Grant Recipients Grants to Artists Dance 2025

Jon Kinzel

Photo by Tei Blow.

2025 Grants to Artists
Dance
Choreographer, Visual Artist
Born 1967, New York, NY
Lives in New York, NY
He/Him

Artist Statement

The body is a complex and resourceful vehicle. I value the way differing bodies and personal histories influence content. This interplay can reveal a particular and dedicated way to move and move with others that feels unexpected and vital; a desirable tension between experimentation, intentionality, acquiescence, and accidentalness. My fluid interdisciplinary practice includes the making of a body of visual artwork that can be seen in relation to my choreographic and improvisatory sensibilities. And my ongoing involvement with the social, cultural, and political climate is integral to my history as an artist and educator.

- December 2024

Biography

Jon Kinzel maintains a deeply interrelated choreographic and visual art practice. He has explored time-based media, urban life, social constructs, partnering, graphic mark-making, loose imagery, and ways for the artifice of fiction to meet an experimental memoir. His solo and ensemble work consists of set and improvised material, allowing unknown and uncontrollable elements—borderlands between audience and performer—to introduce a tension to the experience on both sides.

Kinzel has produced numerous artworks in an inexhaustible sequence with no arrival point, and without finality, reflecting the transitional nature of being an aging dancer whose body is an instrument in flux. A series of works—Queens Terminus, The Chocolate Factory, Long Island City, NY (2022); Pacific Terminus, Telematic Media Arts, San Francisco, CA (2019); and Atlantic Terminus, The Invisible Dog Art Center, Brooklyn, NY (2016)—brought together Kinzel’s drawings and paintings, video, sculpture, and dance forms, addressing technology's effects on visual culture, social relationships, performance, haptic interaction, and the presentation of the moving body.

Kinzel has shown work and performed at Roulette, Brooklyn, NY; La MaMa E.T.C., New York, NY; Sundays on Broadway, New York, NY; Gibney/Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center, New York, NY; Danspace Project, New York, NY; Dixon Place, New York, NY; PS 122, New York, NY; and The Kitchen, New York, NY, among many other venues.

He has performed and collaborated across disciplines with artists such as Bob Ajar, Seline Baumgartner, Jarrod Beck, Agnes Benoit, Jonathan Bepler, Susan Braham, Sandra Burton, Jean Butler, Wally Cardona, Yoshiko Chuma, Hope Clark, Emily Coates, Liz Collins, Philip Connaughton, Jim Dawson, Elena Demyanenko, Chris Dohse, Jeanine Durning, Rinde Eckert, Nicolás Dumit Estévez, Peggy Florin, Neil Goldberg, Lance Gries, Meg Harper, David Harris, Patricia Hoffbauer, KJ Holmes, Koosilja Hwang, Anne Iobst, Risa Jaroslow, John Jasperse, Margaret Jenkins, John Jesurun, Nina Katan, John Kelly, Ronnarong Khampa, Terry Creach, Stephen Koester, Stephen Koplowitz, Roy Kortick, Jennifer Lacey, Noemi Lakmaier, Maya Lee-Parritz, David Linton, Luis A. Lara Malvacías, Shelly Mars, Jodi Melnick, Jennifer Miller/Circus Amok, Jennifer Monson, Jeremy Nelson, Nicky Paraiso, Yvonne Rainer, Susan Rethorst, Brian Rogers, Susan Sgorbati, Cassim Shepard, Vicky Shick, Sally Silvers, Kirstie Simson, Kuldeep Singh, Vivian Stoll, Mike Taylor, Catherine Tharin, Keith Thompson, Cathy Weis, Enrico D. Wey, Michael Whaites, Cydney Wilkes, Rachid Ouramdane as a guest soloist at the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, and Matthew Barney in the The Cremaster Cycle.

Kinzel is the recipient of a NYSCA Support for Artist grant (2025), MacDowell Fellowships (2024, 2020), and a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in Choreography (2023).

Kinzel has served as a sound designer, movement dramaturg, and curator. He has taught at universities, conservatories, festivals, and Movement Research, as well as in New York City primary and secondary schools.

Omagbitse Omagbemi and Simon Courchel are captured in an embrace, with Omagbemi's arm raised in a fist and Courchel's arms wrapped around Omagbemi. Omagbemi wears a light green long sleeve shirt and skirt, while Courcel wears light-blue pants and a white long sleeve shirt. They are framed against a neutral gray background with soft lighting.

Performance still from COWHAND CON MAN at Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center, New York, 2015. Performed by Omagbitse Omagbemi and Simon Courchel. Photo by Scott Shaw.

Jon Kinzel is outdoors standing behind a painted rectangular canvas tilted on its side and propped up against a column-like sculpture in front of a green garage door. The canvas features ink illustrations depicting legs, leather boots, and motorcycles. There is foliage visible and scattered newspapers are seen on the ground.

Performance still from Pacific Terminus at Telematic Media Arts, San Francisco, 2019. Performed by Jon Kinzel. Photo by Christine Regan.

Jodi Melnick and Jon Kinzel are dancing together, with Melnick leaning backward while Kinzel supports her with one hand behind her neck. Melnick is wearing glittery grey pants and a tattered white shirt with a red heart graphic and Kinzel is wearing a half sleeve dark blue shirt. They are positioned in front of a dark stage backdrop.

Performance still from Responsible Ballet and What We Need Is a Bench to Put Books On at The Kitchen, New York, 2010. Performed by Jodi Melnick and Jon Kinzel. Photo by Paula Court.

Simon Courchel, Stuart Shugg, and Jon Kinzel perform in a dimly lit room with exposed brick walls. The three performers appear as silhouettes, with Kinzel carrying one of the performers, who is in a horizontal pose with their arms outstretched. Minimal rectangular stage props are seen in the space.

Performance still from Someone Once Called Me A Soundman at The Chocolate Factory, New York, 2013. Performed by Simon Courchel, Stuart Shugg, and Jon Kinzel. Photo by Madeline Best.

Philip Connaughton and Jon Kinzel are seated at a piano in a room with floating sheets of paper around them. Kinzel, wearing a black tee, leans closely into Connaughton, who is poised to play the keys, wearing a white button-down shirt.

Promotional photo from The Generalist, shot at LaMaMa, New York, performed at axis Ballymun, Dublin, Ireland, 2013. Performed by Philip Connaughton and Jon Kinzel. Photo by Julieta Cervantes.

Priscilla Marrero and Jon Kinzel perform on an empty stage in front of a brick wall completely covered in red lighting. Marrero walks away in a shimmering, textured outfit while Kinzel, in a loose shirt and striped pants, leans forward with one arm stretched out towards Marrero. Their movements are captured mid-step.

Performance still from Queens Terminus at The Chocolate Factory, New York, 2022. Performed by Priscilla Marrero and Jon Kinzel. Photo by Brian Rogers.

Enrico D. Wey, wearing a gray sleeveless shirt and dark pants, supports Jon Kinzel, who is draped over his back wearing a plaid long-sleeve shirt and dark pants. Their bodies are intertwined in a movement against a dark background.

Performance still from harmony hard, a pulsing vein at Danspace, New York, 2013. Performed by Enrico D. Wey and Jon Kinzel. Photo by Paula Court.