Studio Stories: Reminiscing on Twin Cities Dance with Stuart Pimsler - Season 6, Episode 77

STUART PIMSLER is a choreographer, director, writer, performer,
founder and
artistic co-director of Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater
(SPDT). His work has been
honored with Choreography Fellowships from the National Endowment
for the Arts and
McKnight Foundation and as well as a Major Fellowship and six
Individual Fellowships
from the Ohio Arts Council. Mr. Pimsler has been commissioned by
the Guthrie Theater,
the Lila Wallace Arts Partners Fund, National Performance Network
Creation Fund, the
Jerome Foundation, the Wexner Center, University of Minnesota,
the Walker Art Center,
The Wharton Center at Michigan State University among
others.

Based in Minneapolis since 1999, SPDT has toured to Europe,
Israel, Taiwan, Russia,
Canada, Bermuda, China, and Mexico including presentations at the
Beijing Modern
Dance Festival, International Tanzmesse, Dusseldorf, the Bermuda
Ministry of Culture
and the National Center for the Arts, UNAM and American Embassy
in Mexico City. In
the U.S. SPDT has appeared in more then 35 States at such venues
as the The Kennedy
Center for the Performing Arts, the National Civil Rights Museum,
Jacob’s Pillow, the
American Dance Festival, and New York Live Arts.

His new book, The Choreography of Care/Engaging Caregivers in
Creative Expression
chronicles the internationally recognized arts in health work of
Mr. Pimsler and Suzanne
Costello. (choreographyofcare.com) Their work has been recognized
for “Best Practices”
by the National Endowment for the Arts and as a “national model”
by The Kennedy
Center for the Performing Arts.

As a teller of imagistic stories, Pimsler is interested in the
interplay of movement and
words situated in specific settings. His work is constructed in a
world of layers connected
through theme, metaphor, and memory. The emblematic layers of his
aesthetic are
realized through emotionally textured movement, narrators, place,
dialogue, song, design,
video, and the vulnerability of SPDT’s exquisite performers.
Pimsler is compelled by the
personal and political and how each of these sectors influences
everyday life.

Mr. Pimsler holds an A.B. in English from Franklin &
Marshall College and in 2015, he
was celebrated with an Alumni Citation for his exemplary record
of accomplishments. He
also has a J.D. from Catholic University School of Law and was
admitted to the New
York State Bar in 1975. The following year he was accepted as an
M.F.A. Fellow in
Dance at Connecticut College where he evolved his aesthetic with
the mentorship of
Martha Myers. He was also honored to work with Daniel Nagrin,
whose solos Spanish
Dance (1948) and Word Game (1968) he continues to perform.

As cultural activist, Mr. Pimsler has served on the Board of
Directors of Dance/USA
(1990-97) and the Steering Committee of the National Performance
Network (1992-95).
He has served as panelist for the National Endowment for the
Arts, the McKnight
Foundation, Bush Foundation and an array of arts councils and
agencies throughout the
U.S. In 2005, Pimsler founded The SAGE Awards for Dance, an
annual celebration of
outstanding dance achievements throughout Minnesota which he
co-coordinated with
Dana Kassel through 2016.

www.stuartpimsler.com