MEET YOUR DANCE PARTY HOST NICK MIAMI BENZ

Nick Miami Benz    

Host, Artist in Residence

October 2024 MascallDance

Photo: @audrey.bow

Nick Miami Benz is a Leo-nominated performance artist trained in dances from the Afro, Latinx and Indigenous diasporas, focusing on the embodiment of animal movements. Their acting training is founded on the Meisner technique and voice work through the Lovetri method. Theatre credits include God’s Lake, Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer, Blackhorse and working with Atomic Vaudeville, Mascall Dance, Netflix and John Fluevog. They currently pursue film, tv and voice over with Principals Talent. Nick is a certified Gyrotonic ® /Pilates instructor with a special interest in physical therapy. They share their expertise in movement through holistic exercise coaching in Vancouver.

Nick has collaborated with MascallDance on the Lurch Project, the October mini-residency

and they are co-hosting DANCE PARTY, coming up Friday October 18th at Left of Main.  Come join them for an evening of dancing! 

“I am a dancer at heart, it is my identity and my work comes from a place of understanding the physical senses of the body. I see stories as medicine that elevate our consciousness and heal lost parts of ourselves. Acknowledging BIPOC contributions through my movement practice is my foundation. Acknowledging the land and how it has informed me, creates the character choices in my work. I’ve grown to tell stories through acting, voice and writing, embodying characters and representing a demographic that is rarely seen in the media.

Photo: Tom Hsu

“Although I’ve also studied more mainstream styles of dance, most of my work is influenced by Black, Indigenous and Latin dances and how they’ve moved through the world to influence popular culture today. - Samba, Salsa, dancehall, Afro-Caribbean dances, hip-hop, and more. My first link to these dances was simply the music I grew up on, the music and dance styles feed each other and have been my background in movement vocabulary. My heritage is a result of people mixing because of war, colonization, migration, and the sharing of culture. In the same way that these dances were created.

Photo: @benzdontbreak / house of gavalia

“To study Afro, Latinx, Indigenous dances I moved to New York City. There I studied, performed, and also worked as an equestrian for The Metropolitan Opera. My movement practice involves focus on the embodiment of animal movements. I watch a lot of animal videos and documentaries online as well as observe the world around me. A particular animal will come to me and I will do a period of research on them.  This has been a constant practice my whole life - I’ve observed many types of animals in captivity and the wild.”

photo credit:  @benzdontbreak