Victoria Niblett
Biography
Victoria Rose Niblett recently graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Alabama with a degree in dance and public relations. During college, Victoria performed with Alabama’s official dance team, the Crimson Cabaret and treasures her memories dancing in Bryant-Denny Stadium and Coleman Coliseum. The team also competed at Walt Disney World for the Universal Dance Association and ESPN Collegiate Dance Team National Finals where they were award-winning finalists in the Pom category.
Also while in college, she performed in the pre-professional company Alabama Repertory Dance Theatre as a demi-soloist in the original contemporary ballet, The Trainer, by Qianping Guo from the Vaganova Ballet Academy and a modern work by Natosha Washington from The Penguin Lady Dance Collective. During this time, she also choreographed, performed, and designed lighting and costumes for Dance Alabama! the state’s premiere student produced dance concert.
In her final semester, Victoria presented award-winning research in Choreography and United States Copyright Law for the Research and Creative Activity Conference and worked with Andrew Raffo Dewar and Sarah M. Barry in the Sonic Frontier Series of the Works in Progress Concert Collaboration. After graduating top of her class, she was able to travel to New York to study under Shannon Gillen and her visionary contemporary dance theater company, VIM VIGOR. Victoria also recently performed in “Ritual to the Sun” from Martha Graham's 1981 ballet, Acts of Light with the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance and was recently accepted into the Professional Training Program as a full-time student where she will study the Graham TechniqueTM as well as pedagogy, choreography, and composition under Peggy Lyman-Hayes, Susan Kikuchi, Lone Larsen and more.
Victoria worked on staff and traveled across the country with Celebrity Dance Competitions for five years and participated in Nationals at Sea on Carnival Cruise Lines. She was asked to travel to Mexico as a master teacher in ballet, modern, and contemporary to teach convention classes and judge competition with the first ever Danzética competition. She was honored to receive a commission from AROVA Contemporary Ballet to set a full length work on their professional company which will premiere in April of 2019.
She just got back from Montrouis, Haiti with Project Grace where she was privileged enough to share her love for dance and her knowledge in dance education with two orphanages and a developing community. Through donated costumes and shoes from the Traveling Tutus organization, she was able to set three dance works on her Haitian students and arrange a community performance where many of them experienced the joy of applause and the beauty of costumes and glitter for the very first time.
Victoria was the original “Encore baby” and as the youngest original company member, she got to see how Encore grew in her fifteen years there. While at Encore, she won numerous regional and national titles including Junior and Senior Dancer of the Year. She was honored to receive many class scholarships, specifically the Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet scholarship and Outstanding Dancer distinction from New York City Dance Alliance, and Breakout Artist title winner at Nuvo. She won the Young Choreographer’s Award from Dance America and the Celebrity CREATE Choreography Competition for a collaboration work with her brother Kendall Niblett.
At Encore, she made some of her dearest friends and through Encore, made some of her most beneficial career connections. It is difficult to choose her favorite memory with Encore Performance Company, but she treasures dearly the performance of The Greatest Generation at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans in front of WWII veterans and real-life Rosie the Riveters. She got her foundational training right here at Encore Performance Company, and understands that the commitment to excellence learned in this studio prepared her for past, current, and future successes in and out of the dance field.
Class Resources & Policies
Expectations of the Students:
You are responsible for your own learning and training. If you are concerned about your progress or performance in the class, it is your responsibility to make an appointment with the instructor. It is important that you learn to take responsibility for your training. If at any time during the term the you have questions concerning either the class approach or your individual progress, an appointment should be made with the instructor. Communication and learning can only benefit the class atmosphere and learning process for all!
Warm-up before class. Every body is different. If there are specific things your body needs for you to feel ready to dance, it is your responsibility to make sure you get those. Classes are designed to prepare you for what you will need to be able to do by the end of the class.
Conversations happen in the hall. The dance studio is a sacred space. If you need to have a conversation (even before class), do so in the hallway. Once you’ve entered the studio, it is now time for you to mentally/physically prepare for class.
Corrections/Adjustments:
During class, asking questions that pertain to general knowledge for all students is highly encouraged! However, if there are questions specific to your personal body problems, please make an appointment to see the instructor. The class format is a communal event, and all discussion should pertain to the general interest of the class members. It should be assumed that any corrections or comments given to a specific student can serve as a learning experience to all students, and full attention is expected. Personal talking either before or during class is a distraction and detriment to the communal effort, and students who talk may be asked to leave class.
Only by being in the class can you learn the material and make progress. Dancers are responsible for material given in class whether or not they have a valid reason for being absent. You will be expected to learn any material missed due to absences or observations outside of class time, by asking either another student or the instructor for assistance. Each student should have a partner in the class for ongoing outside study/preparatory work, and for assistance in the case of missed classes. Material will not be re-taught over several days. Once material is taught in class, the student will be expected to know it in successive classes. If the combination is exceptionally long, a review of sequence may occur, but the “how-to” details will not be repeated.
Strong emphasis will be placed on expanding your movement vocabulary and performance acuity while understanding theoretical and contemporary ideas in dance performance and dance technique. Readings, class discussion, and reflective statements will balance out movement explorations for many of my classes. Strong emphasis will be placed ondiscovery of self and new approaches to moving.
Students will work on approaching the creation and execution of movement and using the body-in-space in structured and unconventional ways. Additionally, students will develop new and reconsidered ways of using the body and the role of developmental patterns in the context of dance.
Personal Goals for Students:
1. Approaching new dance technique and combinations, the student should work towards the following goals:
increased facility for absorbing both the detail and the concepts of new movement;
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improved skill with reversing, embellishing, and reorganizing new combinations;
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applied use and understanding of recurrent personal corrections on new material;
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expanded ability to apply group corrections and imagery to oneself;
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increased capacity to express and to perform movement fully, within the context of learning new phrases;
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development of a variety of learning strategies for absorbing and understanding new material;
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retention of new material on a daily and weekly basis.
2. Approaching the material that is repeated all term, the student should work towards the following goals:
continued improvement of the skills and phrasing required in the work;
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the motivation to seek new insights and deeper understanding of the movement and
its relationship to the body of dance knowledge;
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retention of movement detail over long periods of time;
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the ability to change, expand, or correct work that has been repeated multiple times;
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the capacity to renew, inspire, and sustain excitement and interest in repeated
material;
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development of the skills of projection, focus, performance, and artistic expression,
which can be aided by the repetition of familiar work;
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the ability to personalize material without losing its universal qualities.
Universal Policies for Students:
1. Wear your uniform
2. Pull hair back away from face in a neat manner appropriate for dance
3. No gum
4. Proper footwear is required (white soles for tennis shoes in hip-hop classes) 5. No talking
6. Water breaks are for water, not checking your phone
7. Regular class attendance and participation is expected of all students.
8. Consistently striving for a standard of excellence is expected of all students 9. Encourage your other classmates