Local Artist Feature: Nicole Zizzi

Featuring Nicole Zizzi

Nicole Zizzi Explores the Intersection of Dance & Architecture

By Lifestyle Columnist Anita Goharfar

If you’re an architect, you design buildings. If you’re a dancer, you dance. And if you’re Nicole Zizzi, you do both.

For Zizzi, dance has always been a constant, whether it’s in a studio in her hometown or as the dance group president at the University of Rochester. “I grew up dancing and I just never stopped,” she said. Architecture, however, did not enter Zizzi’s world until her final years in college. During her time at Rochester, Zizzi studied physics, but her final year presented a life-changing opportunity. She was admitted into a prestigious program to explore interests outside of her discipline.

“I researched what to do with a physics degree; I even Googled ‘What can you do with a physics degree that’s not physics? And then I somehow found architecture,” Zizzi said. “I’ve always been interested in how buildings were built... I had no idea what a studio was.”

Devising her own program of study, “Architecture: Building the Bridge between Creativity and Logic,” Zizzi explored her newfound passion for architecture by taking sculpture studios, art history, and engineering classes. “I loved architecture, this is definitely what I want to do,” she said. And so began her journey in the world of design.

For her capstone project, Nicole explored improvisation — the exploration of spontaneous movements in the field of dance — in a non-traditional way. She applied her talents as a choreographer to spaces where one doesn’t expect to find dance: between the structural frames of campus buildings.

Featuring Nicole Zizzi

After graduating from University of Rochester with a degree in physics and a minor in dance, Zizzi was on her way to Boston. As she was exploring a new city, with its buildings and brownstones, Nicole met her current best friend and business partner, Lisa Giancola. Together, they established Evolve Dynamicz, a dance collective “seeking to confront the challenges of millennial life with a sense of openness and vulnerability,” and grew it in numbers and in ambition to the dance company it is today. Through workshops and classes in improvisation techniques and strength training, Evolve Dynamicz is how Zizzi shares her passion in choreography and composition with her dancers and the greater Boston community.

To Zizzi, being a local artist is about “connecting with people and artists who aren’t already famous nationally, and community building.” Establishing a devoted, local audience is essential in her art; performing in a black box theater with a handful of audience members allows for a more intimate relationship and a more meaningful performance than a large stage with bright lights ever could. Similarly, Zizzi’s community of performers and designers extends beyond the discipline of dance. She is fueled by collaboration, and a few notable ones are the Math Methods Project — a film-based project with a Boston University chemistry professor which interprets applied mathematics in the lens of choreography — and LUCIDITY.

Featuring Nicole Zizzi and Lisa Giancola

A year ago, Zizzi collaborated with This is My Brave, an organization aimed at addressing the stigma surrounding mental health through storytelling, and together they produced LUCIDITY. A year prior to the show, Zizzi had lost her father. In speaking with her dancers about facing a tragedy and the impact on her mental health during this time, she found dance and community to be an essential tool for sparking such conversations. Zizzi realized that the topic was not confined to the walls of her studio — it needed a place on stage. And so, LUCIDITY was born.

The performance featured choreographed pieces from different dancers, and with every move, the stage opened possibilities for empathy and honest dialogue on heavy topics without any shame or stigma. Nicole described the show as “a beautiful night of open and honest communication,” and it was followed by a Q&A session with the audience. “There was a veteran watching the show and she said, ‘I’ve never cried in public before and I just cried tonight,” Zizzi recalled.

In the spring of 2020, Zizzi looked for ways to continue LUCIDITY. Her vision for the performance was to turn it into an installation, one where the dancers could use physical touch to invoke emotions in the audience. While this project was in the works, COVID-19 happened. The world suddenly changed and disciplines like dance and architecture, where space is in the form of the built environment and the theater, had to be reimagined. As we baked our banana breads and turned on Netflix, Zizzi got to work.

Using our new favorite platform — and the one we can’t stand when it’s four hours into classes on a Tuesday — Zizzi took her project to Zoom. “It turned into a film project, and we came up with the idea of submissions looking at how our hand movements have been affected by the pandemic, because our hands aren’t touching each other anymore,” Zizzi said.

From weekly Zoom rehearsals ,to editing videos to make dancers appear to be in the same space, to even taking Zoom’s grid format as inspiration and collaging together performances, Zizzi’s work beautifully illustrates how a discipline so embedded in touch and togetherness has adapted to a profound challenge.

And she has not stopped there. A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to take part in one of Zizzi’s recent projects, Every Room a Dance. A short, instructed exploration of spatial movements took me from my door, to my window blinds, and to the wood-framed walls of my bedroom. Zizzi’s instructions made me reconsider the relationship between a space I’m so accustomed to and the movement of my body in that space. I walked the length of my room, outlined the frame of my windows, and counted the hinges on my door. In doing so, I got a small glimpse into what happens when dance and architecture come together.

LUCIDITY EVOLVED (I)

With a portfolio full of accomplishments already, you may be wondering what the future holds for Zizzi. Despite being distanced, Zizzi remains active. She is currently continuing her architectural education at Northeastern, where she is involved in researching notational systems in choreography. Zizzi is also building on her personal and professional interests in Merce Cunningham and the artistic explorations that came out of the experimental institution Black Mountain College.

Alongside architecture studios, Zizzi continues to dance and choreograph. Her project, LUCIDITY EVOLVED, is still taking submissions in forms of videos and writings. “LUCIDITY is evolving in a way I didn’t imagine possible. The Final project will be projected onto a building in Central Square,” Zizzi said. “I never imagined combining architecture and dance in this way.”

As our nation continues to battle the pandemic, Zizzi is using distance to her advantage, collaborating with artists in Texas and Zurich. She maintains her community of dancers, encouraging them to create content virtually and explore the new possibilities that this situation has created. “I have recruited people to be artists, and I’m not the only one creating content,” Zizzi said. “That’s where I see my artistic practice going in the future. As an architect, too, we are collaborators.”

And in collaboration, experimentation, and activism related to issues she has experienced and overcome, Nicole Zizzi has earned her standing as a friend, a mentor, and a local artist.

LUCIDITY EVOLVED (II)

LUCIDITY EVOLVED (III)