Biography

Katherine Helen Fisher works with choreographic forms to create impactful, image-based content across film, performance and interactive new media. She is an EMMY Award nominated director, choreographer, creative producer, educator and labor advocate.

Katherine was a member of The Lucinda Childs Dance Company from 2008-2018 and has also performed with MOMIX, ODC San Francisco, the Merce Cunningham Trust, Johannes Wieland, the Mark Morris Dance Group, Sara Pearson/Patrik Widrig, Janis Brenner, Jennifer Muller, Ann Carlson and Andrew Ondrejcak.

She was an ensemble member of the Philip Glass opera Einstein On The Beach directed by Robert Wilson. 

Kate has directed projects for Radiohead, Rufus Wainwright, Hermès, Microsoft and for NBC’s America’s Got Talent. Her work has been presented by WNET, the New York Times, the Smithsonian, the Palm Springs Art Museum, Art Basel Switzerland, The Hammer Museum and REDCAT.

She has received support from the Foundation For Contemporary Arts and has been an artist in residence at The Watermill Center, La Menagerie de Verre in Paris, Jan Fabre’s Troubleyn in Antwerp and SAFEhouse Arts in San Francisco.

Her participatory performance garment, Le Monstre, won a Jury Prize for Best Paper at The 21st International Symposium on Wearable Computers. Her film, CEILING won an award at The San Francisco Dance Film Festival. Her work has been commissioned by Standard Vision Studios and Georgia Tech. One + One Make Three, her experimental access-centered dance documentary featuring the work of the disabled dance artists of Kinetic Light, was produced by All Arts for public television and was nominated for a 2022 Emmy Award for Best Longform Documentary, Diversity Equity and Inclusion.

As an educator, she served on faculty as professor of Contemporary Technique and Dance & New Media at the Peabody Conservatory.

Katherine is proud parent to Frances Leigh and partner to creative director Shimmy Boyle with whom she co-founded Safety Third, a media production company focusing on expanded cinema. Most recently, Safety Third has been producing interactive new media performance pieces using node-based visual programing language, TouchDesigner.

Katherine works as an advocate for sustainable labor practices within the fields of contemporary art, dance, film and emerging technology by championing more equitable remuneration for cultural workers. She is a neurodiverse artist who strives to incorporate accessibility into the aesthetics of her work and as an integral  part of her creative process.

She holds a BFA in dance from NYU’s Tisch School of The Arts and an MFA in dance from Sarah Lawrence College.