Born: New York, New York
Lives: Brooklyn, New York

i am interested in creating a history for myself. i am creating a time capsule. i am creating bodies of work, which in their entirety address larger concepts that become distilled with time. my current interest with what i have been naming “the denzel series” is a reflection of that idea. there are five incarnations of this work; denzel, denzel prelude, denzel superstructure, denzel again, and the latest denzel minipetite b a t h t u b happymeal. all of which have compiled over the last two years. i use the term incarnation because i believe these pieces are reborn from their former self but yet somehow take on a new or evolved identity. my choreographic structures begin as transient mindful matter, they eventually pursue a life of their own making them complex bodies and i strive to regard my work as such. the thread is me, niv the person and my interests with the intersections of race and gender. i have recently started identifying with the term “impossible bodies”. those words feel like they embody what i know is true for me and the people i like to work with. we have felt impossible outside of our safe environments. in the past i have involved my mother, 5 year old brother, my partner, close friends who are movers in a different world, and other artists of color. i feel the term “impossible bodies” is universal and is something everyone can relate to. with “possible bodies” fed to us as ideal, how do we make ourselves feel possible without compromising ourselves? drawing concepts of archetypes from film, musicals, songs, and choreography creates a base for me to begin identifying our self diagnosed impossibilities. from there i feel able to move towards ideas of myself/ourselves that feel empowering.

niv Acosta is a brooklyn based artist born and raised in washington heights manhattan. niv is 23 years old, dominican and transgender. he trained at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance with Tadej Brdnik, Jessica Delia, and Catherine Cabeen. he attended Washington Irving High School as a dance major and studied with /supported by Leslie Zema. niv has attended california institute of the arts for 2 years where he studied dance technique and choreography. he also attended American Dance Festival for the summers of 2007 and 2008. niv has shown his work at various events/spaces including The Sharon Disney Lund Theater at CalArts in Los Angeles, The Community Education Center in Philadelphia, in Open Performance through Movement Research,for the Fresh Tracks Residency Program at New York Live Arts, through AUNTS at The Secret Loft in Bushwick, The Tank and Danspace Project in Manhattan, and at Brooklyn Arts Exchange in Park Slope. Thanks to the Leeway Foundation niv was also awarded an Art and Social Change Grant (2010) and curated/performed/choreographed for gender < moving: queer bodies/home with iele paloumpis and Jai Arun Ravine at Studio34 Yoga | Healing | Arts. he has/is, worked/working on projects with Ralph Lemon: An All Day Event. The End and Moving Theater: Reusable Parts/Endless Love both at Danspace Project, Larissa Velez-Jackson: Star Crap In Progress at CPR, Ishmael Houston-Jones in Eyes, Mouth, and All the Rest: Surrendering to the Desire of Others in Dancer Crush at New York Live Arts, Hilary Clark’s Studio Series, iele paloumpis’ Give It, Take It and you’re on your own, Phialdelphia Dance Project’s Local History Project, and Deborah Hay for a project at The MOMA; fall of 2012.