Kayla Schiltgen

2025 Choreography FELLOW

Photo credit: CC Boyle Photography

Kayla Schiltgen is an interdisciplinary dance artist based in rural Two Harbors, Minnesota. Blending dance and film, she is hands-on in all aspects of her work as choreographer/editor, dancer, and cinematographer creating screendance, installation, and performance as a way to cope with and communicate her existence. Her work is deeply personal, visceral, curious, and cathartic, driven by the belief that subjectivity and vulnerability serve as an echo palette for others, offering a tender exchange affirming, affecting, and inspiring artist and audience.

Her work has been presented at the Walker Art Center, the International Meeting on Video-Dance and Video-Performance (Spain & France), North Dakota Environmental Rights Film Festival, InShadow Screendance Festival (Portugal), Duluth Superior Film Festival, DanceBARN Screendance Festival, Wolf Tree Film Festival (MI), Arena Dance’s CandyBox Festival, RAD Fest, The Lab at NorShor Theatre, and the Minnesota Fringe Festival, among others. Her work is supported by multiple Minnesota State Arts Board and Arrowhead Regional Arts Council awards.

Kayla is an Upstream Artist Fellow and has been recognized as a Creative Rural Leader in the Upper Midwest by Springboard for the Arts. Rooted in her rural lineage, Kayla’s practice is shaped by the belief that the well-being of all begins with the well-being of rural communities – seeing art as a pathway to this vision.
www.kaylaschiltgen.com