photo by Nikita Gorlov
Nicholas LaMaina
is a New York–based director, choreographer, performance artist, and arts educator whose work rejects ocularcentrism and prioritizes interdisciplinary collaboration. Rejecting the "dance for dance’s sake" ideology, LaMaina works to redefine Western ideals of physical greatness in dance and to reawaken the performer's and audience’s capacity to feel.
Originally from South Florida, LaMaina earned a BFA in Dance from The Juilliard School (2025) under the direction of Alicia Graf Mack. Upon graduating, LaMaina co-founded eni artist collective alongside lifelong collaborator Ekko Greenbaum, where he serves as Co-Director and Resident Choreographer. The 501(c)(3) non-profit exists to platform emerging artists through sustainable opportunities and aims to reintegrate contemporary movement into society through interdisciplinary collaboration. Within the first year of the collective, The Young Dancer Foundation of South Florida helped establish the collective’s Apprentice Initiative, and YoungArts financially supported the premiere of LaMaina’s new work with eni.
The collective currently houses over 10 dance artists alongside musicians, photographers, visual artists, designers, and scent artists. Through performance, education, and outreach initiatives across New York, eni artist collective positions itself as an extension of LaMaina’s ideologies: while technology and societal conditions in America divide us, movement is an essential, accessible tool that can bring people back into their bodies and back to each other.
LaMaina’s recent work, Liminis, was presented at the Hoboken Dance Festival in New Jersey and traveled to South Florida with support from The Young Dancer Foundation of South Florida. As an emerging choreographer, his distinct creative voice was selected for Juilliard’s Choreographic Honors (2024) and Senior Production (2025). While at Juilliard, LaMaina also extended his artistic reach through the Gluck Fellowship, sharing movement through outreach events across all five boroughs.
As a performer, LaMaina has worked with prominent choreographers Damien Jalet, Ohad Naharin & Billy Barry, Sharon Eyal, Bobbi Jene Smith & Or Schraiber, William Forsythe, Jermaine Spivey, Yue Yin, Johannes Wieland, Camille A. Brown, and Studio Wayne McGregor. His performance credits include engagements with The Metropolitan Opera, LED Boise, GALLIM, Lam Dance Works, S-E-D, and eni artist collective.
