Nancy Simpson Carter is a dancer, aerialist, choreographer, bodyworker, and movement researcher from North Carolina based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Currently she is in her 7th season teaching and performing with Aerial Arts of Utah. She also runs her own business, Rumble Motion Massage and Movement. In addition she performs with Fire Muse Circus and organizes in the Contact Improvisation and Acro Yoga communities.
Nancy’s choreography has been performed most notably at TEDx Salt Lake City, The Rose Wagner Theater, The Great Salt Lake Fringe Festival, Westminster Collage, Sugar Space Studio for the Arts, The University of Utah, Meredith College, The American College Dance Festival, NC Dance Alliance, and The American Dance Festival. Nancy has served as guest choreographer for Meredith Dance Theater, Broughton High School and currently choreographs student repertory, Acro Yoga, and company acts for Aerial Arts of Utah.
In 2015 Nancy wrote and directed the evening length aerial/circus show “GiGi” on AAU’s company for the first ever Great Salt Lake Fringe Fest. In 2011 she was selected as Sugar Space Studio for the Arts’ Artist in Residence and presented the evening length dance, theater odyssey, “A Tale From the Land of Frightful Dreams” under the company name Rumble Motion Jawbone. Additionally on the grant she created and directed New Blood Dance Project in which she mentored a community member/non-dancer through the process of choreographing on an ensemble of trained dancers. The Orange County Arts Commission funded her choreography of the piece “Gameplay” in 2006.
Nancy choreographed and performed for four seasons with Choreo Collective, including many group, community and informal projects. Nancy performed for two seasons with Revolve Aerial Dance, one with Influx Dance, one as an inaugural member of Sugar Space’s Cooperative Dance Company, Co.Da. She did two seasons with Movement Forum (aka MoFo) performance improv company. She also performed monthly in “The New Pedestrian” street performance group for 3 years, eventually winning a City Weekly Arty Award.
Nancy earned her BA in Dance from Meredith College, where she concentrated in somatic studies and performance/choreography. She continued her somatics training in massage school at Wake Technical Community College and is now a Licensed Massage Therapist. She earned her Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analysis Certification through the Integrated Movement Studies program and her MFA in Modern Dance at The University of Utah. Her aerial studies has been primarily with New England Center for Circus Arts, including teacher trainings in Fabric, Trapeze and Lyra. Additional aerial training has come from Wise Fool, NM, Revolve Aerial Dance, Frequent Flyers, Aerial Arts of Utah and Utah Flying Trapeze.
Nancy has danced in work by Nathan Dryden, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Gabriel Forestiere, Miguel Guitierrez, Yvonne Meier, Alayna Stroud (Bow & Sparrow), Ernesto Pujol, Martha Graham, Lisa Race, David Beadle, Michelle Pearson, Caroline Williford, Laura Thomasson, Peter DiMuro, Niki Juralewicz, eunkyungkim (GoGoVertigoat Dance Project), Joan Nicholas-Walker (Nickwalk Dance Project) and Carol Finley (Postcards Project), including a North Carolina Dance Festival tour. She also danced in community dance projects by David Dorfman and Liz Lerman.
Nancy has taught semester courses at The University of Utah and Utah Valley University, as well as master classes at various schools. For two seasons she taught movement for opera students at Young Dramatic Voices. Nancy also worked as a somatics instructor and teaching assistant in Wake Tech’s Therapeutic Massage Program.
