Nol Simonse grew up in Washington, D.C., and trained at the Boston Conservatory of Music. He moved to San Francisco in 1997 and is a founding member of Kunst-Stoff, Janice Garrett and Dancers, and Sean Dorsey Dance. He is also a longtime collaborator/performer of Sue Roginski, Eric Kupers, Christy Funsch, Stephen Pelton, and Kara Davis. Nol has worked with many other Bay Area artists, including Mark Foehringer, Mary Armentrout, Todd Courage, Della Davidson, ACT director Carey Perloff and choreographer Val Caniparoli. Nol has been nominated many times over the years for an Isadora Duncan Bay Area Dance Award, and in 2011 was awarded one for individual performance “for his entire season, including A.C.T.’s The Tosca Project.” In 2009 Nol received a GOLDIE for dance (Guardian Outstanding Local Discovery) from Rita Felciano, who has called Nol “an intense artist”, and “a marvel of a dancer”. Nol was the first person to win Luna Dance Institute’s Choreofund prize, and Dance Teacher Magazine published an interview with him in the September, 2016 issue. Nol currently teaches modern at the Alonzo King’s Lines Dance Center, and Shawl-Anderson Dance Center. He has taught choreography, repertory, and performance workshops for adults and teens, and has made dances for the Lines summer program, students at USF, Shawl-Anderson Youth Ensemble, ODC’s Dance Jam, and Dance Mission Theater’s Grrrl Brigade. Nol began teaching with Tina Banchero at Dance Mission Theater, and he participated in Luna Dance Institute’s summer intensive and a pedagogy workshop with Janice Garrett. Nol produced eight seasons of ‘Shared Space’ with Todd Eckert at Dance Mission Theater from 2007-2016 and has had residencies at Dance Mission and Studio 210. Nol was one of the 25 nominated artists to create a dance for the 25th anniversary season of the West Wave Dance Festival, and was a 2017 mentee of Margaret Jenkins in her CHIME Program.
Alonzo King LINES Ballet | Dance Center
Photography | © Anna Simonse