Lisa Nelson is a dance artist and explorer of the role of the senses in the performance and observation of movement. She is intrigued by dance behaviors, systems of transmission and translation, patterns of surviving culture, and the sense of imagination. A decade of working with video exposed the profound role the sense of vision plays in the act of dancing and became a model for her approach to real-time editing, communication, and dance performance she calls Tuning Scores—offering tools for reimagining the illusions of our wobbly world. Editing in many mediums has been a life practice, including Contact Quarterly dance journal since 1976. Her writings are accessible on MovementResearch.org Critical Correspondance, and oralsite.be, and her book Living in the Composition: dance as a way of seeing was recently released by Contredanse (Brussels). She’s grateful for encouragements from a Bessie Award 1987, Alpert Award in the Arts 2002, and United States Artist Award 2020, and lives in Vermont.
