KT Nelson

KT Nelson joined ODC/Dance in 1976 and partners with Brenda Way to direct the ODC/Dance Company. KT choreographed and directed the Company's first full-length family ballet in 1986, The Velveteen Rabbit, which has since been performed annually in the Bay Area as an ODC/Dance holiday production. KT has been awarded the Isadora Duncan Dance Award four times: in 1987 for Outstanding Performance, in 1996 and 2012 for Outstanding Choreography, and in 2001 for Sustained Achievement. Her collaborators have included Bobby McFerrin, Geoff Hoyle, Shinichi Iova-Koga, Max Chen, Zap Mama, and Joan Jeanrenaud. In 2008, her work RingRounRozi, in collaboration with French-Canadian composer Linda Bouchard, was selected to be performed at the Tanzmesse International Dance Festival. In 2009 Nelson was one of three artists selected for Austin Ballet’s New American Talent Competition. In 2012 she created new work for Western Michigan University as part of their Great Works Dance Project. In addition to her work as a choreographer, Nelson served on the Zellerbach Community Arts Panel from 2005 to 2011, ran the summer dance department for Center for Creative Youth at Wesleyan University 2003-2006, and founded the ODC Dance Jam in 1997. Over the last 25 years, KT has played a major role in defining and implementing ODC's on-going and project-based outreach programs. She has mentored the Margaret Jenkins' Chime Project and continues to mentor emerging artists in the Bay Area and abroad.