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About

kloetzel&co. is a dance theatre company committed to creating works that span stage, site, and screen. Begun in 1997 in New York City, kloetzel&co. has been on the move since 2000 and is pleased to acknowledge its current home on Treaty 7 Territory in northern Turtle Island/Canada. Treaty 7 territory in Southern Alberta is the traditional territory of the Blackfoot Confederacy (comprising the Siksika, Piikani, and Kainai First Nations), as well as the Tsuut’ina and the Stoney Nakoda (Îyâxe Nakoda) First Nations (including Wesley, Bearspaw, and Chiniki), and is also home to the Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 3.
kloetzel&co.’s research projects emerge from experimentation with text, characterization, rigorous movement inquiry, film, and/or site-based investigation. kloetzel&co. is particularly dedicated to artistic collaboration and interdisciplinary practices and fosters creative experiments with writers, filmmakers, scientists, composers, designers, visual artists, landscape designers, and musicians in each place along its choreographic journey.
Melanie Kloetzel - photo by Greg Nicholl

Melanie Kloetzel

Melanie Kloetzel is a settler choreographer, performer, scholar, and educator based in Moh’kinstis on the traditional Treaty 7 lands of the Blackfoot Confederacy. She is the artistic director of kloetzel&co., as well as co-artistic director of the art intervention collective TRAction, which produces the Climate Art Web (CAW-WAC). Employing practice-as-research methodologies, Kloetzel has developed events, workshops, films and encounters in theatre spaces, alternative venues, spaces of public assembly, and online environments for kloetzel&co., TRAction, and as a guest artist. Reflections/analysis of her research creation practices have enjoyed publication in edited anthologies and peer reviewed journals such as Dance Research JournalContemporary Theatre ReviewChoreographic Practices and New Theatre Quarterly, among others. Her anthology with Carolyn Pavlik, Site Dance: Choreographers and the Lure of Alternative Spaces is currently available in hard cover, paperback, and as an eBook from the University Press of Florida, and the recently released co-authored volumes, (Re)Positioning Site Dance: Local Acts, Global Perspectives and Covert: A Handbook, are available through Intellect and Triarchy Press, respectively. Before her current position as Professor of Dance at the University of Calgary, Kloetzel was the Director of the Dance program at Idaho State University from 2004-2007. Kloetzel has performed nationally and internationally with such artists as Ann Carlson, Kim David Arrow, and the Leah Stein Dance Company, and was a member of Race Dance under the direction of Lisa Race from 1995-2000. Kloetzel holds a PhD in Dance Studies from the University of Roehampton, an MFA in Experimental Choreography from the University of California at Riverside, an MA in History from the University of Montana, and a BA from Swarthmore College. She was also a 2003 recipient of the Chancellors Distinguished Fellowship Award from The University of California.

Collaborators

Over the years, kloetzel&co. has been fortunate to collaborate with artists across the globe. In the past decade, some of these remarkable artists include:

John Masserini, clarinetist, Flagstaff, AZ
Naomi Brand, dancer and choreographer, Vancouver, BC
Jeff Curtis, filmmaker, Seattle, WA
Fergus Dunnet, visual artist, Glasgow, UK
Jennifer Mahood, cinematographer, Calgary, AB
Phil Smith, site-specific creator and playwright, Exeter, UK
Geoffrey Friedley, singer, Pocatello, ID
Brandy Leary, performance maker, Toronto, ON
Enrica Dall’Ara, landscape architect, Italy and Canada       Tania Alvarado, choreographer, Calgary, AB
Rose Ruane, writer and visual artist, Glasgow, UK

Sandra Yellowhorn Lamouche, dance artist, Ft. McLeod, AB Deanne Walsh, dancer and choreographer, Calgary, AB
Carmen Braden, composer, Yellowknife, NWT
Greg Nicholl, poet, Boston, MA
Kristin Smith, visual artist, Minneapolis, MN
Mark Neiwirth, pianist, Pocatello, ID
Brooks Peterson, photographer, Calgary, AB                          Linnea Swan, filmmaker and choreographer, Calgary, AB
Derek Beaulieu, poet, Calgary, AB
Ben Alexander, set and lighting designer, Flagstaff, AZ
Tracy Murray, costume designer, Calgary, AB