CIRCA Presents: Pioneer Winter

Pioneer Winter will speak about his work as the Artistic Director of the Pioneer Winter Collective, an intergenerational and physically integrated dance-theater company, rooted in social practice, community, queer visibility, and beauty beyond the mainstream. Pioneer Winter’s work democratizes performance in public spaces, museums and galleries, stage, and film. A major objective continues to be expanding the definition of all that dance is and can be so that all bodies survive, thrive, and are witnessed in spite of constant erasure based upon race, body type, age, and ability. 

Pioneer Winter (he/they, b. 1987) is a Miami-based choreographer and artistic director of Pioneer Winter Collective, an intergenerational and physically integrated dance-theater company, rooted in social practice and community, queer visibility and beauty beyond the mainstream. Recognized in Dance Magazine’s 25 to Watch, Pioneer Winter’s work democratizes performance in public spaces, museums and galleries, stage, and film. A major objective continues to be expanding the definition of all that dance is and can be so that all bodies survive, thrive, and are witnessed in spite of constant erasure based upon race, body type, age, and ability – this goes for both the artists as well as the audience. Pioneer has been commissioned by Miami Theater Center, Karen Peterson and Dancers, Tigertail Productions, Jacksonville Dance Theatre, FundArte, and the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, where Pioneer is the Center’s first Artist-in-Resident collaboration in a decade. Pioneer Winter’s work is supported by local, state, and foundation grants and fellowships. Most recently, PWC premiered Birds of Paradise (Sep 2021), commissioned by the Arsht Center and supported by NEFA’s National Dance Project Award, MAP Fund, and the Knight Foundation. Pioneer earned a Masters in Public Health and Epidemiology from Florida International University’s Stempel College of Public Health (2009) and Master of Fine Arts in Choreography from Jacksonville University/White Oak (2016). An extension of his creative practice, Pioneer has curated and directed ScreenDance Miami Festival since 2017, presented by Miami Light Project; Pioneer’s own films screen internationally. Pioneer serves as Assistant Teaching Professor in the Honors College and College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts at Florida International University. Pioneer is affiliated faculty at the Center for Humanities in an Urban Environment (CHUE) and an inaugural Fellow in the Miami Studies Program.