Photo: Amos Mac
Dazed Magazine; Trans in America
niv Acosta
Biography:
niv Acosta is a dance artist, educator, black Dominican, transexual, queer native New Yorker. He
attended the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance (NYC), American Dance Festival
(Duke Univ.) and CalArts (Dance BFA). In 2010 niv received an Art and Social Change Grant from
The Leeway Foundation with which he presented two solo works titled “denzel” and “denzel prelude” at Studio 34 in Philadelphia. He moved back to New York and presented “denzel superstructure” through Movement Research Open Performance (NYC) and The Community Education Center (Philadelphia, PA). In 2011 niv was accepted into the Fresh Tracks Residency Program through New York Live Arts. During the residency he presented and developed two works. “denzel again” was presented at New York Live Arts in December of 2011. niv presented “denzel mini petite bathtub happy meal” (2012) at Brooklyn Arts Exchange (Upstart Festival), and Danspace
Project (Draftworks). niv then presented “excerpt hearts” (2012), an under-rehearsed cover band,
at The Meulensteen Gallery (group show), The Tank, and Danspace Project (Ralph Lemon’s,
“Marathon. The End”). In the same year niv traveled “denzel mini petite bathtub happymeal” to Pieter Performance Space in Los Angeles. Later in 2012 niv presented a solo work, “the panther”, at MOMA PS1, and after, began developing the final installment of the “denzel series”, titled, “i shot denzel”. i shot denzel was presented in various stages at Center for Performance Research (2012), 92nd Street Y, Judson Memorial Church (2013), MOMA PS1, Abrons Arts Center, Human Resources (Los Angeles), and New York Live Arts (2014). Since the close of the “denzel series,” niv has been working on a new project expanding on his interests in sci-fi, astronomy, and disco. He’s presented two solo works titled “cosmic muck” and “inner disco” at Vox Populi in Philadelphia and at The Studio Museum in Harlem. niv has collaborated with artists Malik Gaines, Alexandro Segade, Andrea Geyer, A.K. Burns, and Ralph Lemon.
Reviews:
i shot denzel, (2013), MOMA PS1: Charles Roussell
DIED IN YOUR ARMS, Tyler Matthew Oyer, GONE FOR GOLD
“He is a New Yorker after all and the demands of the city often induce desires of transcendence. And flights of fancy. And reasons to dance. Let’s get lost in the metaphor, that’s what’s there for…
Acosta did not present solutions or even explicitly call for change. It was instead an entrance into the mind of a young person who is brave enough to share his experience by making art from it…
The incorporation of language harnessed the abstraction, subjugated the interpretation and kept the work from being just anything someone wants it to be. This structural tension created by the artist illustrated, complicated, and expanded the endless psycho-social navigations between who we think we are and who we are made to be, between how we want to feel and how we are made to feel, between work and working…”
denzel again (2011), New York Live Arts, Ian Douglas
Maura's Week in Review, Maura Donahue, Culturebot
“niv Acosta is on my hit list. Where he goes, I’m going to follow. This 23 year old, Dominican, transgender artist structured a quartet (with his mom yessenia acosta cunningham, Joey Kipp and Cason Bolton Jr) that provided me with great ammunition for my regular ‘contemporary dance is just white people getting their freak on’ debates with students. Acosta pulls from vogue, post-modern task-based practices, hip hop, disco, song, family, and film for denzel again. His opening silent face-off, vogue-based duet with Bolton Jr., his song with his mom, his endurance structure with Kipp and a final downstage line-up where all four began to lip-synch a re-mix of Alice Smith’s Love Endeavour summed up to reveal a brilliant, new visionary for our field, someone as he says queering ‘brown involvement in performance’ in a way that speaks honestly and articulately from the here and now. His source materials, artistic treatments and casting are reflections of what live performance can be and who it can speak for today. Did I mention I love this city?”
“impossible bodies”, a documentary film
by Lani Rodriguez
Photo: Nicole Whelan
Interviews:
URGENT TOMORROWS, Tara Aisha Willis, The Brooklyn Rail
DANCE ARTIST nIV ACOSTA CREATES A SPACE OF HIS OWN, Lindsay Shelton, Vice
TRANS IN AMERICA, Amos Mac, Dazed and Confused Magazine UK
NAVIGATING SPECTACLE by Cecca Ochoa, Apogee
nIV ACOSTA: DANCE INFLUENCED PERFORMANCE ARTIST, Annie Malamet, Posture Magazine
VESSEL ELEMENTS: ARTISTS TO WATCH, Legacy Russell, Canteen Magazine
EXCERPT: JEN ROSENBLIT & nIV ACOSTA, Hanna Wilde, Randy Magazine
Performance Journal Writing:
Thoughts from niv Acosta