VANESSA VOSKUIL

Co-Artistic Director
Education and Volunteer Coordinator

Vanessa Voskuil was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota before her family settled down in river city, Bismarck, North Dakota to start an energy-efficient housing company in the 80s.  A daughter of a journalist and philosophy professor, she grew up learning Isadora Duncan dances and watching her mother perform in a local modern-based dance company.  Vanessa pursued the theater arts with a directing emphasis at Moorhead State University before transferring to the University of Minnesota to finish with a BFA in Dance and BA in Theater, becoming a diverse performer, choreographer/director, and educator.  As an independent choreographer, her work has been presented at Carleton College, University of Minnesota, Southern Theater, Red Eye Theater, Minnesota Visible Fringe at the Mill City Museum, and the Rogue Buddha Gallery.  Her production, THE WHITE SOLOS, received a 2006 Sage award for Outstanding Design. Vanessa also works periodically with site-specific performance company Skewed Visions and is a current company member with Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theater since 2001 and Catalyst Dances by Emily Johnson since 1998.  Vanessa is co-founder, co-artistic director, and education coordinator of Live Action Set.

Personal Projects: http://www.mnartists.org/artistHome.do?rid=10685

NOAH ASKS THE HARD QUESTIONS

[Noah] - Vanessa, you have such a unique and keen sense of style, what inspires your eye for style?
[Vanessa] - I am sensitive to mood/atmosphere, a sense of time/place, and emotion whether it is on stage or in my closet.
Do you have any ideas or themes that you love and could explore endlessly? If so, what are they and why?
Much of the work deals with discovering truth. I am drawn to the progression of such a discovery from a subjective point of view, and one of the more common themes associated with this is love - A love of country, others, the Other, friend..etc. I am drawn to looking at the human condition under such circumstances.
You strike me as a very romantic person. Can you describe your concept of romance?
A quote from a friend when conversing about this topic: "I find myself wondering - what is romance, love, and desire? - Hope, magnetism, texture...a pull to possess, create, to exist in states...We covet the pleasure of all these things, and to be a romantic, a lover, does it just mean - to enjoy? To appreciate? To be drawn towards these pleasures?...I wonder if we can truly understand ourselves as we were when possessed." My friend here I believe is speaking specifically of an erotic/romantic love, a love that has originated from a finer love of the Other which can be often dangerously associated with romantic love. Even though the emotions and expressions can be seen similarly, (thinking of the writing of early mystics and the Greek poet, Sophia - very erotic in nature), the words love, desire, and romance to me is more then just an acting out the pleasure principle. I find that with Love, I am actually more myself then ever, my true self. I have reason to be, to continue. I have strength and ability to focus on what is worthwhile and true.
Where do you feel like you fit in today's construct of modern society?
It is in question whether or not I am objective enough to perceive this. In my experience the word “fit” was never very applicable to me. In definition as an artist, the nature of an artist is to comment perceiving from the outside in. However it is possible for one to be found in construct.
If you could be a super hero, what would your super power be?
My super power would be a variable on telepathy. Bruce Willis in “Unbreakable” and Patrick Stewart in “X-Man” come to mind.