About
LAURA GORENSTEIN MILLER is a choreographer. “A bright, distinguished voice in dance" according to the LA Times, Miller has premiered work at venues around the world, including at The Joyce Theater, Lincoln Center, The Royal Opera House, UCLA’s Royce Hall, Teatro Nacional de Costa Rica, the Alberta Jubilee Theaters, The Getty Center, The Getty Villa and The Broad Stage. Her choreography has been set on American Ballet Theater, American Ballet Theatre’s Studio Company, CalArts, The Milwaukee Ballet and Bodytraffic, among others. Miller has choreographed numerous animated films including the Oscar-nominated Puss In Boots, Madagascar 3, The Addams Family, the Netflix animated feature Trouble and Rise of the Guardians. She most recently choreographed an animated feature film with original music by composer Alan Menken for Skydance and Apple Studios. Miller has been featured at a number of academic institutions, including as a Guest Lecturer at Brown University and as a Guest Artist in the CalArts Choreolab. Miller has also choreographed augmented and virtual reality projects for New Frontiers at the Sundance Film Festival, Microsoft, and the Future of Storytelling. She is the founder of Helios Dance Theater, a graduate of CalArts, and studied at the Laban Center in London.
Artistic Statement
Dance is my language. Movement exists in all of us, and I believe it can be a powerful expression of strength and transformation. When I choreograph I am in a thrill-seeking state, searching for those moments when the movement catches my breath and opens my eyes wide. My vocabulary encompasses classical ballet and modern steps, pedestrian gestures, gravity-oriented moves that fall, arc and ascend through space, and specific emotional images which flicker across the face and body. Throughout my process I am seeking to create a unique movement language.
I practice expansive forms of collaboration when experimenting with emergent technologies. Mixed realities paired with motion capture systems and brilliant minds create incendiary moments of creative vision. I facilitate conversations and iterative design practices between technologists, producers, directors, and filmmakers to develop innovative work that has never before been seen. My choreography serves as a catalyzing force for the creative teams that I partner with - redefining the ways that filmmaking, technological advancement, and animated movement align in practice.
As I develop my ever-shifting understanding of interdisciplinary collaboration, l offer my perspective to burgeoning artists, students, choreographers, producers, and dancers through mentorship and teaching engagements. My ability to center the respect and agency that each individual deserves on the studio floor has produced a series of intelligent dancers that take risks physically and emotionally with grace. By welcoming every body into the space with an understanding that they too are artists with their own creative voices, I create an opportunity for every student and mentee to identify their individual and unique strengths.
Above all, I want to communicate through my dances. From direct physical narrative where the dancers pantomime their stories, to the abstract composition of bodies in motion, the dancing body is brilliant at conveying emotion. In my choreography I practice being attentive to what the body can say. When I find meaning in motion, I am in my choreographic element and in these moments a new dance is realized.