Clare
Cook

The dances I create and the art I support hopes to inspire people towards their most authentic selves. Inside each personal truth is a universal narrative that can catalyze human connection and inspire social change.

Current Work:

Founder & Director, Basin Arts
Artistic Director, Basin Dance Collective
 

Degrees:

MFA, Dance, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU
BA, Mass Communication, LSU

Awards & Affiliations:

Member SDC
Member Dance/USA
Leadership Lafayette Class XXXVI
2019 Acadiana Profile Trailblazer Award
2017 ABC ICON Rising Star Award
2016 & 2019 ArtSpark Recipient

CLARE COOK / After a decade of working in NYC, Clare returned to Lafayette, La in 2016 with an MFA in Dance from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts inspired to invest her time and talent in her hometown’s burgeoning arts community. She is the Founder and Creative Director of Basin Arts, a non-profit arts incubator focused on supporting Louisiana artists towards a sustainable creative practice with the goal of increasing access to professional contemporary arts experiences and creating authentic relationships between artists and the greater community. She continues to evolve her hyphenate existence as a choreographer, dancer, teacher, and arts administrator through her work at Basin Arts and throughout Louisiana by creating dances, facilitating artistic opportunities for others, advocating for new models integrating the arts, and envisioning a more sustainable arts ecosystem for all.

Community collaboration is an integral part of Clare’s artistic practice and leadership. She has created movement workshops, classes, and performances for Miles Perret Cancer Services, The Blake Assisted Living, Acadiana C.A.R.E.S., Big Brothers-Big Sisters, AOC Community Media, GEAR UP, Myrtle Place Elementary, the Acadiana Center for the Arts, Lafayette Parish School System, Downtown Lafayette Unlimited, The Hilliard Museum, and the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra. Under her guidance, Basin Arts has initiated catalytic programs such as BARE Walls, ProjectSpace Residency, Window Wonderland, and Basin Dance Collective – all focused on providing impactful creative and economic opportunities for local artists. 

Clare has jumped into recent dance projects with New Orleans based choreographer, Elana Jacobs (CabinFever Live Art), visual artist Hagit Barkai, Paige Barnett’s A Song of Visions, Ten Tiny Dances - Lafayette, and the NOLA International Dance Festival. She joins forces in 2024 with Choreographer Leigha Porter for Dance/Splits, a shared evening of new dances premiering at the Acadiana Center for the Arts.

Artistic projects from a past life include presenting choreography at Joe’s Pub/DanceNOW Festival, the New York Musical Theatre Festival, Triskelion Arts, Opera Slavica, Columbia University, NYU, and the New School for Drama. She has performed across NYC at Dance Theater Workshop, St. Mark's Church, Joyce Soho, La Mama, Duo Theater, Webster Hall, Bushwick Starr, Dumbo’s John Ryan Theater, and The Tank, among other venues. Clare was the choreographer for the First National Tour of Bullets Over Broadway, re-setting Susan Stroman’s Tony-Nominated choreography, and traveled to Bulgaria with the Drama League of NYC to choreograph the Sofia Puppet Theatre of Bulgaria’s American Musical Theatre Showcase. 

Clare has been on the dance faculties of LSU, UL-Lafayette, NYU Tisch Dance, and the Metropolitan Opera Guild. She is a two-time ArtSpark recipient, the 2017 ABC Icon “Rising Star” honoree, a 2019 Trailblazer by Acadiana Profile magazine, and a member of Leadership Lafayette Class XXXVI. Her early dance training was at DeLarue Dance Centre in Lafayette, then at Louisiana State University under the direction of Molly Buchmann, the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and The Ailey School in NYC.

Above all, she is perhaps most proud to be the mom of two daughters who keep her singing and dancing everyday!

Choreography Credits

CONTEMPORARY DANCE
selected credits

We Tell Ourselves Stories, Ten Tiny Dances-Lafayette
The Best of Days (site-specific), Basin Arts/Downtown Lafayette
The Panic of Fixing Things, installation/performance collaboration with Visual Artist Hagit Barkai, Basin Arts Gallery
Fragile Light (site-specific), Basin Arts/Wild Child Wine Shop/Downtown Lafayette
SPORT SUITES, Basin Arts/Acadiana Center for the Arts
Color Me! (Educational Performance for Kids), Acadiana Center for the Arts Touring Arts Program
SURFACE collaboration with visual artists Dirk Guidry & body painter Brittney Pelloquin, Basin Arts/Acadiana Center for the Arts
SURFACE (excerpt), Louisiana Arts Summit hosted by Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge
Enchanted Fruit collaboration with body painter Brittney Pelloquin, The Chandelier Room’s White Linen Night
S’Nice, ABC Icon Awards, Acadiana Center for the Arts
Parade, Acadiana Symphony Orchestra at the Heymann Center
Look. See. Do. performance installation, Hilliard Museum
Parade (developmental workshop), University of Louisiana-Lafayette’s State of La Danse
Ripe Figs Won’t Keep for STIR, Basin Arts/Runaway Dish/Acadiana Center for the Arts
Fragments collaboration with UL School of Architecture, University of Louisiana-Lafayette’s State of La Danse
Touching Loss (full production), Acadiana Center for the Arts
Stravinsky’s Firebird, Acadiana Symphony Orchestra at the Heymann Center
Touching Loss (workshop), Triskelion Arts' Split Bill Series
Under My Skin, DanceNow Festival: Joe’s Pub
Show Me Real, The New York Musical Theatre Festival, PTC Performance Space

MUSICALS
selected credits

Finding Neverland (Dance Assistant to Mia Michaels), NETworks Productions, Dir. Diane Paulus
Footloose the Musical, Cortland Repertory Theater, Dir. Mark Reynolds
American Musical Showcase, Sofia Puppet Theatre of Bulgaria/Drama League of NYC, Dir. Shelley Butler
Bullets Over Broadway National Tour , NETworks Productions, Dir. Jeff Whiting
Bullets Over Broadway SDC Observer, Lab Presentation, Dir. Susan Stroman
Mother Jones and the Children’s Crusade, NYMF 2014, Dir. Michelle Tattenbaum
Happiness 1.0, Samuel French Festival, Dir. Pirronne Yousefzadeh
Jack Perry is Alive and Dating, NYMF 2011, Dir. Pirronne Yousefzadeh
The Money Show, HERE Arts Center, Dir. Pirronne Yousefzadeh
Hatter (workshop), NYU-GMTWP, Dir. Rob Heller
King of Ghosts, Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Dir. Josh Sauermann
Graveyard Shift (Assistant Chor.) NYC Fringe, Dir. Ren Casey
Wagon Wheel **Best Choreography Award**, Planet Connections Festival, Dir. Rob Heller
Dizzy (workshop), NYU-GMTWP, Dir. Rob Heller
POP! (workshop) NYU-GMTWP, Dir. Rob Heller
Cheer Wars (workshop) NYU-GMTWP, Dir. Ryan Mekenian

PLAYS
selected credits

Dancing with Aurora Borealis, Acadiana Center for the Arts, Dir. Clare Cook
By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, LSU Swine Palace Theatre, Dir. Pirronne Yousefzadeh
What Happened to Bill Viola?, Ars Nova & Berkshire Fringe Fest, Dir. Pirronne Yousefzadeh
A Document in Madness, Theatre Han, Dir. Mason Beggs
Walkabout Yeohla, Columbia Stages, Dir. Kon Yi
4:48 Psychosis, New School for Drama, Dir. Mason Beggs
Rain Machine, KafkaFest – Columbia University, Dir. Kon Yi
Big Love, Columbia Stages, Dir. Pirronne Yousefzadeh

OPERA
selected credits

The Road Between the Desert and the Sea, Developmental Workshop, NYU Center for Ballet & the Arts
Eugene Onegin, Opera Slavica at the JCC Manhattan, Dir. Kara-Lynn Vaeni
Rusalka, Opera Slavica at the Bohemian National Hall, Dir. Kara-Lynn Vaeni