32. Annie Hollingsworth

In honor of our MasterMind genius awards, Cultist proudly presents "100 Creatives," where we feature Miami's cultural superheroes in random order. Have suggestions for future profiles? Email [email protected] with the whos and whys.

32. Annie Hollingsworth

Annie Hollingsworth is a visual artist, dancer, choreographer, and writer who says she is a Brooklyn girl at heart -- but she belongs to Miami now. According to Hollingsworth, her visual work "traces the fundamental dynamics underneath mundane experience." She follows a kind of ritualistic process and moves between realities, which must be why Hollingsworth is able to live an anything-but-mundane life in Miami.

After graduating from Brown, Hollingsworth moved to New York City where

she became a student of Haitian folkloric dance, based on ritual

movement and storytelling. She continued her studies under Mikerline

Pierre, a dancer trained at Haiti's prestigious Enarts dance school, and

performed with Mikerline Dance Troupe for three years. Hollingsworth

says that since she's been in Miami her "dance work is moving towards

something that would best be described as performance, or even

installation."

In 2010 Hollingsworth choreographed a piece based

on Gede (the spirits of the dead), in which the vodou spirits that

embody the powers of death and fertility are celebrated. Hollingsworth

loves this tradition so much that she says she'll "dance in just about

any performance in the Afro-Cuban or Afro-Haitian tradition." It's a

small community, and one in which Hollingsworth has found a second home.

Last year Hollingsworth won the Artlurker Writer's Prize, which

was made possible by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight

Foundation, and has since written for Artlurker.com, NO MAD Magazine,

and, most recently, Art Papers. She has produced international art

exhibitions, large-scale commissions, and exhibition catalogues. Lest we forget, Hollingsworth is also the assistant director at the Dorsch Gallery.

1. List five things that inspire you.

- Dancing for the orishas
- Nice beats
- Maya Deren
- Haitian Kreyol
- The possibility of travel

2. What was your last big project?

After

winning the Artlurker prize last summer, I was given the challenge of

writing eight articles in eight weeks. I got a crash course not only in

the Miami art scene but also in processing my experience of other

people's work quickly and precisely. Even though I believe,

philosophically, that words are a powerful creative force, I had never

considered writing as integral to visual art. I had always put words and

images in separate categories. It was a surprise to learn that building

conversation around visual work is as abstract as making something, and

equally powerful in terms of bringing ideas into form.

3. What's your next big project?

Generally

I'm considering the space between dance and visual art, both visually

and in writing. I'm also developing ideas for a workshop on Congolese

and Yoruban dance and music that would bring guest teachers to Miami

and highlight some of the incredible teachers living here.

4. Why do you do what you do?

It's a simple search for truth and happiness.

5. What's something you want Miami to know about you? What's something you don't want Miami to know about you?

Most

people in Miami know me in only one of my roles - a dancer, a writer,

the assistant at Dorsch Gallery. I am all of them plus some I haven't

mentioned, and any work I do comes out of that complexity. I have no

attachment to what form my creative work takes.

My secret? I'll always

be a Brooklyn girl at heart.

--Neil de la Flor of artburstmiami.com

The Creatives so far:

33. Preston Allen
34. Cristina Molina
35. David Josef Tamargo
36. Jillian Mayer
37. Alfonso Vega
38. Natasha Lopez de Victoria
39. Aholsniffsglue

40. Heather Maloney
41. Jorge Rubiera
42. Elaine Lancaster
43. Nick Duckart
44. Danielle Estefan
45. John Dufresne
46. Monica Lopez de Victoria
47. Bill Bilowit
48. Alette Simmons-Jimenez
49. Tawnie Silva
50. Ginger Bardot
51. Jonathan David Kane
52. Naomi Fisher
53. Rocky Grimes
54. Teresa Barcelo
55. Paul Tei
56. Lee Materazzi