Louisa Pancoast
Dancer & Performer
Louisa Pancoast
Performer. Maker. Writer.
History
Louisa received her formal training in her home state of New Hampshire. She is a graduate of the Certificate Program at Peridance, New York, NY, and was part of the inaugural group at the Barton Movement's Axis Connect. Louisa has had the privilege of performing for such choreographers as Yvonne Rainer at the Museum of Modern Art, Diego Funes, Pat Catterson, Sommer Ulrickson and Alexander Polzin, Cleo Mack and Rock Dance Collective, Pramila Vasudevan, Ashley McQueen, Michelle Thompson-Ulerich, Emily Bufferd, Jacqueline Dugal, Monica Hogan, Yuki Hasagawa, and Joyce King. Louisa has appeared in videos directed by The Kuperman Brothers and Gierre Godley; and has served as performer and movement director for rapper Lando Chill's music video, Light Her and Diego Funes' short film, ABSENCE.
Louisa has found a niche in the interdisciplinary art world, collaborating with visual artists to choreograph and perform in their installations. She has had the pleasure of working alongside Melissa Stern for Strange Girl Dances, at Garvey|Simon, and HouseBroken at -the gallery LTD-; and Evan Paul English for Pinch Back at Main Window, DUMBO. Her other choreographic endeavors include an adaptation of W.B. Yeats' play Purgatory produced by Plaxall Gallery, Long Island City, and First in Half, Then in Quarters, produced by Mixily Presents. She is also the Associate Director of De Funes Dance, and sits on the Development Board for Smashworks Dance. Most recently, Louisa received the /Art grant from Cornell Tech for her research with aero technology and dance, and is the co-author of "Human-Drone Partnering for Dynamic Dance Performances with Increased Physicality" with Nialah Wilson-Small, PhD.
In addition to performing, Louisa holds her B.A. in English Literature and Art History from New York University. She is interested in finding the intersections between different mediums and modes of communication in all of her work.
Live
LIVE: The Performa Archive
Yvonne Rainer's Chair Pillow | November 10, 2022
From November 10-13, Performa will present LIVE: The Performa Archive hosted in collaboration with LGDR at 3 East 89th Street, an exhibition and performance series that will be drawn entirely from the archive—including the performances, some of which have been made available, in collaboration with the artists, for acquisition by public institutions and private individuals. LIVE will be a “moving exhibition,” highlighting past works from the Performa biennials in a kinetic, ever-changing environment that will “perform” the archive and activate drawings, writings, correspondence, and documentation as connecting points between objects and performances from Performa’s history.
CITY STORIES
November 18th at 7:30 PM
November 19th at 5:00 + 7:30 PM
Smashworks Dance is pleased to announce its evening-length performance CITY STORIES, live at Center for Performance Research in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, November 18-19, 2022. CITY STORIES is a multimedia performance inspired by the verve, challenges, and elation of living in New York City. This interdisciplinary collaboration brings together choreography and immersive video projections by Ashley McQueen, and paintings on Metropolitan Transit Authority subway maps by Benny Cruz.
An episodic pastiche of emotional peaks and valleys, CITY STORIES teeters between sublimity and deluge, showing the unheroic heroism of surviving in New York City’s ecosystem.
ABSENCE
A dance film with Diego Funes
On view in perpetuity
In Absence, mind and body are in conflict. A character contemplates the absence of a loved one in analytical detachment, while the body yearns for the physical sensation of being touched, held, cherished. We figure out who we are and how view ourselves based on how we interact with other people.
Absence asks who we are when everyday interaction is removed. Created in New York City in response to social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, Absence finds its central figure working to offset a present reality where nothing changes until finally being able to hit reset. But even then, can we actually restart, or do we merely adapt to a new reality? And is a new beginning what we really need?
Documentation
Performance Reel
Featuring work by Pat Catterson, Pramila Vasudevan, Diego Funes, Michelle Thompson Ulerich, Melissa Stern, Jacqui Dugal, and Monica Hogan. Edited lovingly by Jacqueline Donahue.