Curriculum vitae

Nicki Miller

Also credited as Nicole Valerie Miller
MFA (Theatre), CPT (NASM, IKN, FRC, PRI)

Theatre maker, performer, writer, Movement educator

SELECTED Directing and Choreography

Director, All the Birds of the World (by Melody Bates) 5th Wall Studio, Stone Mountain Farm

Aerial Choreographer/Co-designer, The World is Round (Ripe Time, Heather Christian) BAM Fishman Theatre, NYC

Assistant Director, Breaking Surface 5th Wall Studio, NYC

Co-Creator/Performer Flesh and Blood (with Benjamin E. Oyzon) Dixon Place, NYC

Co-Creator/Director, TwoFold (Only Child) Site Specific Loft, NYC

Co-Creator/Director, ASYLUM (Only Child) Burning Coal Theatre, NYU Skirball Center

Co-Creator, Co-Director, Story Hour (Only Child) The Muse Brooklyn, New Victory LabWorks

Co-Creator/Director, Framework (Only Child), INSITU Site Specific Dance Festival, NYC

Co-Creator, Writer Aerial Theatre (Theatre Development Fund) Theatre Dictionary (video/essay on website)

Aerial Designer Symphony of Shadows (Rachel Klein Productions) Dixon Place NYC

Aerial Designer Devil In The Hole (dir. Jen Wineman) Dixon Place, House of Yes NYC

Apprentice to Olle Strandberg’s direction of Under Cirkus Cirkör, Sweden

SELECTED NYC Performance (Also as Choreographer noted with *)

Ghost Love Lead Artist*, Performer Sarah Lawrence College, advisor Caden Manson

Sticks & Stone Lead Artist*, Performer with Benjamin E. Oyzon, premiere: The Performing Garage

Notes from the Void: The Prequel Puppeteer The Slipper Room; Juanita Cardenas

CONTROL//ALTERNATE\\DELETE Dancer* Sarah Lawrence College, advisors Beth Gill, Yanira Castro

With Her Shadows Dancer* Sarah Lawrence College, advisors Beth Gill, Dean Moss

Almost Equal To Andrej Sarah Lawrence College, dir. Jillian Jetton

The Final Veil (development) Dancer dir. Cassandra Rosebeetle, choreo. Katherine Crockett

Different Trains Mother (aerialist, actor) ABCirque

Flesh & Blood                                              Her*                                                           Dixon Place, The Deep End

Framework Ensemble* INSITU, Socrates Sculpture Park, Only Child

ASYLUM Nurse* Burning Coal Theatre/NYU Skirball Center

Devil in the Hole Witch(Aerialist)*, Rigging Design Skybox/Dixon Place, dir. Jen Wineman

One Minute Play Festival Actor Intar Theatre, dir. Janio Marrero

Mrs. Mayfield’s 5th Grade Class

of ‘93 20 Year Reunion Amanda (originator, lead) CAPSLOCK Theatre, dir. Leta Tremblay

The Dead Dream Machine Agent Jackson (supporting) La Luz, Dir. Rachel Klein

The Internet Nicki Writer Leah Nanako Winkler, Incubator Arts

Le Compte D’Ory Flying nun* (aerialist, actor) Loft Opera, The Muse

Story Hour Woman, aerialist* Only Child, The Muse 

Groupmuse MASSIVE NYE Aerialist * Groupmuse, The Muse  

Symphony of Shadows Aerialist/Dancer*, Rigging Design Dixon Place, dir. Rachel Klein

Blunderland Guest Aerialist* House of Yes, prod. Eric Schmalenberger

Ars Nova NYE Aerialist* Ars Nova

Showgasm! Aerialist* Ars Nova

House of Yes Christmas Spectacular Aerialist/Dancer House of Yes

Vincent Collaborator and Actor Studio 5; Per Brahe

The Inferno Project Ensemble Actor Rapscallion Theatre Collective, dir. Lauren Reinhard

Selected Regional/International Theatre/Cabaret Performance (Also as Choreographer noted with *)

Frantic Assembly Adv. Training Performance Performer Frantic Assembly, November 2017 (London)

CIRCUS SESSIONS Aerial Performer*, Collaborator Femmes du Feu, HarbourfrontCentre (Toronto)

Santa Barbara Floor to Air Festival Guest Performer* and Teacher SBCAD, Ninette Palomma (Santa Barbara, CA)

Circus Arts Fest. of Toronto Guest Performer* (Aerial) Anandam Dance

Hudson Valley Circus Arts Featured Performer* (Aerial) BSP Kingston (NY)

Scenes onstage: The Winter’s Tale Hermione Shakespeare’s Globe (student show, London)

Visual art Installations

Just Remember to Notice Collage & Poetry Installation The West Brooklyn, NYC

Zero Waste Collage Collage Installation Zero Waste Daniel, NYC

Awards and Honors

2024 MFA in Theatre Sarah Lawrence College

2019 Brooklyn Arts Council Brooklyn Arts Fund Grant Recipient (w/ Only Child Aerial Theatre)

2018 Glenn P. Davis Aerial Choreography Scholarship to Frequent Flyers Aerial Dance Festival (Boulder, CO)

2017 Creative Residency/Apprenticeship with Olle Strandberg and Cirkus Cirkör in Sweden

2017 Special Invitation from Emma Rice to audit Boudica tech rehearsals at Shakespeare’s Globe London

2017 Special Invitation from Frantic Assembly to audit Othello rehearsal at London’s National Youth Theatre

2017 Selected Artist for performance in Circus Now: International Contemporary Circus Exposure, 
NYU Skirball Center for Performing Arts (with Only Child Aerial Theatre)

2016 New Victory LabWorks Artist (with Only Child Aerial Theatre)

2016 Selected Collaborator Toronto Circus Sessions

2016 Resident Artist Santa Barbara Floor to Air Festival

2015 Brooklyn Arts Council Local Arts Support Grant Recipient (w/ Only Child Aerial Theatre)

2014 Brooklyn Arts Council Community Arts Fund Grant Recipient (w/ Only Child Aerial Theatre)

2014 Invited Performer Contemporary Circus Arts Festival of Toronto

2007 Bachelor of Sciences in Drama, Syracuse University Magna Cum Laude

Theatre, Circus, & Dance Training (selected)

2022-2024 MFA Theatre Sarah Lawrence College Coursework:

Feldenkrais (Antonio Ramos); Movement Studio (Peggy Gould, Jodi Melnick, Wendell Gray, Catie Leasca, Jessie Young); Choreographic Strategies (David Neumann); Creative Impulse: Playwriting, Historic Survey of Contemporary Aesthetics (Lisa Clair); Performance Research (Cat Rodríguez); Performance Lab (Caden Manson, Tei Blow); Live Time Based Art (Beth Gill, Dean Moss, Yanira Castro); Gaga (Doron Perk), Sound Design (Glenn Potter-Takata), Suzuki (Matthew Mastromatteo), MFA Puppet Workshop (Lake Simons), Vocal Studio (Kirsten Brown), The Art of Pedegogy (Lauren Reinhard), Voiceover Acting (Lisa Clair)

Workshops at Sarah Lawrence College:

Group Works (Ethan Philbrick), Gesture and Devising (Nile Harris); Archive Theatre (Lyam Gabel); Playwriting (Agnes Borinsky); Improvisation and Emergence (Autumn Knight); Immersive Theater Creation (Zach Morris); Devising Character (Julianna Francis-Kelly); Solo Performance (Sacha Yanow); In-Ear Technologies (Tei Blow)

2020-2022 Relational Intelligence and Composing Emergence with Nita Little

2020 Gaga Lab Online (2 4-day series with Ohad Naharin and other teachers)

2020 Movement Workshop with Bobbi Jene Smith: Physicality, Virtuosity, Desire  (February 2020, 5 days)

2020 GagaLab NYC (January 2020, 6 days with Omri Drumlevich, Shamel Pitts, Zina Zinchecko)

2019 Gaga NYC Intensive  (6 days with Billy Barry, Bret Easterling, Kyle  Scheurich)

2017-2023 Gaga, regular classes in Ohad Naharin’s movement language 2017-present (Bobbi Jene Smith, Or Schraiber, 

Omri Drumlevich, Zina Zinchenko)

2018-2019 Flying Harness Dance (5th Wall Studio)

2018 Frequent Flyers’ Aerial Dance Festival (Susan Murphy, Alex Allan, Danielle Garrison, Mandy Hackman)

2018 Frantic Assembly Advanced Training Programme, London UK (Simon Pittman, Jessica Williams)

2017-2019 Blessed Unrest, NYC

2016 Third Rail Projects: Site Specific Devising/Choreography, NYC  (Tom Pearson, Jennine Willett Millman)

2015 Third Rail Projects: Body Mind Centering approach to Voice & Movement, NYC (Marissa Nielsen Pincus)

2016 Firenza Guidi’s Raw Energy, NYC (NoFit State Circus)

2018-2022 Kinstretch/Strength Training- Beth Lewis

2009-2019 Tissu, Rope (Leo Hedman, Emiliano Ron, Jordann Baker, Lisa Natoli, Gabrielle Martin, Paper Doll Militia)

2005 Shakespeare’s Globe (5 month training) through Syracuse University, London UK

Aerial and Artistic Workshop Instruction/Teaching

2019-present Pace University (New York, NY) Adjunct Faculty: Substitute Aerial Instruction in Commercial Dance and Theatre programs

2023-present Sarah Lawrence College Fitness Center (weekly PE classes: Conscious Conditioning, Active Flexibility/Mobility)

2023-present Tarrytown Music Hall (Tarrytown, NY), Aerial Silks Instructor

2023-present Flexibility in Flight (Chester, NY), Guest Instructor (Four workshops: Hips for Splits, Presence: Performance &
Practice, Overhead Arms Mobility Masterclass, Intro to Aerial Rope)

2019-2023 Bridge For Dance (New York, NY), Substitute Aerial Silks Instructor

2015-present Substitute and Guest Aerial Instructor/Creative Coach Hudson Valley Circus Arts (Kingston, NY)

2018 The D’amby Project (Red Hook, NY) Guest Instructor aerial storytelling intensive

2018 Millbrook School (Millbrook, NY) Guest Instructor: Co-teacher/advisor aerial theatre senior projects

2018 Guest Aerial Instructor OM Factory USQ

2016 Millbrook School (Millbrook, NY) Intercession Instructor: Co-teacher/curriculum developer for 

week long aerial theatre program for high school students

2016-2019 Substitute Aerial Silks/Rope/Conditioning Instructor Aerial Arts NYC

2016 Resident Artist & Instructor, Floor to Air Festival: Santa Barbara Centre for Aerial Dance (CA)

2016 Guest Teaching Artist Triangle Yoga (Chapel Hill, NC) 

2015-16 Guest Teacher Burning Coal Theatre, Cirque du Vol (Raleigh, NC)

2015 Kids Circus Camp Instructor at The Muse Brooklyn

2011- 2020 Aerial Silks/Rope Instructor at The Muse Brooklyn

2010-2014 Aerial Silks Instructor The Sky Box/OM Factory USQ

Publications

ACADEMIC WRITING

2024 MFA THESIS: Environmental Relations as Communication: On Diversifying Aesthetics in Aerial Arts (Sarah Lawrence College 2024)

ORIGINAL WRITING: PERFORMANCE REVIEWS

2019 REVIEW: Circa En Masse at Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival (November 2019)
2019 REVIEW: Hot Brown Honey at NYU Skirball Center for Performing Arts (April 2019)
2019 REVIEW: Circus Krone Mandana in Munich, Germany (April 2019)
2019 REVIEW: Recirquel Non Solus at Brooklyn Academy of Music (February 2019)

ORIGINAL WRITING: ARTICLES & OPINION PIECES

2019 ARTICLE from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters : “Saying No in a Culture of Yes: Artists Building a Code of Ethics in the #MeToo Era”
2017 ARTICLE examining structures for Performing Arts Funding and Education “What Makes Performing Arts Possible Part One” 
2017 OPINION personal experience of working in the USA and Europe, Part Two of “What Makes Performing Arts Possible”
2016 TDF.com- Co-creator/co-author “Aerial Theatre” for Theatre Development Fund’s Theatre Dictionary

INTERVIEWS & PANEL DISCUSSIONS

2023 PODCAST INTERVIEW: Ethan Philbrick Episode 05.01 SLC Performance Lab (Interviewer)
2021 PANEL DISCUSSION: Is Circus OK? Urgent Concerns Revisited–One Year into COVID (Panelist, March 2021)
2020 PANEL DISCUSSION: Circus and Changing Realities 2020–Imagining New Infrastructure for Circus (Moderator, April 2020)
2020 PANEL DISCUSSION: Urgent Concerns– Panel Talk: Circus Community Responds to COVID-19 (Panelist, March 2020)
2019 PANEL DISCUSSION: American Contemporary Circus in NYC & Philadelphia (Panelist, October 2019)
2018 VIDEO INTERVIEW Transcending Boundaries–A Video Interview with Tilde Björfors of Circus Cirkör (Interviewer)
2016 TDF.com- Co-creator/co-author “Aerial Theatre” for Theatre Development Fund’s Theatre Dictionary

Additional Certifications and Continuing Education

2024 Institute for the Study of Somatic Communication (ongoing training series with Nita Little)

2023 Perception as a Key to Embodying and Repatterning the Nervous System, (8 week course with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen)

2021 Postural Restoration Institute Postural Respiration Course

2021 Integrated Kinetic Neurology Performance Course

2021 1:1 Mentorship with Nita Little PhD (Embodied Attention Practices)

2020 Power Within Healing: Awakening Bodies Trauma Informed Somatics Mentorship

2020 Wild Soul Healing (courses: Inner Voice, Tarot for the Wild Soul, Heart of Service), 

2020 ARTIC ORG (Anti-Racist Trauma Informed Care): How to Be Less Harmful course

2020 Integrated Kinetic Neurology Level One Course 

2020 Integrated Kinetic Neurology Level Two Course 

2020 Z-Health Breathing Gym Course

2020 Z-Health Essentials of Elite Performance Course

2019 Kinstretch Certification Course (FRS Systems, Dr. Andreo Spina) 

2019 Postural Restoration Institute Myokinematic Restoration Course  

2016 Functional Range Conditioning Movement Specialist certification (FRS Systems, Dr. Andreo Spina) 

Affiliations

U.K. Equity (as Nicole Valerie)

Co-Founder, Artistic Director (2014-2021) Only Child Aerial Theatre 

Resident Artist: New Victory LabWorks (2016/17), Cirkus Cirkör (2017), Anver Entertainment (2021), 5th Wall Studio (2021-2022)

MICC (Montreal Completement Cirque Market for International Contemporary Circus) Working Groups