About Nik

Nik Owens (he/him) is a performer, choreographer, and born and raised Angeleno. He began his movement experience as a competitive gymnast for 15 years and transitioned into dance in college at Wesleyan University, where he received his BA. For 12 years, he lived in New York City, where he was a company member/collaborator with David Dorfman Dance, Raja Kelly/The Feath3r Theory, Hélène Simoneau Danse, Kayla Farrish-Decent Structures Arts, Tiffany Mills Company, Kyle Marshall Choreography, and others. Currently, he works with Cynthia Oliver’s COCo Dance Theatre.

He is a 3rd MFA candidate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), where he holds a teaching assistantship. His current research interrogates the connections between his embodied memories of being Black and queer as a youth and growing up in a historically redlined neighborhood. He has been afforded the opportunity to teach at institutions such as Wesleyan University, Gibney Dance Center, Dancewave in Brooklyn, NY, and others. Nik has received a few commissions, most notably for his solo “The Right Kind at Arts” on Site in 2022 as part of their Under the Skin II: Forebearers and the Future performance series (curated by David Parker). His most recent work “unhelpful spectacle,” co-choreographed with e g condon, is a 20-minute duet exploring the space that is shaped when two historically othered bodies collide and comingle on stage. It was premiered at The Krannert Center for the Performing Arts Studio Theater at UIUC in March of 2025.

Photo by Edward Riddell