“I am sharing the darkness and lightness that derive from the most truthful human experiences”
Kelsie Steil is a freelance choreographer living in Biddeford, Maine. She earned a Bachelors Degree in Adventure Education with a Minor in Dance from Plymouth State University, and graduated with the 2018 Contemporary Dance Ensemble award for her achievements in Choreography. Her portfolio comprises both live performance and dance film and has been described as cerebral, visceral, and heavily theatrical. Her projects are strong in collaboration, working with artists across all mediums. Her collaborations include MR. MIND, a dance film created alongside filmmaker and photographer Maxwell Auger, and CRAVING THE MYSTIC, a stage work adapted into film by filmmaker Jennifer Hoffer. Kelsie has worked with music composers Michael Wall and Masha Reznik in the creation of original scores to accompany her choreographies. Kelsie operates as a concept-driven dance maker, with deep research as a large part of the early development of a new work. Much of her work is rooted in mental health and trauma and typically starts from building a character profile based on those experiences. Rummage Lane, a full-length dance-theatre duet choreographed with Hannah Haines, is an example of a piece centered around mental health through relationships with familial objects. The duet was shown as a work-in-progress throughout 2023 and is on tour in 2025. Kelsie is driven by the moments where movement and message clash and is very interested in demonstrating dissonance and a sense of unreality in the choreography she creates. When working with dancers, her first aim is creating a safe, accepting and communicative environment. Channeling her background as an experiential educator, she often begins a process through deep discussion, joyful group initiatives and games linked to the concept of the work. Currently, Kelsie is producing Split My Soul, an evening-length work featuring Maine dance artists set to premiere in 2025. Please visit Kelsie’s website to learn more: http://kelsiesteilmovement.com
Kelsie will be premiering “The Turbulent Emergence” is a surrealistic contemporary dance-theater piece. We follow a person’s daily journey through their house, the street and the mountain. The piece is an allegory for combating one’s internal darkness to heroically find clarity and strength, the mountain, to continue forth and inevitably tumble into the cycle again. The ensemble of dancers symbolize the ordinariness and repetitive qualities of day-to-day living, and the rushing current that sweeps them through life’s jagged ephemerality.
