Zoe Scofield

co-artistic director and choreographer

artist statement

My work is situated in multiple mediums including, proscenium stage, installation, site responsive, film, photography, vinyl albums, 360 film, 2D collage, opera, zine magazines, art objects and sound installation. I work using a diversity of materiality and scale to best express and fully realize a project's aim/brief. My past work has seen me create pieces at opera houses, limited hand pressed vinyl records, as well as theaters, museums, art galleries, online platforms, bookstores and more.

As a visual thinker, my dance practice is firmly rooted in visual art, drawing, painting, photography and film. I am self taught and see this as an asset. Consistently teaching myself new skills or seeking creative solutions, furthers my own research and output. Within my role as a teacher and creator, I encourage this attitude of learning what you need to create the work you want as well as the firm belief that you can and should work in whatever medium best suits your project and inquiry.

My research challenges dance practices built from historically-exclusive hierarchies. I am engaging my body in questions of repair, decolonization, dismantling misogyny/patriarchy, reconciling the irreconcilable and the inheritance of embodied racism. (keep or not?)I seek to disrupt and lengthen processes of perception, in order to slow down experiences for viewers alongside myself. This process allows for embodied practice through physical action, in conversation with conceptual discourse. I examine and deconstruct barriers between art, artist, and audience by challenging expectations of perception and unconscious bias. The structures of my dances ask the audience to shift both physical and intellectual perspectives. In doing so, I offer opportunities to perceive dance in unconventional ways, allowing for recognition of our own projections, histories and experiences. As a performer, choreographer, and designer, I explore the ways I can create empathetic encounters between audiences and performers while also holding space for everyone’s personal experiences. Collaboration is another essential aspect within my research and practice. I work with artists from diverse disciplines, film, visual art, opera, theater, music and sound, to create specific, singular combinations of bodies, light, sound, art objects and sculpture. Collaborating with artists from various disciplines gives me access to perspectives, mediums, and tools that allow me to better transmit what I am communicating. 

2015 Guggenheim Fellow Zoe Scofield is a dance and visual artist based in Seattle Washington since 2002. Born and raised in Gainesville GA, Zoe began ballet at a young age, instilling in her a deep love and interest in structure, discipline and performances’ ability to create a transformative experience. Zoe attended Walnut Hill School for the Arts, an arts high school in Boston MA, receiving a Monticello Choreography Fellowship and graduating with high honors in dance. Afterwards, she danced with Prometheus Dance in Boston and Atlas Moves, directed by Bill James in Toronto Canada.  Zoe earned an MFA in Dance from the University of the Arts as part of their inaugural class. 

In 2005 Zoe began working with video and visual artist Juniper Shuey on video, photographic and dance collaborations shown in visual art galleries, museums and theaters. They have been commissioned and presented by national and international arts centers such as, On the Boards, PICA, Trafo House of Art, Dance Theater Workshop, Bates Dance Festival, NYLA, Spoleto Festival, Jacob’s Pillow, Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, Body Festival (New Zealand), Yerba Buena Center, Columbia College Chicago, DiverseWorks, The Frye Art Museum, the MET Museum, NY Philharmonic and many more. They have taught workshops and given lectures on dance, photography, collaboration and installation throughout the US and internationally.

Throughout her career Zoe has been awarded residences, awards and grants from 4Culture, Alpert Award, Artist Trust, Case Van Rij, City Arts Magazine, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, The Glenn H. Kawasaki Foundation, a Lifetime Achievement Fellowship and President's Award from University of the Arts, The MacDowell Colony, MAD Air, MAP Fund, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, National Performance Network, New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, On the Boards, Princess Grace Foundation, Seattle Foundation, Seattle Magazine, Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, The Guggenheim Foundation, The Mellon Foundation, The Stranger Genius Award, Trust for Mutual Understanding, Velocity Dance Center, among others. Zoe has taught at Velocity Dance Center, Mark Morris Dance Center, Gibney Dance Center, Walnut Hill School for the Arts, Boston Conservatory, Columbia College, University of Utah, University of Colorado at Boulder, and served as a guest panelist for Dance Critics Association, PICA’s Educating Dance Audiences, gloATL Tanz Farm, and Cornish College of the Arts. Zoe and Juniper are the co-founders of Lo-Fi Annual Arts Festival and What We Talk About… an in-process feedback session for artists of all disciplines.  Zoe created FORM/S in 2018, a creative workshop for artists to teach working professionals and pre-professionals in the visual and performing arts.