LINDY NSINGO
Born
1987
Lives and works
London, UK
Education
Bachelor of Arts, Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Leeds, UK, 2009
Master of Arts, London Contemporary Dance School, London, UK, 2012
Drawing upon her personal migratory experience, dancer and choreographer Lindy Nsingo has established a unique movement aesthetic that speaks to the essential human desire to belong in a constantly spinning world. Extensively trained in both Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham techniques, as well as possessing a background in traditional ballet, hip-hop and theatre, Nsingo is particularly influenced by Graham’s focus on the “center” of the body and the importance of being grounded through movement. In recent years, Nsingo’s innovative, bold and athletic work has led her to a series of collaborations with world-renowned visual artists including Shaun Gladwell and Trey Ratcliff as well as a project with Lena Liv to be presented at the opening of the 56th Venice Biennale in May 2015. With Liv,·Nsingo has created a new original work that she performed over a series of days in a Tuscan palace and that Liv recorded as the basis for a series of drawings, photographic and light works. Nsingo’s arresting live performance and Liv’s stunning visual works will come together for the first time in the Venice installation. A documentary is also currently in production: it will capture the relationship between the artists and the project as a whole.
Nsingo was born in Zambia, raised in Belgium and educated in South Africa before moving to the United Kingdom to complete her Bachelor of Arts at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds in 2009 and Masters of Arts, with a specialisation in choreography, at the London Contemporary Dance School in 2012. In addition to her collaborative project with Liv, Nsingo is also presently working with internationally recognised visual artist and professional freestyle skateboarder Shaun Gladwell.·As part of their artistic conversation, Nsingo and Gladwell have generated a series of ongoing performances captured in constrained urban environments in downtown London. In each of these performances, Nsingo and Gladwell react to the music, architecture and each other’s movements with Nsingo focused on her body’s relationship to space and time and Gladwell responding with his skateboard. Their initial efforts have been captured on video and Gladwell, who regularly uses video as the preferred medium of his artwork, intends to finish and edit for presentation in late 2014/early 2015. In 2014, Nsingo has also had the opportunity to complete an impromptu performance with global photographer Trey Ratcliff at the iconic Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo. In response to the world’s busiest and most populous pedestrian road crossing, Nsingo performed a series of jumps and slow motion techniques that Ratcliff captured using his extraordinary high-dynamic-range photographic process and posted to his site, which is daily accessed by millions of visitors. Nsingo has also collaborated with UK fashion designer Sadie Clayton, choreographing movement for her restrictive copper body jewelry. In addition to her fashion and art collaborations, Nsingo has also consulted with numerous contemporary musicians providing movement coaching for live performances and acting as artistic director for music videos.
