Nikki Carrara

Nikki Carrara’s current interests are the intersections between improvisation and multimedia performance, as well as sharing the experience of dance in nontraditional spaces and formats. She arrived at Smith via Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where she was deeply invested in designing and implementing dance education programming in public schools since 2007. Since 2012, Carrara has collaborated and performed in the works of Kellie Ann Lynch with the Elm City Dance Collective in New Haven, Connecticut. She has created dance works in Rhode Island and Massachusetts for Andary Dance, DoubleShift Dance Theatre, Island Moving Company, AS220, Modern Jazz Dance Company, Frazier Festival, Perishable Theatre, Providence College, Ziterion Theatre and The Dance Complex.

Carrara has been a creative collaborator and performer in the works of Melody Ruffin Ward, Deb Meunier, Vincent Mantsoe, Daniel McCusker, Nathan Andary and Timothy Rubel, and she has performed works by Bebe Miller, Henry LeTang and Donna Jewel.

She holds a bachelor's degree in dance performance from Rhode Island College and K–12 certification in dance education in the state of Rhode Island. She is certified by the Spiraldynamik® Institute of Zurich to incorporate Spiraldynamik® principles to share anatomically considerate technologies in her teaching practice.

Carrara has received awards, grants and fellowships from the Rhode Island State Council for the Arts, the Murdock-Thompson Center for Teachers, the Rhode Island Association for Physical Education Health Recreation and Dance, the Bates Dance Festival and Rhode Island College Alumni Association.