BIOGRAPHY
LOUISE COETZER
(b 1980, South Africa) is a multidisciplinary Dance Artist working within the genres of Site-Specific Performance, Digital & Live Art, Choreography for the Stage, and Screendance. Her works are experiential, experimental, and place interdisciplinary approaches at their core, while grappling with the tensions between the physical and psychological, and mankind’s place within the universe and metaverse.
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Her research on the use of New Technologies and Media Applications as presentation tools, is ongoing. A focus on broadening audience interest in Dance, by connecting the form to the world outside the Theatre, informs her explorations of placing Dance in surprising juxtaposition with everyday life, both real and virtual. Her works are recognisable for their distinct physicality, intricately woven counterpoints and the conjuring of unexpected domains her performers inhabit.
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Coetzer trained as Dancer and obtained a B. Tech Degree in Dance, with Movement Composition as Major, from the Pretoria Technikon, and is currently living and working in Cape Town. She is founding Artistic Director of Darkroom Contemporary Dance Theatre, an Award Winning Company formed as a vehicle to reimagine Dance, through its innovative approach to staging and presenting Interdisciplinary Works. Coetzer is a Guest Lecturer at the University Of Cape Town!s Centre for Theatre Dance and Performance Studies and has taught as part of the faculties of the Cape Academy of Performing Arts, Dance For All, Western Cape Education Department, Cape Junior Ballet, City Varsity and AFDA.
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PERFORMANCE
Recent commissions include new works for the Kucheza Afrika Festival, Pan African Telematic Art Project, CREATIVATE at the National Arts Festival, Zeits MOCAA, and the Iziko Planetarium. Her Performances and Installations have been showcased at the Zeits Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, the Centre For The Less Good Idea, Dance Umbrella, Kucheza Afrika Festival, Baxter Dance Festival, the National Arts Festival, Ars Electronica (Linz,Austria), Fak!ugesi Festival of African Digital Innovation, and the Norval Foundation, and was awarded Best Live & Interdisciplinary Art Production at Vrystaat Kunstefees 2022.
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FILM
Coetzer is an award winning Dance Film maker and her Video Art and Screendance works have been presented at festivals worldwide. Awards include the POOL 22 Artist Award at POOL Movement Art Film Festival Berlin (Germany), Best of Festival Award at Third Coast Dance Film Festival (Nevada, USA); Best Film Award at Under The Dome Festival (SA); and Jury Awards at Denton Black Film Festival (Texas, USA); and Danceador Videodance Festival (USA). Her Film works have been presented by Video Art Miden (Greece), 40 North Festival (Calif. USA), Foreign Exchange (Paris, France), Ubumuntu Arts Festival (Kigali,Rwanda), Agite Y Sirva (Oaxaca, Mexico), The British Film Institute (London, UK) and Global Art & Moving Images (Pinsio, Finland).
AWARDS
2024 - BEST OF FESTIVAL AWARD - Third Coast Dance Film Festival (USA)
2024 - BEST DANCE FILM - Berlin Shorts Awards (Germany)
2024 - AUDIENCE CHOICE AWARD - Boston Dance Film Festival (USA)
2024 - BEST CHOREOGRAPHY - Exeter Dance International Film Festival (UK)
2024 - BEST CHOREOGRAPHY - Boston Dance Film Festival (USA)
2024 - BEST CHOREOGRAPHY - Utah Dance Film Festival (USA)
2022 - ARTIST AWARD - POOL Movement Art Film Festival Berlin (Germany )
2022 - BEST LIVE & INTERDISCIPLINARY ART PRODUCTION - Vrystaat Kunstefees (SA )
2022 - BEST SCREENDANCE, RUNNER UP AWARD - Denton Black Film Festival (USA )
2019 - BEST FILM AWARD - Under the Dome Festival (SA)
2022 - ARTIST AWARD - POOL Movement Art Film Festival Berlin (Germany )
2018 - TOP THREE JURY AWARD - Danceador Videodance Festival (USA)
FESTIVALS | GROUP EXHIBITIONS
- Dance Camera West | USA | 2024
- Cinedans Festival | Netherlands | 2024
- Bucharest International Dance Film Festival | Romania | 2024
- London Global Film Festival | UK | 2024
- Toyota US Woordfees 2020 | 2023
- Kucheza Afrika Festival | 2023
- POOL Movement Art Film Festival Berlin | Germany | 2022 | 2024
- National Arts Festival Curated Programme | 2022 | 2024
- Vrystaat Kunstefees | 2022 | 2020
- Denton Black Film Festival | USA | 2022
- Ars Electronica Kepler's Garden | Linz, Austria | 2020
- Pan African Creative Exchange | 2023 | 2020
- Dance Days Chania | Crete | 2020
- Video Art Miden | Kalamata, Greece | 2020
- Ubumuntu Arts Festival | Kigali, Rwanda | 2020 | 2021
- CREATIVATE at National Arts Festival | 2020
- aspect : ratio at Gallery MOMO | 2019
- Antidote Festival | Soest, Netherlands | 2019
- Under the Dome Festival, Iziko Planetarium | 2019
- Freespace Project, Zeits MOCAA | 2019
- 40 North Film Festival | California, USA | 2019
- Moving Images Video Dance Festival | Nicosia, Greece | 2018
- FOR ONCE at the Centre for the Less Good Idea | 2018
- Puncture Points Group Exhibition | 2018
- U Dance on Screen Festival | London, UK | 2017
- Agite Y Sirva Festival of Video Dance | Oaxaca, Mexico | 2016 | 2017
- Global Art & Moving Images Awards | Pinsio, Finland | 2016
- Foreign Exchange | Paris, France | 2016
- British Film Institute | London, UK | 2011