KT Niehoff, Artistic Director

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KT Niehoff

Artistic Director of Lingo Productions

KT Niehoff, founder and artistic director of Lingo Productions, was a 2009/10 Artist in Residence with ACT Theatre’s “Central Heating Lab” in Seattle, a 2006 MANCC Fellow (Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography) and a 2011 Artist Trust Fellow (Seattle). She was named 2007 Dance Artist of the Year by Seattle Magazine.

Since 1998, the major platform for Niehoff’s work has been Lingo Productions (originally Lingo dancetheater). Lingo is the container for Niehoff’s creative works in all forms – performance, commissions, writing, film, teaching and research. Lingo expands and contracts depending on the demands of the work, yet is centered around a reoccurring cast of characters who have been instrumental in the creation of Lingo’s vision. Lingo has been presented at places like ACT Theatre (Seattle), On the Boards (Seattle), The Joyce SoHo (NY), Alverno Presents (Milwaukee), SUSHI (San Diego), The Southern Theater (Minneapolis), Cleveland Public Theater, among others, including a bunch of colleges and universities throughout the country such as Vanderbilt, Oberlin, Evergreen, Mt. Holyoke and Kenyon. She has received funding from The National Endowment for the Arts (’05/’06), The National Dance Project (’05 Production, ’06 Creation), The National Performance Network (’06, ’08, ’09), Meet the Composer (’99), Arts International (’00), Bossak/Heilbron (’99-’12), and all of the city, county and state funding agencies in Washington State (since ’98), which has allowed her to make her work.

Since 2006, Niehoff’s interest has been audience/artist/art proximity – practically, metaphorically, emotionally and psychologically. This research has led her off the stage. Inhabit (2007) and Glimmer (2010) used spaces where the audience was free to roam among the performance. The Lift (2008) pushed passers-by up the hill from Seattle’s Pike Place Market to 1st Avenue for several days over the course of a month. The 1-to-1 Solo Project (2010) tailored solos for 30 individuals, and then performed the pieces for them in public spaces. Install (2010) embedded dancers throughout the Seattle Art Museum for five-hour stretches. In the summer 2011, Niehoff completed her first short film, Parts Don’t Work.

In addition to creating works, Niehoff has taught a lot in the last 15 years throughout the U.S. and abroad – Oberlin College, Cornish College of the Arts, Tisch School of the Arts, University of Washington, The Hong Kong Academy of the Performing Arts, The SNDO – to name a few. This past summer she was on faculty for the contemporary dance program at Jacob’s Pillow in Lee, Mass.

As an administrator, Niehoff founded and ran Velocity Dance Center in Seattle from 1996-2006. In 2003 she created the project SCUBA National Touring Dance Alliance with Seattle (Velocity), San Francisco (ODC), Minneapolis (The Southern Theater) and Philadelphia (Philly Dance Project). Thanks to the next generation of dedicated staff, both Velocity and SCUBA are still running strong today.

Currently, Niehoff is involved with two building projects. She has recently opened 10 degrees, a research and performance space in Seattle. She and her husband are also building a small hotel and artist residency space in Waitsburg, a city (pop. 1,200) in the Southeast corner of Washington state near Walla Walla.