Biography

Vivian Kim is a choreographer, performer, and dance educator based in Colorado.  Originally from Nebraska, Vivian graduated with her B.A. in Dance from the University of Nebraska Lincoln (UNL) in 2014 under the instruction of Susan Levine-Ourada. Most recently, Vivian received her MFA in Performance and Choreography for Dance along with a secondary emphasis in the Alexander Technique from the University of Colorado Boulder (CU) in 2018. Throughout her collegiate career, Vivian has had the opportunity to train with, and perform in works choreographed by, Helanius J. Wilkins, Gesel Mason, Larry Southall, Kendra Portier, Jenna Riegel, Kayvon Pourazar, Rennie Harris, Erika Randall, STREB: Pop Action Company and various others. She began training in street styles (House, Hip-Hop, and Popping) in 2017 and continues her training with Rennie Harris, Dassy Lee, Larry Southall and Kevin “KO” O’Keefe.

As an educator, Vivian teaches at many dance institutions in Colorado and out-of-state. Currently, Vivian is a guest artist teaching Jazz and Modern dance technique at the Denver School of the Arts, she is also an adjunct instructor at Red Rocks Community College Theatre & Dance Department, an instructor and Kids All Styles Program Director at Block 1750 and holds a lecturer position at the University of Nebraska Lincoln teaching street styles.  In addition to her weekly schedule, she also teaches masterclasses, workshops, and guest lectures at universities and dance studios in and out of state. 

In addition to teaching, Vivian also directs two of her own dance companies: VisKosity Dance Collective, co-directed with Keith Haynes, MFA, is her Boulder based street dance-contemporary fusion dance company; and she recently established Vōx Dance Collective, an Omaha, NE based professional Modern dance company. For both of these dance companies she acts as the Artistic Director and choreographer. Apart from directing her own companies, Vivian trains in House dance and Hip-Hop, and performs with world-renown Hip-Hop choreographer Rennie Harris in his Denver-Based company Grassroots Projects. In 2019 Vivian, amongst three other dancers in the community, were asked to be the curators for the Counterpath Press – Unseen Festival, an interdisciplinary film festival that takes place in Denver. 

Vivian’s creative research heavily focuses on the Asian/Asian-American female experience(s) in the United States. The most frequented theme of her work analyzes the prolonged implementations of the Confucius Analects for Women in relationships to perceptions of submissiveness, hyper-sexualization and eroticism and how those affect interactions, stigmas, and romantic relationships in the United States. Her dance works also examine the intersections of Asian/Asian-Americans in themes and concepts such as: the “model minority” myth, feminism, K-Pop, Black and White racial binary, and the performativity of Blackness amongst Asian/Asian-Americans.