Elisabeth Roskopf is a dancer, performer, choreographer, and dance educator based in Wisconsin. With a passion for ballet, contemporary, and Korean dance, she strongly believes that identity is an integral part of who we are. She strives to create spaces that uplift marginalized voices while having the power to share our stories and exist in the fullness of our true selves so that each individual can have a sense of belonging permanently.
Dance For Diversity
Creative Director: Elisabeth Roskopf
Dance For Diversity is presented in partnership with Danceworks Inc.
What Is Dance For Diversity?
Dance For Diversity (DFD) is an annual screendance project series that is made explicitly for Artists of Color to elevate their unique voices and share their stories through their dance-making and performance work. DFD provides a platform for Artists of Color to create an original solo piece on film that reflects who they are, their story of identity, and expresses personal experiences that address (including but not limited to) racial stereotypes, discrimination, and assumptions. The culmination of these solos on screen will reach multiple audiences at a film premiere and in various site-specific spaces, including high schools and universities local to the Greater Milwaukee Area and nationwide. DFD amplifies the visibility of the Artists and their work through a distinctive lens that encompasses identity, race, culture, social change, belonging, social justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racist practices to incorporate within the dance and education curricula.
Dance For Diversity shines a light on underrepresented groups, in hopes of promoting inclusive habits in arts spaces where BIPOC Artists are often isolated. This project is a call to action for diversity, equity, and inclusion within the field of dance and the arts to help dismantle systems that perpetuate discrimination, violence, hate, and erasure. In service to representation, DFD allows an opportunity to lift up the experiences of Artists of Color and provides an opportunity for diverse audience members to see themselves in art.
As Provenance: A Letter to My Daughter inspired her vision to create Dance For Diversity, Elisabeth is creating a permanent space for underrepresented Artists to not only share their personal stories of identity, but to also connect with other Artists who share similar stories and life experiences.
2023 Application period: April 18th, 2023 – May 31st, 2023
The application period for 2023 is now closed
The Mission Statement of Dance For Diversity
Dance For Diversity amplifies visibility and creates a consistent platform for BIPOC Artists to center their unique voices and their stories through their art, while fostering a place of belonging and reclamation of their true identities. DFD’s vision is to give Artists of Color the power to own who they are unapologetically and claim their space onstage and offstage.
Submission Process
Artists (Dance Artist and Cinematographer) will be required to submit an application that includes a written solo project proposal, biographical information, and any work/materials they may have for viewing.
- Age Requirement: 18 years or older
- (4) Artists of Color will be selected to create, rehearse, film, and present their screendance solos at reserved venue(s)
- (4) Cinematographers will be selected to film and edit the screendance solos
- Length of screendance solos: 5 – 10 minutes
Key Components for Accepted Artists & Cinematographers
Choreographers and Cinematographers will be offered benefit packages as a way to fully support and provide guidance to the Artists and their work that they are contributing to the neighboring arts communities.
- Dance Artists to receive a Choreography Stipend of $1000
- Cinematographers to receive a Filming Stipend of $1000
- Miscellaneous stipend for costs may include space rentals, costumes, props – $500 each
- Free rehearsal space at Danceworks for Dance Artists (3 hours/week)
- Free Danceworks classes for Dance Artists and Cinematographers (2 classes/week)
- Mentorship & feedback sessions with Elisabeth Roskopf & Christal Wagner
- Promotion/Marketing for the Artists
- Screening of the Artists’ collaborative work at Dance For Diversity Film Premiere Event
Timeline for Screendance Solo Works, 2023 Season
- April 18, 2023 – Call for Proposals
- May 31st, 2023 – Submissions Closed
- June 14, 2023 – Selected Artists are notified of acceptance and announced from the Creative Director
- June – Set up individual meetings with each Artist for introductions, discuss proposals, ideas on shoot locations, etc.
- July–August – 2 months of solo work creation
- Approx. 24 hours total for developing concepts, phrase work in rehearsals, and mentorship/feedback sessions
- September–October – Film Period
- 2–3 weeks of filming suggested with Artist/Choreographer and Cinematographer
- 2–3 weeks of editing suggested with Artist/Choreographer, Cinematographer, and Elisabeth Roskopf
- November – Sneak peek/promotion of Artists’ solo works and talkback session at Danceworks
- December – Premiere presentation of screendance solos at sponsored venue
ELIGIBILITY – CHOREOGRAPHER / DANCER
– BIPOC Dance Artists/Choreographers are welcome to apply
– 18 years of age or older to apply
ELIGIBILITY – CINEMATOGRAPHER
– Any Cinematographer of any race, ethnicity, and/or gender are welcome to apply
– 18 years of age or older to apply
Bio
Born in South Korea and raised in Wisconsin, Elisabeth Roskopf 이지영 is a dancer, performer, choreographer, educator, pianist, and a mother to her daughter, Alina. She is a company member of Li Chiao-Ping Dance, Danceworks Performance MKE, Wild Space Dance Company, and the Gina Laurenzi Dance Project. Elisabeth received her Bachelor of Arts in Piano and a minor in Dance from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. She is currently earning her Master of Fine Arts in Dance at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) where she is honored to be a recipient of the Graduate Student Excellence Fellowship award. Elisabeth’s Dance MFA Thesis concert, | Out of Place |,became a platform for her to create the first Transracial Asian American Adoptee Dance Project in the city of Milwaukee. At UWM, she began her career in academia as a lecturer in the Department of Dance and became a graduate teaching assistant while she is also performing and studying under the distinguished professors and guest artists such as Daniel Burkholder, Maria Gillespie, Mair Culbreth, Dan Schuchart, Dawn Springer, Deb Loewen, Mauriah Donegan Kraker, Vershawn Sanders-Ward, Jan Erkert, Alexandra Beller, Kevin Williamson, Teresa VanDenend Sorge, and Sooyeon Lee. Elisabeth is the Founder and Creative Director of Dance For Diversity, a screendance project that is made explicitly for Artists of Color to share their voices and stories of identity through their dance-making and performance work.
Elisabeth’s research encompasses autoethnography in movement through storytelling that creates a path for her embodied subjectivity. She links her corporeal experiences through cultural studies, post-colonial studies, and embodied cultural memory. As a Korean American Dance Artist, Elisabeth’s choreographic work and embodied dance scholarship create a platform for Adoptees and BIPOC Dance Artists to have a place to be visible in the fullness of their identity and authenticity while fostering a sense of belonging through embodied storytelling.
Elisabeth co-produced and performed in “Provenance: A Letter to My Daughter”, an award-winning screendance work created with director/choreographer Li Chiao-Ping and cinematographer/editor Christal Wagner. This dance film has been selected to be screened in various film festivals nationally and internationally, such as the 2024 Incheon International Short Film Festival (Finalist for Best Short Film), 2024 Busan New Wave Short Film Festival (Best Editing Award), 2023 Experimental, Dance & Music Film Festival (Best Direction Award), 2023 Milwaukee Film Festival, to name a few.
As a second installment to Provenance, Elisabeth had the vision to create the new dance film, 결코 잃지 않았다 (Never Lost), with director/choreographer/producer Li Chiao-Ping and cinematographer/editor Christal Wagner along with performance, unscripted narration, and additional choreography by Elisabeth. This dance film has been selected and received the Honorable Mention in Direction award for the 10,000 Dreams Film Festival. The film has also been selected to be screened in the 2025 ARTSinTANK Dance Festival in Korea, WRPN Women’s International Film Festival, and the Omma Poom Park Grand Opening in Paju, Korea.
Works
Provenance: A Letter To My Daughter
Provenance: A Letter to My Daughter is a short dance film about a transracial, transnational adoptee’s personal experiences struggling with identity, belonging, and inclusion growing up in the Midwest of America. Directed and choreographed by Li Chiao-Ping, dancer Elisabeth Roskopf’s exquisite movement and personal story reclaiming her heritage are captured beautifully by cinematographer and editor Christal Wagner.
Provenance premiered in Danceworks Performance MKE’s production of Sobriquet in 2022.
Awards
- Experimental, Dance and Music Film Festival (2023) – Best Direction
- Midwest Regional Alternative Dance Festival (2023) – Official Selection
- Phoenix Film Festival (2023) – Official Selection
- Milwaukee Film Festival (2023) – Official Selection
- Festival Internacional VideoDanzaBA (2023) – Official Selection
- MODArts Dance Collective: Move to Change Dance Festival (2023) – Official Selection
- ACDA Screendance Festival (2023) – Adjudicated and Selected for The ACDA Screendance Gala Concert
- Incheon International Short Film Festival (2024) – Finalist for Best Short Film
- Busan New Wave Short Film Festival (2024) – Best Editing
결코 잃지 않았다 (Never Lost)
Directed and choreographed by Li Chiao-Ping, 결코 잃지 않았다 (Never Lost) is a 12-minute dance film shot en route to and on location in South Korea, during dancer and adoptee Elisabeth (O’Keefe) Roskopf’s first trip to her birthplace. Featuring personal unscripted narration, choreography, and poetic landscapes, “Never Lost” witnesses and captures the body in between, in search, and in the moment of facing the challenges of reclaiming self and identity, as well as familial and cultural histories. With cinematography and editing by Christal Wagner, this is Li and Wagner’s third screendance project together and second with Elisabeth Roskopf.
결코 잃지 않았다 (Never Lost) premiered in Elisabeth Roskopf’s Dance MFA Thesis Concert, | Out of Place |, at the Danceworks Studio Theatre on March 29-30, 2025.
Awards
- 10,000 Dreams Film Festival (2025) – Official Selection and Honorable Mention in Direction Award
- Omma Poom Park Grand Opening (2025) – Official Selection
- ARTSinTANK Dance Festival in Korea (2025) – Official Selection
- Manifest Dance Film Festival (2025) – Official Selection
- WRPN Women’s International Film Festival (2025) – Official Selection
Arrival
Dancers: Zoe Mei Glise, Maree ReMalia, Elisabeth Roskopf, and Ailie Snyder
Choreography: Elisabeth Roskopf, in collaboration with the dancers
Music: Airport sounds and announcements; Ólafur Arnalds
Costume: Elisabeth Roskopf, in collaboration with the dancers
Lighting Design: Colin Gawronski
Filmed & Edited by Christal Wagner
“Arrival” premiered in Elisabeth Roskopf’s Dance MFA Thesis Concert, | Out of Place |.
Fitting In to Belong
Dancers: Zoe Mei Glise and Ailie Snyder
Choreography: Elisabeth Roskopf
Text and Dialogue: Zoe Mei Glise and Ailie Snyder
Written Text on Boxes: Alexa Orndahl
Music: Rainfall sounds
Costume: Elisabeth Roskopf
Lighting Design: Colin Gawronski
Filmed & Edited by Christal Wagner
“Fitting In to Belong” premiered in Elisabeth Roskopf’s Dance MFA Thesis Concert, | Out of Place |.
Artist Statement
As a dance artist, my choreographic research is rooted in my cultural identity. Through embodied storytelling, my contemporary dance work explores the body as a site of cultural embodiment, a corporeal nexus where movement emerges from personal narratives, histories, memories, and language. My choreography creates a path for embodied subjectivity and meaning-making through autoethnography.
My research explores how transracial Asian American adoptees express their stories of identity and experiences through the realm of contemporary dance performance. When directing collaborative autoethnographic performance projects and choreographing my own solo works, I examine the conceptual and theoretical frameworks of belonging, the intersectionality of adoptee and Asian American identities, and adoptee sovereignty. In my choreographic process, I develop my movement language from personal narrative writing, translating the words on the page into choreographic writing in the body through gesture and fully-embodied movements.
Bringing in my personal experiences as a transracial Korean adoptee, I utilize dance as a vehicle to reclaim my Korean identity while performing in predominantly white dance spaces and create a bridge to find my sense of place between two cultures, the place where I was born and the other where I was raised. Through dance on film and live performance, I seek to amplify the voices of other adoptees and BIPOC dance artists by creating a consistent platform for them to share their stories, form special bonds, provide a sense of healing for themselves, and unearth who they are. My work has become a catalyst for connecting with other individuals who share similar experiences while fostering a sense of belonging, community, and artistic kinship.
As an artist-educator, the mission of my pedagogy and embodied dance practices is to create a space that comprehends, acknowledges, and values each student and artist as an integral aspect of dance history and practice, centers their experiences, and nurtures a place of belonging where individuals are no longer “othered” and they are empowered to bring their full humanity to the table. Their identity, story, and creative dance practices become embedded within new modes of dance curriculum. Based on the culmination of my experiences as a Dancer of Color, I offer support to all marginalized artists to let our true selves feel authentically seen, accepted, and valued. Dance expresses transformation and transmission of the stories that we hold and carry in our bodies. We engage through this lens as an act of resistance against colonial erasure, creating visibility and representation, reclaiming our identities and cultural heritages, and creating meaningful change through our art in the world of dance studies, performance, and academia.
Identity is a part of who we are and who we are matters.
Elisabeth Roskopf 이지영 