Biography
Heidi Duckler is the founder and artistic director of Heidi Duckler Dance in Los Angeles, California and Heidi Duckler Dance/Northwest in Portland, Oregon. Titled the “reigning queen of site-specific performance” by the LA Times, Duckler is a pioneer of place-based contemporary practice. Her methodology emphasizes how dance, born from individual experience, can be a tool for awareness. Duckler earned a BS in dance from the University of Oregon and an MA in choreography from UCLA. She also served as a board member of the University of Oregon’s School of Music and Dance Advancement
Council. Her awards include the Distinguished Dance Alumna award from the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance; the Dance/USA and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s Engaging Dance Audiences Award; and the National Endowment of the Arts American Masterpiece award. Duckler has a plethora of accolades and honors under her belt. She is a 2023 Coro Southern California Executive Leadership Fellow and a 2021 Oregon Arts Commission FY2021 Individual Artist Fellow. She has also served on prestigious panels such as the American Institute of Architects L.A.’s Creatives in Conversation: Blurring Boundaries, and the L.A. Forum of Architecture and Urban Design “Under the Influence” at the Schindler House. Duckler’s 2019 short film “Where We’re Going” was selected for the 2023 Aphelion Film Festival, and her 2023 film “I Will Remember What I Forgot” won Best Short Film at the 2024 Rolling Ideas Film Festival, and Best Experimental at the 2024 Cannes Independent Shorts. The 2024 Heidi Duckler Dance/Northwest Original film, Mother/Other made waves at the 2024 Miami Women Film Festival and Cannes Arts Fest in the Best Experimental categories.