Kimberley Cooper

Kimberley Cooper is the Artistic Director and principal choreographer of Decidedly Jazz Danceworks (DJD) in Calgary, Canada. She has been a part of DJD for almost three decades, first as a dancer (1989-2013), then Resident Choreographer/Artistic Associate (2002-2013), and now as the Artistic Director (2013-present). In 2002, Cooper was named Emerging Artist of the Year by Alberta Dance Alliance, and since 2002, she has created 18 full-length works on DJD. 

She has also served as an Artist in Residence during Calgary as Cultural Capital of Canada in 2012 and was awarded Dance Victoria’s Crystal Dance Prize in 2014 for her research in Brazil. Cooper has contributed chapters to the books; City of Animals, for University of Calgary’s Humanities Department about New Universe, a work she created with American jazz bassist and composer William Parker in 2017 and Rooted Jazz Dance: Africanist Aesthetics and Equity in the Twenty First Century (University Press of Florida, forthcoming). She is currently an Artist in Residence with Fall for Dance North.