Pioneer Winter

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 was the Center's first Artist-in-Resident collaboration in a decade (2019-21). Pioneer has been a guest artist at universities, including Miami Dade College, Nova Southeastern University, Broward College, and Florida State College. Most recently, Pioneer's work has received support from NEFA's National Dance Project Award, MAP Fund, the Knight Foundation, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, and Creative Capital. 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.

Pioneer Winter is a Miami-based choreographer and artistic director of Pioneer Winter Collective, an intergenerational and physically integrated dance-theatre 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. Winter 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 Winter 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 in September 2021, commissioned by the Arsht Center and supported by NEFA’s National Dance Project Award, MAP Fund, and the Knight Foundation. Winter earned a Masters in Public Health and Epidemiology from Florida International University’s Stempel College of Public Health in 2009 and Master of Fine Arts in Choreography from Jacksonville University/White Oak in 2016. An extension of his creative practice, Winter has curated and directed ScreenDance Miami Festival since 2017, presented by Miami Light Project; Winter’s own films screen internationally. Winter serves as Assistant Teaching Professor in the Honors College and College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts at Florida International University. Winter is affiliated faculty at the Center for Humanities in an Urban Environment (CHUE) and an inaugural Fellow in the Miami Studies Program.

Pioneer Winter is a Miami-based choreographer, and director of the Pioneer Winter Collective – a group of allied bodies that democratize performance through unexpected bodies, unexpected places, and unexpected social change. Through his Collective, Winter also directs several programs, including Leaders of Equality through Arts and Performance (LEAP), for LGBTQ-identifying teens and their allies that focuses on using the arts for activism; and the Grass Stains fellowship, a Knight Foundation supported site-specific performance initiative that mentors and commissions artists interested in creating site-based and public art work in Miami through a close collaboration with acclaimed site choreographer Stephan Koplowitz. A Horatio Alger Scholar, he is an alumnus of the Florida International University Honors College, and holds a Masters in Public Health and Epidemiology. Winter also completed a Master of Fine Arts in Choreography from Jacksonville University/White Oak, as the first artist to be named a Dennis R. Washington Achievement Scholar. He is a two-time Dance Miami Choreographic Program recipient, Diversity and Inclusion awardee (State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs) and Luminaries of Equality awardee (SAVE), Miami Goes Elsewhere Fellowship recipient, “Best Dancer” in the Miami New Times “Best of 2018” edition, and is a fellow and faculty member in the FIU Honors College and Theatre Department since 2014. Pioneer Winter has been festival director of ScreenDance Miami Festival since 2016. He was recently awarded a commission and residency for the inaugural season of the MDC Live Arts Lab Alliance (2017-2019), and is a supported artist of the Local Artist-in-Residence program at the Miami Light Project. He has been mentored by noted choreographers Ana Sánchez-Colberg, Michael Kliën, Jüri Nael, and Octavio Campos, as well as intensive labs with Nora Chipaumire, Mario Zambrano, Marc Brew, Alonzo King, Stephan Koplowitz, and Keith Hennessy. He has choreographed and performed throughout the United States and toured in Barcelona and Madrid, Spain and Mexico City; his film work has been screened in festivals internationally. Pioneer Winter has held residencies at Cannonball Miami, Miami Dade College, Miami Theater Center, Nova Southeastern University, Broward College, and Jacksonville University. The Miami Herald said this about his last premiere: “Pioneer Winter’s work, what he supports, what he thinks about and the ideas he voices, speak to and for people […] it was provocative in just the way you want performance to be provocative, making you think about something you hadn’t or feel for someone you hadn’t identified with before; startling, exposed, unnerving, unexpectedly loving.”