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 dance film. Her works are experiential, experimental, and often have interdisciplinary approaches at their core.
Her research on the use of new technologies and media applications as presentation tools, is ongoing. A focus on developing new audiences for dance, by connecting the form to the world outside the theatre, informs this exploration of placing dance in surprising juxtaposition with everyday life, both real and virtual.
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, a project-based 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.
PERFORMANCE
Louise is a prolific dance maker, regularly creating new works through her company Darkroom Contemporary Dance Theatre. Recent commissions include new works for the Pan African Telematic Art Project, featured at Ars Electronica (Linz,Austria), Vrystaat Kunstefees, The Pan African Creative Exchange, Fak’ugesi Festival of African Digital Innovation; CREATIVATE at the virtual National Arts Festival; and the Iziko Planetarium Under The Dome Festival. Her performance 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, and the Norval Foundation.
FILM
Louise Coetzer is an award winning film maker and her dance films have been presented at festivals worldwide. Awards include Best Film Award (Under The Dome Festival, SA); Jury Award at Denton Black Film Festival (Texas, USA) and Top Three Film Jury Award (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).