Nicole Kedaroe

2008 Kathryn Karipides Scholarship Winner

Nicole Kedaroe was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. She began her Modern dance training at the Boston Arts Academy, a high-school for Performing and Visual Arts. While there she had the privilege to study and perform repertory works with artists such as Sean Curran and Marlies Yearby.  Upon graduating from the performing arts high-school, she did not feel encouraged to pursue an education in the performing arts in college. As a result, she enrolled at Franklin Pierce University, a small liberal arts institution. Due to lack of confidence, Nicole decided not to study dance.  Once at Franklin Pierce, however, one is drawn into the close community and its inspirational teachers. Despite their small dance department, confidence and encouragement were teaching tools that motivate their students to work hard and go above and beyond with their dance studies. There was no way to hide the true passion for dance that she held so dear.

Nicole graduated from Franklin Pierce University in 2008 with a major in Arts Management and Dance Concentration. Since her first year at Franklin Pierce, Nicole has performed in numerous dance performances for the college and created many works of choreography. Nicole was the recipient of the Denise Messier Scholarship in 2006, awarding dedication to dance and community service with the Franklin Pierce community. Fortunate to have a close relationship with the dance department, she was able to attend the American College Dance Festival Association to view new works by fellow college students and receive master classes with professors from other institutions and established choreographers. However her passion for choreography did not truly branch out until she studied abroad in Vienna, Austria.

Vienna is filled with art and entertainment. Nicole was an audience member at many performances at Tanz Quartier in the Museum Quarters in the capital city. Seeing artists such as Mark Morris performing works in celebration of Mozart’s death and incorporating a city’s culture into his own choreography was very inspiring. It was upon her return to the United States that she began to choreograph a solo alongside professor and friend Sally Bomer, integrating their experiences that they had shared while abroad.

Along with her passion for dance, Nicole was inspired to become a well-rounded artist performing in plays and musicals. Inspired by Theatre professor, Robert Lawson who said, “go everywhere…go with an open mind” she began to develop theatrical skill. She had the opportunity to work on Musical Theatre productions including two original adaptations The Death of Don Juan and 451. She also performed in traditional works such as Pippin. Nicole incorporated her entire performance background into her new endeavors.

Nicole has always felt that summer dance training was extremely valuable in order to stay in tune with contemporary study. To gain exposure and dance education that she was not receiving at Franklin Pierce, Nicole attended festivals at Tisch School of the Arts and White Mountain Summer Dance Festival. At these festivals she had the opportunity to train and perform repertory with choreographers and companies such as David Dorfman, Larry Keigwin, Rebecca Lazier, and Gina Gibney.

Nicole is currently entering her first year as an MFA student and teaching fellow at Smith College in Northampton, MA. She hopes to find her individual style of choreography by exploring new movement and teaching methods. She hopes to gain new skills as preparation for new explorations in choreography.