Stephan Koplowitz


Stephan Koplowitz is a director and choreographer and media artist specializing in site-specific multimedia performances. Since the 1980s, Koplowitz, an international site artist and former Dean of Dance at CalArts, has dedicated himself to site-specific work. He has made work on and for the steps of the New York Public Library, in the halls of London’s Natural History Museum, in a German factory, and in the windows of Grand Central Station
Koplowitz was one of 14 artists included in the book Site Dance: Choreographers and the Lure of Alternative Spaces edited by Melanie Kloetzel and Carolyn Pavlik, published by Florida University Press, 2011 In 2022, Koplowitz's book, On Site - Methods for Site-Specific Performance Creation was published by Oxford University Press: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/on-site-9780197515242?cc=us&lang=en&

Awards and fellowships

  • 2017 – Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Residency Fellowship
  • 2015 – The Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Choreographic Commission
  • 2014 – ColumbusAlive.com named Sullivant Travels, by Stephan Koplowitz, Best Dance of 2014
  • 2013 – Houston Press, awarded Natural Acts in Artificial Water, Best Ensemble Production of 2013
  • 2010 – Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Utah
  • 2007 Boston Globe named Koplowitz’ one of the ten best dance works of 2007
  • 2004 Alpert Award in the Arts
  • 2003 Guggenheim Fellowship in Choreography
  • 2003 Dance Theater Workshop’s Artist Resource and Media Laboratory Fellowship
  • 2000 New York Dance and Performance Awards
  • 1996 – Time Out Magazine’s Best Dance Production Award to Genesis Canyon
  • 1994 – Distinguished Alumnus Award from Wesleyan University

    Selected works

  • 2018 The Beginning as part of The Northfield Experience
  • 2018 Past the Past as part of The Northfield Experience
  • 2018 Reading Time as part of The Northfield Experience
  • 2018 The Northfield Experience – Commissioned by St. Olaf and Carleton Colleges in association with the city of Northfield, Minnesota
  • 2018 – Mill Town – Commissioned by the Bates Dance Festival
  • 2017 – Occupy Commissioned by the AXIS Dance Company, co-presented with the Dancers' Group and Yerba Buena Gardens Festival
  • 2015 – Play As part of Trolley Dances 2015, Commissioned by the San Diego Dance Theater
  • 2014 – The Past is Up
  • 2014 – Horizon Time
  • 2014 – Learn, Capture, Repeat
  • 2014 – One Way: A Telematic Trio Fraction, A site-specific performance in lighted windows of Christ Chapel'', Gustavus Adolphus College
  • 2009 Taskforce: Liquid Landscapes UK
  • 2008 Five Entrances into a War Machine
  • 2008 Taskforce: Liquid Landscapes LA
  • 2008 Taskforce: Mapping IdyllWild
  • 2007 Revealed at Amherst
  • 2007 iseea
  • 2006 Revealed
  • 2006 A Walk Between Two Worlds
  • 2005 Light Lines
  • 2004 The Grand Step Project
  • 2003 Terrarium
  • 2001 Formations
  • 2000 Aquacade for Asphalt Green
  • 1999 Kokerei Projekt: Kohle Korper
  • 1999 Fenestrations2
  • 1998 Babel Index
  • 1998 War with the Newts
  • 1997 Webbed Feats
  • 1996 Genesis Canyon
  • 1996 Off the Walls
  • 1993 Thicker Than Water
  • 1991 The Governed Body
  • 1990 Fall Weather Friend
  • 1989 Big Thirst
  • 1987 Fenestrations
  • 1986 Untitled
  • 1986 Famished
  • 1985 I’m Growing
  • 1983 – Heart Throb Theater