NICOLE KLAYMOON

Nicole Klaymoon is Founder and Artistic Director of the Embodiment Project, a diverse dance theater company in San Francisco whose work has been described as "like taking a defibrillator jolt to the soul” (San Francisco Chronicle). Her most recent work Ancient Children, sponsored by MAP Fund, explores the ways restorative justice can interrupt the school-to-prison pipeline and premiered at the ODC Theater in June 2018. As a solo performer, Klaymoon created the dance theater production Sixth Vowel, choreographed by Rennie Harris and directed by Kamilah Forbes of the New York City Hip Hop Theatre Festival. She is currently a resident artist at the ODC Theater, a recipient of the Headlands Center for the Arts residency, and the Gerbode and Hewlett Foundation’s Commissioning Choreographers Award.

Klaymoon has collaborated with G.R.A.C.E. Africa in Embu Kenya, to create performance that addresses the stigma around HIV/AIDS epidemic and encourages conversation about sexual health. She has performed in dance works directed by Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Rennie Harris, Sean San Jose, Amara Tabor-Smith, Meredith Monk, Maria Gellespie, and Anne Bluethenthal. Klaymoon currently teaches a company technique class at Dance Mission in San Francisco, and is on faculty of the Performing Arts department at USF, Marin Academy High School and ODC Dance School. She received a B.A. in Dance from UCLA and an M.F.A. from the California Institute of Integral Studies.
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Klaymoon came to NCCAkron in July 2018 as part of a Dancing Labs: Screendance residency and created the dance film Chrysalis, co-directed by Morgan Wise. Chrysalis premiered in October 2018 on the closing night of the San Francisco Dance Film Festival.