regional dance organizations.
Her musical theatre work has been presented at Buck’s Rock Performing and Creative Arts Camp (New Milford, CT), Porchlight Productions (Glen Rock, NJ), Dance Project: The School at City Arts (Greensboro, NC), Anderson Mainstage (Anderson, IN), and numerous universities.
Nina is immersed in creative and scholarly research at the intersections of privilege, power, and protest in the identities and experiences of young people in the United States. Her research on choreographies of privilege and protest was based on her MFA Thesis (mentored by Ana Paula Hofling, B.J. Sullivan, and Jill Green), and is published in The Dancer Citizen. Nina remains committed to this research and is working to develop an interdisciplinary choreography course called “Choreographing Activism” that blends the process of scholarly research with physical practice and the creation of dances.
Currently, Nina is based in New England and is on faculty at Providence College as an Assistant Professor of Dance.