Bio
Nancy Brier is a New York based choreographer, educator, filmmaker, Certified Movement Analyst and founder/artistic director of Synergy Dance Collective NY, whose passion lies in collaborating with dance artists, musicians, filmmakers, designers and visual artists on dances crafted for stage, site-specific locations and film. Her concert and site-specific works have been performed in NYC (Duke on 42nd St., Queens Theater, DUMBO Dance Festival, Dixon Place, St. Mark's Church-in-the-Bowery, Ailey Citigroup Theater, Green Space, Symphony Space, Performance Space NY, DiCapo Opera Theater and more), France, Czech Republic, Italy, on Metro Arts Thirteen/Metro Stories television networks and in showcases and festivals throughout the NYC metro area. She has been making dance films since 2014 (Official Selections 2022 Vienna International Film Awards and 2019 L.A., Berlin, Amsterdam, London, Paris film festivals and screened three films in the Fall 2021 NYC curated virtual series, Take Root).
Nancy was born and raised in Arizona and, after receiving her B.F.A. in Dance from Arizona State University, relocated to New York City where she performed with modern, contemporary, modern jazz and dance-theatre choreographers including Frank Ashley (Graham/Eleo Pomare), Lenore Latimer (Limon) and Barbara Jo Fleming's Commotion Dance Collaborative. She received her Master's degree from New York University and her C.M.A. (Certified Movement Analyst in Laban Movement Analysis, Bartenieff Fundamental and Motif Notation) from Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies, NYC. In the midst of 18 tours teaching and choreographing in France, the French Ministry of Culture and La Federation Française de Danse presented her with an honorary terminal diploma for teachers, Professeur Agrégé, recognizing her as one of the notable dance educators responsible for bringing contemporary American dance technique to France.
Synergy Dance Collective NY (SDCNY) is a project-based contemporary dance company created to foster multidisciplinary dance/arts collaborative works for stage, site-specific locations, outdoor festivals and film. The original core members of the group began working together in 2016. From 2021-2023 they continued working together while Nancy served as Artistic Co-Director of N/N Dance Collaborative, then in October 2023 she established SDCNY as an expanded collective to increase the involvement of a larger pool and broader range of artists from a wide variety of performing and visual art forms. Formerly Company Director of Circle of Dance Repertory Company (Huntington, NY), for seven of her 15 year tenure with them as Resident Choreographer, she facilitated the company's growth into booking performances in NYC and international venues. Nancy is also Co-Founder of Post Concert Dance Company, the resident company at LIU Post, and served as its Co-Director for over a decade.
Awarded NYSCA's 2022 New York State Choreographers' Initiative grant administered by the NYS DanceForce and American Dance Asylum Inc., Nancy was mentored by Bridgman/Packer Dance in experimenting with the fusion of live and recorded video feeds in the creative process of dancemaking for the concert stage. She was also recipient of a 2022 NYSCA Individual Artist Restart NY Regrant to choreograph her work CONTINUUM with original music and a sculptural set designed for the piece for an immersive Summer Solstice Celebration of the Arts event combining dance, live music, sculpture, poetry and film screenings. In 2023, her dance collaborative received a Statewide Community Regrant to create the 2nd Annual Summer Celebration of the Arts, then in 2024 Nancy was awarded another Statewide Community Regrant to create a 3rd Annual Summer Celebration of the Arts. She was recently awarded a 2026 Artist Fellowship from the office of the Governor and the NYS Legislature, administered by the Huntington Arts Council, to revisit and deepen the dance with video explorations she began in 2022.
Nancy's current area of interest is investigating the integration of live and recorded video feeds in the creative process of dancemaking for the concert stage. She also plans to continue along her recent paths of creating work focusing on social and environmental themes and collaborating with composers, filmmakers, designers and visual artists.
[email protected]
@nancybrierdance
Nancy was born and raised in Arizona and, after receiving her B.F.A. in Dance from Arizona State University, relocated to New York City where she performed with modern, contemporary, modern jazz and dance-theatre choreographers including Frank Ashley (Graham/Eleo Pomare), Lenore Latimer (Limon) and Barbara Jo Fleming's Commotion Dance Collaborative. She received her Master's degree from New York University and her C.M.A. (Certified Movement Analyst in Laban Movement Analysis, Bartenieff Fundamental and Motif Notation) from Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies, NYC. In the midst of 18 tours teaching and choreographing in France, the French Ministry of Culture and La Federation Française de Danse presented her with an honorary terminal diploma for teachers, Professeur Agrégé, recognizing her as one of the notable dance educators responsible for bringing contemporary American dance technique to France.
Synergy Dance Collective NY (SDCNY) is a project-based contemporary dance company created to foster multidisciplinary dance/arts collaborative works for stage, site-specific locations, outdoor festivals and film. The original core members of the group began working together in 2016. From 2021-2023 they continued working together while Nancy served as Artistic Co-Director of N/N Dance Collaborative, then in October 2023 she established SDCNY as an expanded collective to increase the involvement of a larger pool and broader range of artists from a wide variety of performing and visual art forms. Formerly Company Director of Circle of Dance Repertory Company (Huntington, NY), for seven of her 15 year tenure with them as Resident Choreographer, she facilitated the company's growth into booking performances in NYC and international venues. Nancy is also Co-Founder of Post Concert Dance Company, the resident company at LIU Post, and served as its Co-Director for over a decade.
Awarded NYSCA's 2022 New York State Choreographers' Initiative grant administered by the NYS DanceForce and American Dance Asylum Inc., Nancy was mentored by Bridgman/Packer Dance in experimenting with the fusion of live and recorded video feeds in the creative process of dancemaking for the concert stage. She was also recipient of a 2022 NYSCA Individual Artist Restart NY Regrant to choreograph her work CONTINUUM with original music and a sculptural set designed for the piece for an immersive Summer Solstice Celebration of the Arts event combining dance, live music, sculpture, poetry and film screenings. In 2023, her dance collaborative received a Statewide Community Regrant to create the 2nd Annual Summer Celebration of the Arts, then in 2024 Nancy was awarded another Statewide Community Regrant to create a 3rd Annual Summer Celebration of the Arts. She was recently awarded a 2026 Artist Fellowship from the office of the Governor and the NYS Legislature, administered by the Huntington Arts Council, to revisit and deepen the dance with video explorations she began in 2022.
Nancy's current area of interest is investigating the integration of live and recorded video feeds in the creative process of dancemaking for the concert stage. She also plans to continue along her recent paths of creating work focusing on social and environmental themes and collaborating with composers, filmmakers, designers and visual artists.
[email protected]
@nancybrierdance