Biography
Pioneer Winter, MPH, MFA, is a Miami-based choreographer and performance-based artist. He directs the non-profit organization Pioneer Winter Collective, a group of allies, activists and artists in their own right, whose bodies and voices transform their social, political, and cultural landscapes. Recognized in Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch" Pioneer Winter's contemporary dance and physical theater company democratizes performance in public spaces, museums/galleries, stage, and film. He holds two terminal degrees - an MPH Public Health and Epidemiology from FIU's Stempel College of Public Health and MFA Choreography from Jacksonville University/White Oak, as the first artist recipient of the Dennis R. Washington Achievement Scholarship.
Pioneer Winter's choreography has been commissioned by the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Miami Theater Center, Karen Peterson and Dancers, Tigertail Productions, MDC Live Arts, Jacksonville Dance Theatre, and several South Florida universities, among others. He produces Grass Stains, Pioneer Winter Collective's initiative for developing and commissioning site-specific performance that features an ongoing collaboration with choreographers Stephan Koplowitz and Ana Sánchez-Colberg. Pioneer Winter's work is supported by local, state, foundation, and fellowship awards, including a MAP Fund and New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) National Dance Project Production grant award for his project Birds of Paradise, which premieres at the Adrienne Arsht Center in late-Fall 2020. Pioneer Winter is the Adrienne Arsht Center’s first year-long Artist-in-Residence collaboration. He's curated and director of the ScreenDance Miami Festival, presented by the Miami Light Project, since 2017.
Pioneer Winter has been an FIU Honors College faculty fellow since 2014. He teaches in areas of justice and art, epistemology, and dance technique and composition in both the Honors College and CARTA Theatre Department. In 2018, his role expanded to include coordination of all dance courses at FIU and the dance minor program. His students have collaborated with the Frost Museum of Art and Deering Estate at Cutler, as well as benefited from internships with many South Florida organizations and the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs. In 2019, he earned the Excellence in Teaching Award for his dedication as an FIU faculty member. He's also honored to serve as the faculty advisor for the Honors College Pride Club since its inception. Professor Winter has previously taught 1st Year Seminar, 2nd Year Seminar (Inhabiting Other Lives), and the upper division course Public Health/Public Works. He currently teaches upper division courses Unseen Voices/Unheard Faces and Art as Persuasion.